Grocery stores do a lot more to sell health over taste, these days. In the last ten years, using health claims and nutrition ratings to sell food is more popular than tempting consumers with descriptions of indulgent flavors. Harvest Public Media’s Jessica Naudziunas visited her local grocery store to find out how effective healthy eating advice is for shoppers at the point of purchase.

SCRIPT:

You know those grocery store samplers? Midwestern food store Hy-Vee lets you try their food for free, but puts a twist on the typical sample lady:

HYVEE VIDEO: “Hi, my name is Shannon Muse, I’m a registered dietitian for HyVee.

(UNDER: I’m here in the HyVee Clubroom in Papillion, Nebraska to share with you a recipe that would perfect for any day of the week.)

That video was produced by HyVee, and it’s one part of their nutrition campaign in stores and online.

HYVEE VIDEO: Today, we’re going to making roasted Smart Chicken in Pinot Noir sauce. and under at some point here for time. At HyVee I love making Smart Chicken because they take extra special care to provide their customers with the safest, freshest and most delicious chicken available.”

For all of its well-meaning diet advice, HyVee is still a business out to move products. Cassie McClellan, a dietitian at a HyVee in Columbia, MO., admits balancing nutrition advice with food sales complicates things.

“It’s kind of hard because I’m supposed to be promoting products in all the departments, and as everyone knows, a lot of things, like in bakery, may not be as healthy.”

She overcomes this potential conflict of interest by keeping her advice simple in a sea of labels, health claims and food industry prodding.

“I always tell people look at the nutrition facts label. I preach that over and over and over. I’m like, don’t look at the front of the package. You need to flip it over and look at the side or the back wherever the nutrition facts is.”

HyVee, like many other grocery chains, is trying to simplify nutrition for consumers who may not want to read the fine print on their food. At HyVee stores, you’ll find NuVal. It’s a scoring system on a scale of 1 to 100. The healthier the food, the higher the score.

“We’re really interested in providing the customer with helpful information.”

HyVee spokesperson Ruth Comer says the company tries to avoid telling the consumer what to buy, and all in-store literature is meant to help.

“The customer, you know looks at that NuVal score, in addition to reading that nutritional panel, and other nutritional information that they have available to them and they make the decision that’s right for them.”

For a shopper, that means navigating a flurry of nutritional information.

(phone ringing)

“Hello?”

Hey Beth, it’s Jessica.

“HI! I’ve been wandering around the grocery store, and they probably think I’m crazy.”

Well, tell me where you are and what grocery store you are in.

“Okay, I’m at the HyVee store in Overland Park, Kansas.”

Beth Bader is using the NuVal system for the first time, and after picking up vegetables with high scores, she leaves the perimeter of the store. Bader notices corn oil scores the same as olive oil. She has high cholesterol, knows, for her, olive oil is the better option.

“Obviously, I’m going to put the olive oil in my cart. I’m not going to get the corn oil. Because I know that they’re not taking into account the quality of the fat..”

There’s confusion on Bader’s shopping trip, and a lot of skepticism. She turns down the cereal aisle, and picks up a box of General Mills Trix cereal. It scores a 24.

“Which is surprising because this product is half sugar! But it also has Red 40, Yellow 6, Blue 1, artificial flavors, artificial colors, BHG...and the only nutrition in it, has been added, so that it could get a score. I think it should score a 1.”

And surprises like that is has led some health professionals to disregard nutrition rating systems, or all on-package labeling altogether.

One of the more outspoken independent voices comes from Marion Nestle, who’s a nutrition and food studies professor at New York University.

“There are things that come up that just make you scratch your head.”

And it’s not the high scoring fruits or vegetables that gets a critique from Nestle-- she thinks all fresh produce should get a score of 100, and nothing lower. It’s really the fortified foods, like the Trix cereal, and the packaged foods that draw Nestle’s ire.

“The idea that a potato chip with a gram of added fiber or fortified with some nutrient would get a higher score than some other potato chip makes no sense to me. A potato chip is a potato chip.”

Now, Nestle says NuVal is hardly the main offender in the grocery store, and more often she blames label claims that mislead consumers to believe a food is healthy when it is not.

“If it were up to me, we would take all health claims off of food packages.”

Though, NuVal General Manager Mike Nugent says the system – which was developed first by Yale scientist David L. Katz-- serves a purpose, for a wide array of shoppers, and it appeals to people who are in a rush and just need quick answers.

“They are too fast-paced, they don’t have the time, they’ve got their kids with them. They need to just go shop, and they need to pick out the most nutritious foods, tell me which it is.”

But some shoppers are seeking as much information as possible about the food they eat.

That’s the idea behind another sort of nutrition guide called Fooducate. It’s available for free on smart phones, and it goes much farther than a number score.

“Our scale is from an A down to a D.”

Hemi Weingarten developed the app BECAUSE HE WAS appalled with some of the ingredients in products he purchased for his family. He wished that he had known more about foods before he got them home. That’s difficult to do without a source of information in the palm of your hand.a

You scan the barcode of a product with a smartphone-- it makes this noise:

BEEP BEEP

and a mini-food encyclopedia pops up on your screen. Based on this information that is not influenced by food industry advertising, Weingarten says, you are better armed to make a healthy decision because you know what’s healthy, and why.

“We see ourselves as a way for the food industry to accelerate improvements and changes in their products formulation through joint pressure of a large number of consumers.”

That’s the big question in the grocery store, do consumers appreciate nutrition advice—do they want it given to them or do they want to control the message themselves.

