New Products Hits & Misses for 07/07/2010

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

Not Just Cereal Milk Chocolate Fruity Flavored O’s

57

This product is a MISS! If you love chocolate and you love Fruit Loops it is time to head for the hills! Don't walk, but run, now! Not Just Cereal’s Fruity Flavored O’s which are drenched in milk chocolate are sold in Wal-Mart. I can only imagine they chose this retailer thinking that none of their customers had any idea what chocolate or Fruit Loops tastes like, in fact the product is practically tasteless. And imagine this; you're ingesting 27 g of sugars in just a little over 1 1/2 ounces (1.58 to be exact) and 220 calories and 90 milligrams of sodium. There are products out there that are so bad that they're good, but this is not one of them - and by the way if you're not convinced yet, just take a look at this ingredients list. Retails for $2.50 for 4.75 oz.

Nassau Candy
516 433 9010
http://www.nassaucandy.com

Scoring Breakdown:

Glutino Gluten Free Breakfast Bars Strawberry Flavor

85

This product is a HIT! Here's yet another new product for those people who are trying to avoid gluten. Glutino’s New Gluten Free Breakfast Bars are an interesting idea. What I love about Glutino is that they certify that their products are made in a dedicated gluten-free facility. What I also love about Glutino is that the list of ingredients are ones that we can identify. What I don't like about the product is that each individual bar just comes in silver foil and doesn't say what it is - especially important for kids with allergies who are going to bring them to school or play for lunch. It should be labeled. Also the corn flour and chickpea combination gives a little bit of a grittier taste than I prefer, and I didn't really taste a lot of the strawberry flavor. Retails for $6.19 for 5 x 1.4 oz bars.

Glutino / Importations Deroma
800 363 3438
http://www.Glutino.com

Scoring Breakdown:

Village Harvest Fully Cooked Quinoa

89

This product is a HIT! I love the idea of fully cooked, frozen quinoa. It only took 55 seconds to cook perfectly and this could actually be the product that pushes quinoa into the mainstream. Each grain was perfectly cooked, didn't clump whatsoever, and is chock full of nutrients. My only complaint is that it doesn't come in a Ziploc bags because once the bag is opened you have got to transfer it into yet another package for storage. Having said that this product is terrific. Retails for $7.99 for 20 oz.

Otis McAllister, Inc
N/A
http:////villageharvestrice.com

Scoring Breakdown:

Lucini Italia Spicy Tuscan Tomato Sauce

91

This product is a HIT! If you like spicy and you like tomato you will love Lucini’s new heat in the bag tomato sauce. This Spicy Tuscan Sauce is a fabulous recipe with just the right amount of spice. Made from diced tomatoes, tomato purée, extra virgin olive oil, and carrot puree, this is terrific. My only problem is again it doesn't come in a Ziploc bag so you have to use the entire amount or transfer to yet another package. The good news about this package is that it's much more efficient, it is much more environmentally friendly and uses a lot less packaging - it also gives it a terrific fresh flavor. But I want my Ziploc! Retails for $3.99 for 13.5 oz.

Lucini Italia Company
888 5 LUCINI
http://www.lucini.com

Scoring Breakdown:

Raaw 100% Pure Fruit and Vegetable Juice Cucumber Pineapple Flavor

91

This product is a HIT! Their slogan is “We take the Yuck out of Natural!” Can you imagine anybody putting the word “yuck” on their food packaging? Well guess what - it's true! This Cucumber Pineapple 100% Pure Fruit and Vegetable juice is delicious, has a fabulous aroma and most people will enjoy. The ingredients include cucumber purée, apple juice, pineapple juice and lemon juice and with just 120 calories for 8 ounces this could be the perfect summer beverage. It only has 20 mg of sodium but does contain 28 g of natural sugars from the fruit, but there is no sugar added. This is a great beverage! Retails for $3.29-3.79 for 16 fl oz.

Raw Foods International, LLC
877 242 RAAW
http://www.rawfoodsinternational.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
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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.