Hy-Vee adopts NuVal Nutritional Scoring System to help customers determine food's nutritional content

NEW YORK Hy-Vee has introduced a scoring system to allow customers to determine the nutritional content of the food they buy.

The Midwestern supermarket chain announced Thursday that it had adopted the NuVal Nutritional Scoring System, making it the first chain to do so in the Midwest. Golub Corp., which operates the Price Chopper chain in the Northeast, also has introduced the system, licensed by Braintree, Mass.-based NuVal, a joint venture of Topco Associates and Griffin Hospital in Derby, Conn.

"You really shouldn't need a Ph.D. in nutritional biochemistry to figure out which kids' breakfast cereal is more nutritious," said David Katz, chairman of Griffin Hospital's Yale Prevention Research Center. "If people want to make good decisions about the foods they buy and eat, then we should give them nutritional information they can understand."

Hy-Vee plans to introduce the system to its stores in seven states.