Nutrition Rating System Helps Busy Families Enjoy Healthier Meals at Home
Guiding Stars, the world’s first store-wide nutrition navigation system today announces a partnership with The Dinner Store in Brewer, Maine, to launch the good-better-best nutrition rating system to make it easier for families to purchase healthier meals.
Each month, several of The Dinner Store’s 16 offered recipes will earn one, two or three stars according to their nutritional value, offering shoppers a simple, at-a-glance tool that helps them quickly identify foods that offer the most nutrition for the calories. The meal’s star-rating will be indicated on the Web site, in-store signage and cooking direction labels. The Dinner Store provides an affordable dinner alternative to boxes, cans, cereal and take-out, by offering guided customer prep stations as well as a large selection of fully assembled meal packages to order. The Dinner Store’s nutritious meals are made with fresh meats, produce and sauces made from scratch.
“Families are busier than ever and it can be difficult to find enough time to put a nutritious meal on the table,” said Misty Smalley, Client Services Manager at Guiding Stars Licensing Company. “We are thrilled to partner with The Dinner Store and be a part of their commitment to providing healthy meal preparation to their customers, while making it easy and fun.”
Guiding Stars utilizes a proprietary algorithm that is grounded in evidence-based science and the most current guidelines and recommendations of leading national and international health organizations, such as the FDA and USDA. The system credits all edible foods based on the presence of vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber and whole grains, and debits for the presence of trans fat, saturated fats, cholesterol, added sugars and added sodium. Food items are then awarded zero, one, two or three stars – one star means good nutritional value; two stars, better nutritional value; and three stars, the best nutritional value.
“The Dinner Store prides itself on offering high-quality, fresh and healthy meals to busy families,” said Alison Small, owner of The Dinner Store with her husband Stan. “We are pleased to partner with Guiding Stars and make it even easier for our customers to quickly identify nutritious meals and make cooking at home even healthier.”
The Guiding Stars system was the first of its kind when implemented in select grocery stores in September 2006 in response to consumer demand for a simple, easy-to-understand tool for making good nutritional choices as they shop. The Guiding Stars program is now on shelf tags and signage in grocery stores throughout the Northeast, Southeast, mid-Atlantic and Florida, and has also recently launched the first nutrition navigation system in a public school in Topsham, Maine, and Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.
About Guiding Stars Licensing Co.
Since 2006, Guiding Stars has been leading the way in helping consumers make nutritious choices by pioneering the first-ever storewide nutrition navigation system. The Guiding Stars program is a simple, easy-to-understand tool for making good nutritional choices and is designed to make a positive and lasting impact on public health. Guiding Stars Licensing Co., based in Scarborough, Maine, creates opportunities for supermarkets, manufacturers, food service providers and other organizations to license the program and make nutritious shopping simple throughout the United States. Guiding Stars is currently in more than 1,400 supermarkets in the East Coast including Food Lion, Hannaford, and Sweetbay stores.
About The Dinner Store
The Dinner Store provides an affordable dinner alternative to boxes, cans, cereal and shoulder-height windows. Every month, after previewing 16 recipes, customers can register for a two hour session and choose the six or more meals they would like to make. Meals can also be assembled for customers who cannot attend sessions for a few extra cents per serving. The meals are made with fresh meats and produce, and sauces are always made from scratch. They take care of all of the prep work, and customers simply follow the cooking instructions for a home-made meal in under thirty minutes. Entrees are completely customizable with vegetarian and whole-grain options when applicable. The Dinner Store also offers online ordering 24 hours a day.