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

Happy Bites Mac and Cheese Patties

[Image of: Ready Meal]
82
I really do not like the idea of hiding veggies in other foods to get kids to eat them. My belief is that if we are going to get our kids to eat vegetables, we need to make them fun and celebrate them! Having said that, this idea from Happy Bites is a Mac and Cheese patty about the size of a small burger, 2 ½ ounces each, that in addition to the pasta and cheese also contain cauliflower, chick peas and butternut squash. The aroma is 100% mac and cheese. I would like the texture of the pasta to be a little firmer and overall it is a cute idea. It is certified organic and contains 38% of the RDA for protein for kids 1-3. One other issue, with just 3 patties in a box; don’t be surprised when you open it and see the box half empty. Retails for $4.49 for a box of 3.

Nurture, Inc
212 374 2779
http://www.happybabyfoods.com

Scoring Breakdown:

Made Blueberry Lemonade

[Image of: Soft Beverage]
87
This product is a HIT! This brand name is Made, I guess they are thinking like a ‘made man’. It is USDA certified organic with a green tea base, and some sugar, lemon juice and blueberry juice and you get a nice clean flavor, a weird color for sure, but this beverage is actually very satisfying, but for the price it better be. Retails for $2.49.

Tenaya, LLC
630 862 4764
http://www.madedrinks.com

Scoring Breakdown:

Eat Smart Snyder’s Naturals Garden Veggie Crisps 100 Calorie Pack

[Image of: 100 Calorie Pack]
87
This product is a HIT! Didn't anybody tell this company that the 100 calorie pack fad is over? Only kidding. Well, not really. Snyder’s Eat Smart Naturals is a gluten free potato, tomato and spinach veggie chip. I know you are gonna laugh at my comment, but these actually need a little more salt (did I say THAT!) – there is just 105mg per bag and they are kind of bland. Made with sunflower oil, one bag is just 5g of fat, 0 sugars and of course 100 calories. Retails for $3.99 for a box of 8.

Snyder’s of Hanover, Inc
800 233 7125
http://www.eatsmartnaturals.com

Scoring Breakdown:

Maramor Chocolates Premium Dark Chocolate with Probiotics

[Image of: Chocolate]
84
Maramor Chocolates are trying to get us to think differently about one of America’s favorite indulgences. This package contains 7 of these little bars; which according to the company is a one week supply. Each bar contains over a billion live bacteria, at least when it leaves their plant. I do like the fact that they are listing the probiotics by name on the product and is really interesting idea, but they need to do a little bit more work on the taste of the chocolate itself. Retails for $6.99.

Maramor Chocolates
800 843 7722
http://www.maramor.com

Scoring Breakdown:

Season’s Harvest Spirit Wildberry Salad Enlightener Fat Free

[Image of: Salad Dressing]
83
Do you want your salad to be enlightened? If you do Season’s Harvest Spirit Wildberry Salad Enlightener might just be for you. With just 35 calories for 2 tablespoons, 0mg of sodium and 6g of sugars it adds an interesting flavor. My complaint is the rice vinegar, cider vinegar, red wine vinegar and white vinegar all over-power the blueberries, strawberries and raspberries. Little less vinegar, please. And what is so disappointing is that the fruits are the first three ingredients! Retails for $6.00.

Seasons Harvest, Inc
800 621 5075
http://www.seasonsharvest.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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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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