New Products Hits & Misses for 08/12/2009

Ratings Criteria

With over 50,000 products in the average supermarket, people don't have the time, or the money, to test every product on the shelves and with 15,000 new products every year consumers need to know what's out there!

So Phil does the testing and the tasting for you and gives the product a rating out of 100 so you know what you can expect when you try something new!

SupermarketGuru does not sell the foods we review, nor receive any compensation from the manufacturers for reviewing or rating them.

Phil taste-tests and judges each product based on the following 8 criteria:

(30 points) Taste: The most important attribute of any food
(20 points) Value: Is it worth it?
(15 points) Health: Based off the nutritional information, is it nutritionally balanced?
(15 points) Ingredients: What's in it, how natural is it?
(5 points) Preparation: When applicable, how accurate or good are the directions *
(5 points) Appearance: Is it appetizing and does it resemble its photo or description
(5 points) Packaging: Is it appropriate for the product and does it have any benefits such as resealability, added freshness, better storage, etc.
(5 Points) Sustainability: Is the packaging biodegradable, is it wasteful, is the company endeavoring to offset their carbon footprint?

* products that do not have any preparation will have the full value of these points included in their total score

Ethnic Gourmet Malay Chicken Curry

82

If you love chicken curry you would love this product. The seasonings are fabulous, but there’s one major problem – see these pieces of chicken on the front of the package – I didn’t find them anywhere. I did find the odd piece of shredded or miniscule pieces of chicken but that’s not what the package is advertising. It’s all natural, nothing artificial and really terrific, but give us our chicken! Retails for $4.59.

Ethnic Gourmet Foods
800 739 4838
http://www.ethnicgourmet.com

Scoring Breakdown:

Cedarlane Egg White Omelette Uncured Turkey Bacon, Vegetable and Cheese Flavor

87

This product is a HIT! If you want an egg whites omelet and just don’t want the fuss Cedarlane’s Egg White Omelette is for you. It’s gluten free, low cholesterol and very tasty. While the variety is Uncured Turkey Bacon, Vegetable and Cheese, take a look, it’s also loaded with potato, which is the second ingredient. Lotsa spices in a good way and really very satisfying. 13 g of fat, 640 mg of sodium, 21 g of carbs and 24 g of protein. Retails for $3.99.

Cedarlane Natural Foods, Inc
800 826 3322
http://www.cedarlanefoods.com

Scoring Breakdown:

Gorton’s Signature Grilled Tilapia

71

This product is a MISS! I love tilapia, but I really don’t understand what ‘5 star’ tilapia means. Yes, on the back of the box they have 5 stars that describe their product, but doesn’t 5 stars usually refer to a credible rating or to an award? It is a little misleading – especially when 1 of the stars refers to the fact that it’s quick frozen for optimal freshness. The flavor of the herbs and spices is fair, but not exceptional and one look at the ingredients will convince you to just buy some plain frozen tilapia, add your own spices and grill it – it’ll cost you about half as much and be much better. Sorry Gorton’s Fisherman – get back on your boat! Retails for $3.99 for 2 filets.

Gorton’s
800 335 3674
http://www.gortons.com

Scoring Breakdown:

Nutiva Organic Hemp Oil

93

This product is a HIT! You already know that I’m a fan of hemp and just to remind everybody – hemp – while it is in the family of marijuana there is absolutely no connection to the drug. Most of the founding fathers of our nation actually grew hemp and it is thought of as one of the most nutritional seeds in the world. This hemp oil from Nutiva has a nice green color, a nice delicate flavor and is rich in omega 3s, 6s and 9s. This is as good as some of the best olive oils on the market. Retails for around $13.99.

Nutiva
800 993 4367
http://www.nutiva.com

Scoring Breakdown:

Achiev One Nutritious Coffee Boost Vanilla Nut Flavor

81

I’m a huge fan of Christopher Guest and ‘Best in Show’ so when I had to choose which flavor to try of course it had to be the Vanilla Nut. Achiev One is yet another energy beverage, but this one gets its boost from coffee concentrate and vitamin B3 (which is Niacinamide). The taste is a lot better than many of the energy drinks that are out there and also it has a lot less sugar, but tell us more – tell us how much caffeine is in the container and tell us just how high the antioxidants are that you’re touting. Retails for $11.76 / 4 pack.

Skylarhaley
866 759 5274
http://www.achievone.com

Scoring Breakdown:

Thank You

We hope you enjoyed this edition of

New Product
Hits and Misses

If you would like Phil to consider your new product for review, please send 4 samples of each flavor you to submit for review, with the suggested retail price and other product information. We regret that we can not review all products submitted. Please send to:

New Product Review
SupermarketGuru.com
3015 Main Street, Suite 320
Santa Monica, CA 90405

Product reviews are conducted by randomly selecting one flavor of a product and taking into consideration the information available on the package itself as it would appear in the retail environment. Information contained in advertisements or on websites is not taken into account for evaluation or ratings.

Email danielle@supermarketguru.com with any questions and whenever possible please be environmentally friendly when packaging your products.