Peapod Adds Healthy Ideas Program to Offerings

Peapod has expanded its NutriFilter sorting feature to include a category for "Healthy Ideas," the in-store nutritional labeling program now in place at sister companies Stop & Shop and Giant-Landover.

NutriFilter, which launched last year, acts as a virtual nutritionist, reading product labels and highlighting items that fit a shopper's specific health and nutrition needs from categories such as Gluten-Free and Low-Sodium. The Healthy Ideas labeling plan enables Peapod shoppers to quickly identify foods containing less fat, saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium. The program's products are additionally guaranteed to be a good source of at least one nutrient, including protein, fiber, vitamins A or C, or the minerals calcium or iron.

"We know families want to make healthier food choices, but don't always have the time to read complicated labels and research what products are best," said Paulette Thompson, Stop & Shop/Giant-Landover health and wellness manager. "By selecting NutriFilter's Healthy Ideas plan, Peapod shoppers can easily and quickly find the most nutritious products throughout the online store. Plus, since Peapod shoppers are filling their grocery baskets from the comfort of their home or office, there's less temptation for impulse and snack purchases like unhealthy candy and snacks found in the checkout aisle."

NutriFilter is available to any Peapod.com visitor. Shoppers can choose from nine programs: Dairy-Free, Egg-Free, Gluten-Free, Healthy Ideas, Peanut-Free, USDA Good Fiber, USDA Low Fat, USDA Low Sodium and Weight Watchers. The items in each category that meet the selected program's criteria will be displayed at the top of the list and clearly identified by the plan icon.

Shoppers can additionally use NutriFilter to design a custom plan to manage multiple aspects of their diet. Using a blank nutrition panel similar to those on all packaged products, consumers enter a maximum for calories, grams of fat, milligrams of potassium and other attributes, select their icon, and then activate their custom plan to identify the products in each category that meet all of their requirements. NutriFilter also provides the guidelines for each nutritional component.

Skokie, Ill.-based Peapod serves Washington, D.C.; suburban New York City; and communities in the states of Connecticut, Indiana, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Virginia. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Netherlands-based Royal Ahold.