September 2, 2010
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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

Stonyfield Organic Oikos Greek Nonfat Chocolate Yogurt

[Image of: Yogurt]
95
This product is a HIT! Finally there is a chocolate yogurt that is good. Oikos Organic Nonfat Greek Yogurt from Stonyfield uses real cacao instead of artificial chocolate flavor and color. The chocolate is on the bottom and you just stir it and the result is a great balance between the taste of Greek yogurt and the chocolate. It does have 16g of sugars in just one 4oz cup, but it is worth it. And right here on the package it lists the names of the 5 active cultures. Retails for $3.99/4 pack.

Stonyfield Farm
800 776 2697
http://www.stonyfield.com

Scoring Breakdown:

Deep River Snacks Sweet Maui Onion Kettle Cooked Potato Chips

[Image of: Potato Chips]
85
This product is a HIT! These Sweet Maui Onion potato chips are not only very tasty, but I also love the thickness and crispiness. Unlike many kettle cooked chips these do not taste salty. They do have 16g of fat and 300 calories per bag, so you might want to share with a friend or two. Retails for $0.99 - $1.49.

Old Lyme Gourmet Company
860 434 7347
http://www.deepriversnacks.com

Scoring Breakdown:

Stonehouse 27 Spice Co Gourmet Indian Cooking Sauce Cashews and Cream

[Image of: Sauce]
89
This product is a HIT! I never had a Cashews and Cream sauce before, but I guarantee it will become part of my regular favorites. You have to take note of any product that has fresh onion as its first ingredient and cream as its second. While the package says “Hot” it is more of a pleasant spicy taste than fiery. They use apple juice concentrate as a sweetener and along with the garlic, cashew nuts and spices have really created a unique and special sauce. Retails for $7.99.

Stonehouse 27 Spice Co
866 960 9698
http://www.stonehouse27.com

Scoring Breakdown:

Xagave Premium Raw Agave Nectar

[Image of: Sweetener]
92
This product is a HIT! There are lots of agave nectars on the market, but Xagave is different. They are adding even more inulin than naturally occurs in the blue agave. Inulin is a fiber that can help balance the good and bad bacteria in our bodies – or a prebiotic. Inulin also enhances calcium absorption. Agave is 25% sweeter than sugar and has a lower glycemic index. What I love is right on the package there is a sugar exchange table that shows you not only how much agave to use versus sugar, but also the amount of calories you can save. Retails for $8.99.

BetterBodyFoods
866 404 6582
http://www.xagave.com

Scoring Breakdown:

General Mills Wheaties Fuel

[Image of: Cereal]
83
We all remember Wheaties as kids and we all remember how our favorite sports celebrities would appear on the box. Well, the ‘Breakfast of Champions” has gotten an upgrade; new striking packaging, 5 new sports champions and a new variety and new recipe called Fuel. Crunchy whole wheat flakes, crisp rice with honey and cinnamon added, at least 5g of fiber per serving which is great, but there is still 14g of sugars. The taste is much sweeter than the Wheaties you will remember, and the combination of wheat and rice gives it a nice mouthfeel. While the front of the package says “Made with real honey” read further and you will see there is actually more sugar than honey, along with maltodextrin and brown sugar syrup. One request "big G" – just a little less sugar please. Retails for $4.49.

General Mills, LLC
800 328 1144
http://www.GeneralMills.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.