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

Minute Maid Enhanced Lemonade Pomegranate Lemonade

[Image of: Beverage]
67
This product is a MISS! Here's the problem - Minute Maid new enhanced lemonade promises to be an excellent source of antioxidants vitamin C and E and contains just 12% juice but wait - the first ingredient is pure filtered water, the second ingredient is high fructose corn syrup, the third ingredient is lemon and pomegranate juices from concentrate. Hey if you really want to have a juice this rich in antioxidants forget the added sugars and forget all that water 12% juice just doesn't make it. If it was 100% juice yes it would be higher in calories but they would not have to add in those extra antioxidants to make up for it. The aroma and flavor reminds me of the bug juice that they used to serve at camp. All I taste is sugar – no pomegranate and no lemon. Retails for $4.59 for 59 fl oz.

The Coca-Cola Company
800 888 6488
http://www.minutemaid.com

Scoring Breakdown:

Lean Cuisine Spa Cuisine Apple Cranberry Chicken

[Image of: Frozen Entree]
78
It’s looking like 2010 is gonna be the year of flavor. I have seen more interesting flavors in new products so far this year than I ever have before. Lean Cuisine’s new Apple Cranberry Chicken is made in an apple reduction with cranberry green beans and whole wheat orzo pasta. The sauce is delicious, the pasta came out just so-so, but the vegetables and chicken cooked perfectly. It does have 500mg of sodium and 24g of sugars, but it is just 4g of fat and 300 calories. Retails for $3.49.

Nestle USA, Inc
800 993 8625
http://www.leancuisine.com

Scoring Breakdown:

Wild Veggie the Souper Drink Red Bell Pepper Flavor

[Image of: Frozen Vegetables]
84
I absolutely hate it when products have an identity crisis and this product is better than that: Wild Veggie Souper Drink? Come on… it is a soup, it is not a drink, and it is absolutely fabulous! This sweet Red Bell Pepper flavor comes through loud and clear don't try to be something you're not because you are just not going to attract a wider audience - be specific - call yourself a soup and everybody will find this great. It has 3g of fat, but does have 570 mg of sodium. Frankly I love the idea of this as a chilled summer soup instead of the same old gazpacho. The other thing that really annoys me is when cooking instructions say things like “to microwave remove lid and cut inner film”… what about cooking time? Retails for $4.99 for 15 oz.

Graceland Fruit, Inc
800 352 7182
http://www.souperdrink.com

Scoring Breakdown:

Revolution Foods Organic Mashups Unsweetened Squeezable Fruit Grape Flavor

[Image of: Fruit Purée]
91
This product is a HIT! Revolution Foods Organic Mashups Squeezable Fruit is a great alternative to candy bars for kids. Basically this is apple purée flavored with grape concentrate and pear puree it does taste like grape flavor, but frankly it needs a little bit more of the grape flavor. I love the fact that 3% of the net revenue goes to “Healthy School Lunches” feeding kids in underserved schools. Retails for $4.99 for 4.

Nest Naturals, Inc
510 596 9024
http://www.revolutionfoods.com

Scoring Breakdown:

Talenti Gelato Caribbean Coconut

[Image of: Ice Cream/ Gelato]
91
This product is a HIT! I first tasted Talenti Gelato at a food trade show and bought the product on the Today Show for our annual ice cream extravaganza. There is little doubt that everybody on the show loved it - now it is in full distribution in a larger size package and is just as delicious as before. This new Caribbean Coconut flavor I found to be the perfect texture perfect flavor and it even has bits of coconut unlike another product that we tested a couple months ago that didn't even list coconuts as one of the ingredients. Now remember the gelato is different than ice cream – it has less fat and sugar and is made in small batches. I love this package which is plastic and actually has a screw top lid which protects the ice cream , is far less messy and most importantly will prevent freezer burn. Retails for $4.99 – 5.99 for 1 pint.

Talenti
214 526 3600
http://www.talentigelato.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.