Topco Associates to Launch New Food Scoring System in Supermarkets

Topco Associates, a provider of solutions for food industry member-owners and customers, has announced that it will provide consumers access to a new food scoring system developed by a group of nutrition scientists from throughout North America.

The company said that the system allows for at-a-glance comparison of foods on the basis of overall nutritional quality. This new system, the Overall Nutritional Quality Index (ONQI), uses a simple numeric score to rate any food item or recipe, enabling consumers to make choices based on an unbiased assessment of a food’s nutritional value. It is expected that the ONQI will be available through thousands of retail grocery stores beginning in the second half of 2008.

David Katz, director of the Yale University, Griffin Hospital Prevention Research Center, and lead scientist on the ONQI project, said: “Epidemics of obesity and diabetes suggest the toll of poor dietary choices on the public health. Dramatic improvements in health are possible with changes in diet, and the way to a better diet is through one informed choice at a time.”