Shoppers may soon find numerical ratings, star ratings or letter grades plastered on the shelf next to virtually every product in a store. After years of conflicting health claims on food, various
groups are creating systems to make sense of it all, and grocery chains are starting to line up behind one system or another.
But consumer advocates worry that the sudden flurry of rating
systems could add to shopper confusion--not ameliorate it--at least until one of the systems becomes a national standard. Moreover, determining what foods are healthier is as much art as
science.
The ratings systems under development--the Overall Nutritional Quality Index (ONQI); the Hannaford Brothers Co.'s "Guiding Stars" system; and a scoring system from noted
University of Washington nutritionist Adam Drewnowski--all use government dietary guidance as a starting point. Then they consider various nutrients and give them scores to compute a single rating
that is supposed to reflect the aggregate nutritional value of a food.
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