Grocery stores do a lot more to sell health over taste, these days. In the last ten years, using health claims and nutrition ratings to sell food is more popular than tempting consumers with descriptions of indulgent flavors. Harvest Public Media’s Jessica Naudziunas visited her local grocery store to find out how effective healthy eating advice is for shoppers at the point of purchase.

SCRIPT:

You know those grocery store samplers? Midwestern food store Hy-Vee lets you try their food for free, but puts a twist on the typical sample lady:

HYVEE VIDEO: “Hi, my name is Shannon Muse, I’m a registered dietitian for HyVee.

(UNDER: I’m here in the HyVee Clubroom in Papillion, Nebraska to share with you a recipe that would perfect for any day of the week.)

That video was produced by HyVee, and it’s one part of their nutrition campaign in stores and online.

HYVEE VIDEO: Today, we’re going to making roasted Smart Chicken in Pinot Noir sauce. and under at some point here for time. At HyVee I love making Smart Chicken because they take extra special care to provide their customers with the safest, freshest and most delicious chicken available.”

For all of its well-meaning diet advice, HyVee is still a business out to move products. Cassie McClellan, a dietitian at a HyVee in Columbia, MO., admits balancing nutrition advice with food sales complicates things.

“It’s kind of hard because I’m supposed to be promoting products in all the departments, and as everyone knows, a lot of things, like in bakery, may not be as healthy.”

She overcomes this potential conflict of interest by keeping her advice simple in a sea of labels, health claims and food industry prodding.

“I always tell people look at the nutrition facts label. I preach that over and over and over. I’m like, don’t look at the front of the package. You need to flip it over and look at the side or the back wherever the nutrition facts is.”

HyVee, like many other grocery chains, is trying to simplify nutrition for consumers who may not want to read the fine print on their food. At HyVee stores, you’ll find NuVal. It’s a scoring system on a scale of 1 to 100. The healthier the food, the higher the score.

“We’re really interested in providing the customer with helpful information.”

HyVee spokesperson Ruth Comer says the company tries to avoid telling the consumer what to buy, and all in-store literature is meant to help.

“The customer, you know looks at that NuVal score, in addition to reading that nutritional panel, and other nutritional information that they have available to them and they make the decision that’s right for them.”

For a shopper, that means navigating a flurry of nutritional information.

(phone ringing)

“Hello?”

Hey Beth, it’s Jessica.

“HI! I’ve been wandering around the grocery store, and they probably think I’m crazy.”

Well, tell me where you are and what grocery store you are in.

“Okay, I’m at the HyVee store in Overland Park, Kansas.”

Beth Bader is using the NuVal system for the first time, and after picking up vegetables with high scores, she leaves the perimeter of the store. Bader notices corn oil scores the same as olive oil. She has high cholesterol, knows, for her, olive oil is the better option.

“Obviously, I’m going to put the olive oil in my cart. I’m not going to get the corn oil. Because I know that they’re not taking into account the quality of the fat..”

There’s confusion on Bader’s shopping trip, and a lot of skepticism. She turns down the cereal aisle, and picks up a box of General Mills Trix cereal. It scores a 24.

“Which is surprising because this product is half sugar! But it also has Red 40, Yellow 6, Blue 1, artificial flavors, artificial colors, BHG...and the only nutrition in it, has been added, so that it could get a score. I think it should score a 1.”

And surprises like that is has led some health professionals to disregard nutrition rating systems, or all on-package labeling altogether.

One of the more outspoken independent voices comes from Marion Nestle, who’s a nutrition and food studies professor at New York University.

“There are things that come up that just make you scratch your head.”

And it’s not the high scoring fruits or vegetables that gets a critique from Nestle-- she thinks all fresh produce should get a score of 100, and nothing lower. It’s really the fortified foods, like the Trix cereal, and the packaged foods that draw Nestle’s ire.

“The idea that a potato chip with a gram of added fiber or fortified with some nutrient would get a higher score than some other potato chip makes no sense to me. A potato chip is a potato chip.”

Now, Nestle says NuVal is hardly the main offender in the grocery store, and more often she blames label claims that mislead consumers to believe a food is healthy when it is not.

“If it were up to me, we would take all health claims off of food packages.”

Though, NuVal General Manager Mike Nugent says the system – which was developed first by Yale scientist David L. Katz-- serves a purpose, for a wide array of shoppers, and it appeals to people who are in a rush and just need quick answers.

“They are too fast-paced, they don’t have the time, they’ve got their kids with them. They need to just go shop, and they need to pick out the most nutritious foods, tell me which it is.”

But some shoppers are seeking as much information as possible about the food they eat.

That’s the idea behind another sort of nutrition guide called Fooducate. It’s available for free on smart phones, and it goes much farther than a number score.

“Our scale is from an A down to a D.”

Hemi Weingarten developed the app BECAUSE HE WAS appalled with some of the ingredients in products he purchased for his family. He wished that he had known more about foods before he got them home. That’s difficult to do without a source of information in the palm of your hand.a

You scan the barcode of a product with a smartphone-- it makes this noise:

BEEP BEEP

and a mini-food encyclopedia pops up on your screen. Based on this information that is not influenced by food industry advertising, Weingarten says, you are better armed to make a healthy decision because you know what’s healthy, and why.

“We see ourselves as a way for the food industry to accelerate improvements and changes in their products formulation through joint pressure of a large number of consumers.”

That’s the big question in the grocery store, do consumers appreciate nutrition advice—do they want it given to them or do they want to control the message themselves.