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

Mott’s for Tots Apple

[Image of: Apple Juice]
91
This product is a HIT! It was about time someone figured out that the natural sugar in apple juice was just too much for kids… We have seen juices that have added artificial sweeteners before, but Mott’s were smarter and did what a lot of mom’s already do – just add water. With no artificial sweeteners and 40% less sugar this is a smart product. (By the way the average regular apple juice contains about 28 grams of sugars in 8 oz – this has about half that). Retails for about $3.

Mott’s LLP
800 462 4891
http://www.motts.com

Scoring Breakdown:

Get Healthy America Brown Rice Pasta with Turkey Bolognese

[Image of: Brown Rice Pasta]
81
Get Healthy America is a great slogan for a T shirt, but I am not so sure about it as a brand name – the implication is that you’ll eat this and you’ll get healthy. While it is true that it is lower in fat than other frozen microwave dinners however it does still have 560 mg of sodium and a whopping 53 grams of carbs and the brown rice pasta is a bit gummy – that is the bad news – now the good news – it is wheat and gluten free, the turkey Bolognese is very tasty and this meal contains 24 grams of protein. Retails for $7.99-$8.99

Get Healthy America Inc.
516 931 1900
http://www.gethealthyamerica.com

Scoring Breakdown:

Good Ingredients Habanero Pistachios

[Image of: Pistachios]
89
This product is a HIT! These are pistachios from Santa Barbara County, California… I love pistachios and I love spicy and this product does a great job of putting them together. They are crunchy and easy to shell. If you want a snack that will satisfy your taste buds and your hunger pangs this will do both. Half this bag has 170 calories and 6 grams of protein and don’t forget that nuts are high in fat, so there is 13 grams of fat in half a bag. Retails for around $2.25

Good Ingredients
949 584 1573
http://www.goodingredients.com

Scoring Breakdown:

Simply Boulder Coconut Peanut Sauce

[Image of: Peanut Sauce]
91
This product is a HIT! If I was going to make a sauce I would hope I would do as good a job as Simply Boulder has – it has a great package, which right up front shows you it is made with agave and extra virgin olive oil. It is gluten free and dairy free and they back up their gluten free promise by substantiating the secondary ingredients in the vinegar used… and then there is the taste… spectacular! You taste the coconut and peanut flavor and there is a little paprika kick that makes this delicious – I could think of about 100 ways to use it. Retails for $5.99

Simply Boulder Foods, LLC
303 507 0654
http://www.simplyboulder.com

Scoring Breakdown:

Balance Pure Chocolate Cashew

[Image of: Balance Bar]
79
Balance was one of the first energy bars on the market. Their new Pure formula is an attempt to re-invigorate the brand using simple, gluten free ingredients. The ingredients are simple – sugar, nuts, fruit, soy protein, oil and salt – and that’s good, but each bar, along with 9 grams of protein also has 23 grams of carbs of which 16 grams are sugar. And then there’s the taste – which frankly is not impressive. I do give Balance a thumbs up for the use of simple ingredients, but they still have some work to do on the taste. Retails for $1.99

Balance Bar Company
800 678 4246
http://www.balance.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.