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New Nutritional Scoring System: NuVal Rating

Posted: Monday, August 23, 2010

Consumers' growing demand for nutritional guidance spurred the creation of NuVal. NuVal's labeling system evaluates foods based upon more than 30 nutritional attributes, including positive ones such as fiber and negative ones such as saturated fat. It uses a mathematical formula to assign products a score on a scale of 1 to 100.

"The idea behind it is really to simplify the idea of, 'How much nutrition is in a certain product?'," spokesman Robert Keane said. "It really distills the information in the (FDA) nutrition label and gives the information to people in a very easy-to-understand way." What's different about NuVal's program is that supermarkets can use it to grade virtually every product in a store, Keane said.

NuVal posts a sampling of its scores on its website at www.nuval.com. Scores range widely among food categories. Unfrosted shredded wheat cereal got a 91 rating, while healthy-sounding products such as Post Healthy Classics Grape Nuts Flakes and Kashi Heart to Heart Instant Oatmeal Apple Cinnamon only received a score of 30. Pringles Original Potato Crisp received a rating of 9. NuVal licenses the ratings system to supermarket chains.

Currently, only produce, fruits and vegetables, cereals, cookies and crackers, bread, seafood, meat and poultry are assigned scores by NuVal at the Price Chopper and Hy-Vee chains. By the end of the year, nearly all groceries in the store will be rated.

The NuVal System does the nutritional heavy lifting so you don't have to. Developed by an independent panel of nutrition and medical experts, the system helps you see -- at a glance -- the nutritional value of the food you buy.

NuVal Scores summarize comprehensive nutritional information in one simple number between 1 and 100. Each NuVal Score takes into account more than just the nutrition fact panel. It considers 30-plus nutrients and nutrition factors -- the good (protein, calcium and vitamins) and the not-so-good (sugar, sodium and cholesterol). And then it boils it down into a simple, easy-to-use number; a number you can trust to make better decisions about nutrition in just a few seconds. Now you can compare overall nutrition the same way you compare price. You can even compare apples and oranges.

For a brief overview of the system view the informational video at (NuVal). To find out which stores currently carry NuVal Scores, go to Where to Find NuVal. To learn more about it -- and the independent panel of nutrition and medical experts who developed it – visit The Science Behind NuVal.

Source: http://www.diabetesincontrol.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9712&catid=53&Itemid=8