New Products Hits & Misses for 08/19/2009

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

Izze Sparkling Ginger

91

This product is a HIT! I’ve always been a fan of Izze sodas… Oh sorry, I mean sparkling beverages – and there really is a huge distinction. This has less carbonation, nothing artificial and it’s made with real sugar. I’d like this ginger flavor to be a bit more gingery –and have that ginger bite. Keep in mind that although it is all-natural it still has 120 calories per bottle, but if you’re a soda drinker this will be more refreshing, and the flavor actually will enhance the flavors of your foods - rather than just drowning them out. Retails for $1.39.

Izze Beverage Co
877 476 7380
http://www.izze.com

Scoring Breakdown:

Dipper Cracklins Red Pepper Seasoned

70

This product is a MISS! No, it’s not true that you have to be southern to eat Dipper Cracklins – imagine “Fried out pork with attached skin”, and if that’s not enough to make you wanna move north, well, the third ingredient is MSG. Look, I will admit it, I’m no fan of pork rinds, either the taste or the nutritional profile, and just opening up the package the scent of fried pork was enough to turn my stomach. So, to be fair, this is one of those products that if you like pork rinds, go out, taste these and email me your opinion (Phil@supermarketguru.com), because when it comes to my taste buds these are just horrible. They are as hard as any food I have ever tried and way over seasoned, I imagine that is to cover the actual taste of, you know, the fried out pork and skin. Retails for $1.99.

Rudolph Foods Co., Inc
419 648 4087
http://www.southernrecipe.com

Scoring Breakdown:

Heinz No Salt Added Tomato Ketchup

88

This product is a HIT! This product is a hit, with a caveat. I applaud Heinz for their new No Salt Added Ketchup. More people are trying to avoid sodium and having a product like this helps. It’s made with Also Salt which is a salt substitute, and the tomato taste of the ketchup is really quite good, but Heinz only went part of the way with this nutritional correction. How about now, taking out the high fructose corn syrup and use sugar? Then you would really have a great ketchup. Retails for $2.59.

H.J. Heinz Co., L.P.
800 255 5750
http://www.heinz.com

Scoring Breakdown:

Country Choice Organic Soft Baked Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

92

This product is a HIT! Remember what I said a couple of weeks ago about not ‘getting’ soft baked cookies – these Country Choice Organic Soft Baked Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies are great! Made with organic whole grain oats and not wheat based, the real flavor and mouth feel come through. These are expensive, but they’re worth it. Retails for $3.99.

Country Choice Organic
952 829 8824
http://www.countrychoiceorganic.com

Scoring Breakdown:

Chobani Greek Yogurt Pineapple Flavor

93

This product is a HIT! Remember those old Dannon TV commercials that showed all those 100 year old Greeks that were fit and healthy because they ate yogurt? Well Chobani’s recipe might well have been the yogurt they were eating. This Greek style yogurt and what that means is you can actually taste the yogurt, not a bunch of sugar and artificial flavors. It contains 5 active cultures which they name on the package, has no artificial anything and great flavor. 1 cup with just 2 ½ g of fat and 160 calories is guaranteed to satisfy your hunger and taste buds, but read the label carefully because the amount of sugars vary by flavor and can be up to 19 g. Retails for $1.59.

Agro Farma, Inc
877 847 6181
http://www.chobani.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
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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.