Walmart ‘Great For You’ Food Labels Highlight the Obvious
2 Comments | Written on February 8, 2012 at 1:00 pm, by Lesley Kennedy
Walmart is going to make it really simple for you to know which foods are considered healthy and which are not, just in case you’re confused. (Hint: Fruits and veggies, good. Candy bars and potato chips, bad.) “Great For You” labels will begin to appear on Walmart grocery items it deems, well, great for you.
Reuters reports the mass merchandise retail chain will soon begin using white and green labels on fresh vegetables and fruit, eventually expanding them to 20 to 25 percent of Great Value (the Walmart brand) foods, a number of Marketside (another Walmart brand) items, and possibly some brand name foods, too.
Thank goodness there are no plans to add “Really Terrible For You” stickers to the rest of the grocery offerings. Although, come to think of it, that might actually deter us from filling our carts with Pringles, Diet Coke, Ben & Jerrys and Totino’s Party Pizzas. Nah.
“At the point in time that there is a standardized label that comes out from the FDA then we’ll be happy to make a switch,” Andrea Thomas, Walmart‘s senior vice president of sustainability, tells the news service. “At this point we feel like our customers need help right now; we don’t know how long that’s going to take.”
So, if you are one of those customers who needs a little nudge when it comes to knowing brown rice is “Great For You,” but white rice isn’t, or that your skim milk is “Great For You,” while whole milk isn’t, or that eggs are, after much debate, actually “Great For You,“ as well, just look for those new labels.
“There are no candy bars,” Thomas adds. But, please, tell us you already knew that.
What’s on the label? Get news and advice you can use from our Label Lingo posts!
Need ideas for those “great for you” foods? Have a look at our Healthy Cooking recipes.
Categories:
Food News | Tags: Candy, Fruit, Healthy Cooking, Vegetables
2 Comments | Post Your Comment
2 Responses to “Walmart ‘Great For You’ Food Labels Highlight the Obvious”
sounds like a good idea
I’m really excited about these labels! Whoever came up with this idea is a genius! I have always been a label reader to make sure a product is healthy, but my eyesight lately doesn’t allow me to read the small print of the product details such as ingredients and nutritional facts. This will definitely save time and cut out eye strain for many shoppers! Thank you!