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New Labeling System for Health-Conscious Shoppers Unveiled at Healthy Foods International Trade Show

Posted on: Thursday, 6 March 2008, 12:00 CST

American consumers need a smarter, simpler way to shop for healthy food. Answers to the classic shopper's question "What's really healthy and what should I buy?" will be addressed in the opening keynote address for the inaugural Healthy Foods International Exposition and Conference, to be held June 18-19 at the Dallas Convention Center. Penton Media's Supermarket News®, the leading information source for the U.S. food retailing sector, and New Hope Natural Media, the top trade show producer and content provider for the natural and organic products industry, are co-producing the event.

HFI's keynote speaker David L. Katz, M.D., of the Yale University-Griffin Hospital Prevention Research Center, was recently cited in The New York Times for his role in clarifying labeling health claims for today's supermarket shopper. In 2007 Katz launched the Overall Nutritional Quality Index (ONQI), a labeling program which enables health-conscious shoppers to select products based on Katz's research with 12 other nutrition science experts. Katz and his team developed the ONQI as an unbiased nutritional rating system that can be used for every product in today's conventional supermarket.

Joining Dr. Katz as a keynote speaker is Jeff Posner, vice president of Topco Associates LLC and general manager of Overall Nutritional Quality Index program. Katz and Posner will kick off HFI's educational program on June 18.

The simple ONQI nutrition scale of 1 to 100, with 100 being the healthiest, is based on 30 nutrients and a formula derived from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's MyPyramid, Nutrition Facts labels, Dietary Guidelines for Americans, as well as international standards

"The ONQI is as simple as it is powerful in enabling consumers to identify nutritional quality at a glance and improve their diets and their health one well-informed choice at a time," said Katz.

HFI brings healthier-for-you foods trends to retail executives, buyers, brokers, distributors, and food, beverage and personal-care product manufacturers, with more than 14 educational sessions. HFI will feature the first formal presentation of new research outlining consumer buying habits and attitudes entitled "The State of the Healthy Food Industry," by Patrick Rea of Nutrition Business Journal®. Other HFI seminars include Kids' Nutrition: Balancing Profit and Responsibility; Ingredients that Matter; Making Health Convenient and Retail Food Safety: and Responding to Recalls and Protecting Customer Trust.

To register for HFI online, visit www.healthyfoodsintl.com or call toll-free: (866) 458-4935. Companies interested in exhibiting should contact national sales manager Adam Andersen at (303) 998-9091. Registration is free to qualified attendees before May 2, 2008.

To inquire about press credentials, please contact Jen Chavez-Hartman at (303) 449-2108, ext. 22.

About HFI:

The Healthy Foods International Exposition and Conference is the first major partnership between Supermarket News, the award-winning, nationally circulated weekly trade magazine for the food distribution industry, and New Hope Natural Media, which produces the two largest and longest-running natural and organic products trade shows. Both are owned by Penton Media Inc., the largest independent business-to-business media company in the U.S., serving more than 6 million business professionals every month.

Source: Business Wire

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