NuVal® in Retail
Blend, in partnership with Coborn’s Inc. and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of MN, launched the NuVal® Nutritional Scoring System in eight St. Cloud area stores in October 2010. The program has proven highly successful and continues to grow as people realize the importance of making healthier choices. In January 2012, Coborn’s Inc. announced the expansion of NuVal® to the remaining 21 Coborn’s grocery stores throughout the upper Midwest. More information – including data from the pilot program – is coming soon!
What is NuVal®?
The NuVal® Nutritional Scoring System helps you cut through confusing nutrition information so you can make decisions about food quickly and easily – and feel good about your choices.
Should you buy wheat or oatmeal bread? Are pretzels more nutritious than tortilla chips? These are the decisions that NuVal® scores can help you make – in seconds – as you’re walking down your Coborn’s aisles. The NuVal® system provides comprehensive nutritional information in one simple number between 1 and 100. The higher the score, the higher the nutrition.
All you have to do is:
- Look
It’s easy to incorporate NuVal® scores into your regular shopping routine. Just look for the NuVal® system’s double-hexagon emblem and 1-100 food score on shelf tags next to the price.
- Compare
The NuVal® score’s convenient location on the shelf tag lets you compare overall nutrition the same way you compare price. No more scouring nutrition labels; with NuVal® scores, you can see and compare food’s nutritional value in a single number at a single glance.
- Decide
NuVal® scores make it easy to find more nutritious alternatives in nearly every department and aisle in the store. So when you want to buy more nutritious foods, simply look for those with higher NuVal® scores. And even if you don’t buy the product with the highest score, you have the nutrition information you need to make your decision quickly and easily.
Watch how a real-life St. Cloud family has implemented NuVal® in their daily routine.
How it Works
Some examples of NuVal® in action
Chips
The Garden of Eatin’ No Salt Added chips are lower in salt (by 100 mg per serving!) and saturated fat, and higher in fiber than the Lays Chips.
Fruit Snacks
In making applesauce, the skin and some of the pulp are removed, and along with it fiber and other beneficial nutrients of the whole fruit.
Beverages
The Odwalla Fruit Smoothie has more protein, potassium and vitamin C than the lemonade as well as no added sugar.
See how your nutrition know-how stacks up. Play the NuVal® Nutrition by the Numbers game.
Look for the green Nutrition by Numbers box in the lower middle part of the home page.
How are NuVal® Scores Calculated?
The NuVal® Nutritional Scoring System takes more than 30 different nutrients and nutrition factors into account when developing a score, making it a very robust food rating system. The nutrient content for a food is processed through a complex algorithm developed through a rigorous process by a team of twelve experts. Boiled down to its simplest description, here is how the NuVal® Nutritional Scoring System works:
- Nutrients with generally favorable effects on health are placed in the numerator, where higher values increase the NuVal® score.
- Nutrients with generally unfavorable effects on health are placed in the denominator, where higher values decrease the NuVal® score.
