Phil Lempert's SupermarketGuru
 

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:

  1. (30 points) Taste: The most important attribute of any food
  2. (20 points) Value: Is it worth it?
  3. (15 points) Health: Based off the nutritional information, is it nutritionally balanced?
  4. (15 points) Ingredients: What's in it, how natural is it?
  5. (5 points) Preparation: When applicable, how accurate or good are the directions *
  6. (5 points) Appearance: Is it appetizing and does it resemble its photo or description
  7. (5 points) Packaging: Is it appropriate for the product and does it have any benefits such as resealability, added freshness, better storage, etc.
  8. (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

Ribber City Sauce Company New Jersey Style Blueberry Chipotle Barbecue Sauce

[Image of: BBQ Sauce]
74
This product is a MISS! New Jersey is known for a lot of things – great dairy products, great produce, great pizza, Bruce, Bon Jovi, and of course it is where I come from. Old Man Ribber has a New Jersey style BBQ sauce – imagine this – blueberry juice and ketchup are the first 2 ingredients. And the flavor is chipotle, but I am confused because there is actually no chipotle listed in the ingredients, just a lot of other things like Worcestershire Sauce, brown sugar and black pepper. There is no question that this would take some getting used to… now we know why Jersey is not known for ribs! Retails for $7.

The Phoenix Food Group Inc
732 604 1724
http://www.ribbercity.com

Scoring Breakdown:

Yumnuts Naturals Slow Dry-Roasted Cajun Cashews

[Image of: Nuts]
87
This product is a HIT! Once you get past the price - about a dollar an ounce - you will be really pleased with the flavor and the crunchiness of Cajun Yumnuts. These are dry roasted cashews that are not as spicy as I like my Cajun flavor, but it is an excellent product. The only complaint I have is that they are adding a little sugar and a little tapioca syrup, but no worries; one ounce contains just 2g of sugars. Retails for $5 / 5oz bag.

Health Nutz, LLC
203 354 9151
http://www.yumnutsnaturals.com

Scoring Breakdown:

Nutri-Pepper Natural Black Pepper Flavor

[Image of: Condiment]
89
This product is a HIT! You have heard of sugar substitutes and salt substitutes, so why not a pepper substitute? Many people find that pepper is too irritating to their stomach lining; so Nutri-Pepper to the rescue. This is a combination of brown rice, piperine and carrot fiber. Piperine is thought to aid in the body’s absorption of nutrients and is the alkaloid responsible for the pungency of black pepper – and besides that the flavor is actually very good. Retails for $4.

Green Lite Products, Inc
N/A
http://www.nutri-pepper.com

Scoring Breakdown:

Sapere Natural Foods Shortbread Cookies Goji Berry Flavor

[Image of: Cookies]
83
Goji Berry is all the rage, so here is a shortbread cookie that has 25% less calories and fat than regular shortbread cookies with nothing artificial and you can actually see the pieces of goji berry come through. My one recommendation is to get a new package design because this looks way to clinical, especially for a product this good. Retails for $4.89.

Sapere Natural Foods
714 775 1955
http://www.saperenaturalfoods.com

Scoring Breakdown:

Sis Meliss Mom’s Classic Caesar Dressing

[Image of: Salad Dressing]
83
Sis Meliss Classic Caesar Dressing contains no anchovies or eggs; frankly I miss the flavor of anchovies and eggs in Caesar dressings. The good news is that there are no added sugars of any kind and it is made with extra virgin olive oil, but the question is does it taste like a classic Caesar dressing? Unfortunately the extra virgin olive overpowers the rest of the ingredients. I would call it extra virgin olive oil dressing with a touch of Caesar. There are pieces of garlic and parmesan, but even when you shake it vigorously they quickly fall to the bottom. Retails for $4.99.

Sis Meliss Family Recipes, Inc
323 302 0390
http://www.sismeliss.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.

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