Super 1 Foods Uses NuVal Scores for Healthy School Lunches

Brookshire Grocery Co.-owned and Super 1 Foods & Discount Pharmacy stores is looking to make packing a healthy school lunch easy with its “Super Fun Lunch” box value meals that are prepared and sold in the deli and are based mainly on NuVal scores.

The lunches, which retail for $2.59, are displayed next to a sign informing customers of the NuVal score of each offering’s components.

Menu options include a sandwich such as peanut butter and jelly, oven-roasted turkey, and cooked ham on whole wheat or white wheat bread. Side items include raisins, a Little Debbie Pecan Spin, mozzarella string cheese and an apple, along with two options for drink: juice or water.

NuVal is a guide that assigns products a number from 1 to 100 -- the higher the score, the higher the nutritional value. Scores are posted on shelf tags so consumers can compare the overall nutritional value of the foods they buy.

Tyler, Texas-based Brookshire’s store banners, Brookshire’s Food & Pharmacy and Super 1, have begun posting NuVal scores, which can be found inside the system’s trademark blue hexagons on the bottom left corner below the data panel of each food item’s shelf tag.

Scores are calculated in nearly every category, including meat, seafood, poultry, salty snacks, milk, yogurt, vegetables (fresh, frozen and canned), cereal, bread, cookies, soft drinks and crackers. More than 30 nutrients and nutritional components of food and how they affect health are taken into consideration when tabulating an overall score, such as vitamins, minerals, calories, carbohydrates, sugar, sodium, protein and fiber, among others. The system applies an algorithm designed by health experts that takes into consideration a product’s nutrition fact panel, ingredient list, and nutrient data from the USDA.

Scoring is free from influence of manufacturer or retailers, and both name brands and store brands are included. More than 9,000 items have scores in Brookshire’s supermarkets, and that number is expected to double over the next several months.