Safeway SimpleNutrition and a GIVEAWAY!

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Safeway stores recently launched a program called SimpleNutrition. The program was developed by registered dietitians and food labeling experts to help shoppers with choosing healthful products based on what is important to them. Shelf tags highlighting up to two key nutrition benefits have been added to many of the items in the stores. From the program website:

Nutrition benefit tags include Made with Whole Grains, Sodium Smart, Good Source of Fiber, Low in Fat, Good Source of Calcium and many more. You'll also find products tagged with benefits such as Gluten Free and "Organic. Look for the green tags while you shop!

If you're a label-reading kind of shopper, you may find that this helps to quickly narrow down your search among multiple brands of similar products. For those who typically make their food choices based on other factors (price, habit, etc.), this might prompt you to consider the health factor- this is a good thing.

Being the label-reading food nerd that I am, I found some of the tags to be more helpful than others. For example, "Gluten Free", "Organic", and "Good Source of Calcium" were more useful than the mysterious "Made with Whole Grains" or "Natural". It would be great to also see labels for "Vegan", "Vegetarian", "Good Source of Iron", or "Good Source of Protein" (I didn't notice any of those in my store).

All in all, I think this is a very positive addition to our grocery store shelves. I'm all for bringing light to the contents of our food. Anything that gets the attention of consumers who usually don't consider nutritional value when selecting products is a good thing!

GIVEAWAY!

The folks at the SimpleNutrition program provided me with two $25 gift cards to give away to you!

TO ENTER: Please leave a comment on this post telling me whether you read labels when you shop or if you base your purchases on something else.

The fine print: Two winners will be chosen via random drawing. Each winner will receive one $25 gift card that is good at Safeway, Vons, Pavilions, Genuardi's, Dominick's, Carrs, Randalls, and Tom Thumb. Contest ends Wednesday March 30th at 11:59pm PDT. Winner will be announced on Thursday the 31st.

Good luck!!

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