Nutrition Scientist Brings Federal Nutrition Policy Experience to Guiding Stars’ Team of Experts
Portland, ME (July 18, 2025) Guiding Stars today announced the appointment of Mark Kantor, Ph.D., to its Scientific Advisory Panel, a team of leading nutrition science, food science and public health experts responsible for maintaining and updating the Guiding Stars patented algorithm as nutrition science evolves.
The Advisory Panel provides Guiding Stars with thoughtful expertise on a wide range of food, nutrition and health-related topics. “Our panelists keep us grounded in evidence-based science by reviewing emerging topics, the potential impact on our algorithms, and ensure we continue to provide trusted nutrition guidance for consumers, manufacturers and retailers,” said Julie Greene, director of Guiding Stars Licensing Company.
Mark Kantor’s professional career has been at the intersection of nutrition and food science, including positions in government, academia, and industry. He was a nutrition scientist and regulation writer at FDA for 14 years, where he contributed to the 2016 updates to the Nutrition Facts and Supplement Facts label regulations and responded to industry petitions pertaining to health claims and dietary fiber. He also assisted in writing the 2025 proposed rule on front-of-pack labeling. Prior to joining FDA, he spent 25 years as a faculty member at the University of Maryland, Department of Nutrition and Food Science, teaching, mentoring graduate and undergraduate student research projects, and conducting educational outreach programs through the Cooperative Extension Service. Mark’s degrees are from Rutgers and Cornell, and he is a Fellow of the Institute of Food Technologists.
For more information about the Guiding Stars program, visit www.guidingstars.com.
About Guiding Stars
Guiding Stars is an objective, evidence-based, nutrition guidance program. Since 2006, it has helped millions of consumers make more nutritious choices, making a positive and lasting impact on public health. The program evaluates foods and beverages when products meet its standard for nutritional value, stars are awarded to indicate good, better, and best nutrition to give consumers simple and easy to understand advice: the more stars a food earns, the more nutritious it is. The Guiding Stars algorithms includes only nutrients that have been researched to the extent that a scientific consensus has been reached and for which the knowledge has been translated into USDA’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans or nutrition policy at either the national or international level. Guiding Stars is currently in more than 2,000 retail grocery stores, including all Food Lion, Giant Food, The GIANT Company, Hannaford and Stop & Shop stores. Guiding Stars can also be found in public schools, universities, corporate and hospital dining facilities, non-profit hunger relief organizations, and is accessible through the Guiding Stars Food Finder app for iOS and Android devices. To learn more about the Guiding Stars program, visit www.guidingstars.com.
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