New Labeling System Helps Roundy's Customers Choose Healthy

By Kara Murphy, contributing writer, Integrated Solutions For Retailers

Health Key labels in store and healthy tips online designed to educate customers in nutrition

Roundy’s Supermarkets is helping customers choose healthier foods with a new color-coded labeling program called Health Key. The program, which follows USDA and FDA nutritional guidelines, is designed to help the Milwaukee-based grocer’s customers easily find foods that are, for example, organic, vegan, low in sodium, or a good source of fiber. In all, the program identifies 18 healthy attributes, each color coded with shelf tags throughout its stores. The idea is to give shoppers a trustworthy way to find quality foods quickly. That means that even if a product is labeled, for instance, “whole grain” it will only be labeled with a Health Key if it also meets USDA and FDA nutrition guidelines on the amount of things such as saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium it carries.  

“There are many more products that don’t qualify than do,” Roundy’s spokeswoman Dana Schueller told the Post-Crescent, a Wisconsin newspaper. “That’s part of the beauty of it. It helps you identify more healthful items. There are lots of whole grains in cereals, for example, but those cereals could be higher in sugar or fat.”

The guidelines are being followed, even when it means not labeling a store brand item with a Health Key. Roundy’s store brand apple juice, for instance, was found to not have enough vitamins to earn a Health Key label.

The stores owned by Roundy’s — under the banners of Copps, Pick ‘n Save, Rainbow, Metro Market, and Mariano’s —  also have begun giving monthly tips on eating well to engage customers on their websites, leveraging another channel to promote the rollout of the new Health Key system.

Researchers might watch to see how effective Roundy’s efforts are in changing the items customers place in their carts. A May 2012 study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation called “Retail Grocery Store Marketing Strategies and Obesity: An Integrative Review” highlighted research related to in-store marketing techniques, and showed that point-of-purchase promotion of healthy foods has not proven effective in the past.

But, the report synopsis concludes: “Although the evidence is limited, it does suggest healthy purchases can be increased by increasing availability, affordability, prominence, and promotion of healthy foods, as well as by ‘de-marketing’ unhealthy foods.”

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