SWEETBAY SUPERMARKET INTRODUCES NEW PROGRAM

By SUZANNE M. SCHMIDT

When Temple Terrace resident Michelle Williams shops, she tries to buy food she thinks is healthy – although she doesn’t have time to compare every label.
“I come shopping with three kids,” Williams said. “I am just guessing when I buy food that is going to be healthy. I check to see how much sugar or caffeine is in something.”
However, Williams, like most shoppers, doesn’t really know if an item is healthy. For that very reason, Sweetbay Supermarket recently launched a new initiative to try to help their shoppers solve the issue.
Nicole LeBeau, communications manager for Sweetbay, said the new Guiding Stars program has been in the works for two years.
“There was a lot of research done,” LeBeau said. “Out of 27,000 products evaluated, only 23 percent or about 6,000 got stars.”
Sweetbay customers have been asking for a system like this for years, according to LeBeau. The company hired a team of nutritional scientists from Tufts University, Dartmouth Medical School, the University of North Carolina, Harvard University and the University of California at Davis to develop a mathematical formula to score the food and beverages based on research from health organizations. They included the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Academies of Science and the World Health Organization.
Each item was given points for its positive attributes, such as the amount of vitamins, minerals, fiber and whole grains it contains. The food and beverages were then subtracted points for its unhealthy qualities, such as trans-fatty acids, saturated fat, cholesterol, added sodium and added sugars.
The information regarding the attributes of the food was obtained from the nutrition label. Items not rated by the guiding stars program either have no nutritional information or are under five calories, such as bottled waters, dried spices, coffees, teas, baby foods and oils.
“It is a simple system based on a good, better, best scale,” LeBeau said.
An item receives one star if it has good nutritional value, an item receives two stars if it is of a better nutritional value and three stars are given to the items with the best nutritional value.
Information: http://www.sweetbaysupermarket.com.