Imagine you are in the supermarket and come across a packaged food that you’d like some quick info on.
And I mean more info than the ingredients, calories, and macronutrients you can read on the label. Like maybe – how does this sound – “a rating of the ratio of restricted to recommended nutrients”.
You pop out your smart phone, call 41411, text “gguide” and enter the bar code of a packaged food.
Voila! Seconds later, the evaluation is available.
Talk about progressive!
What’s Unique About GoodGuide?
We all know about online areas where you can go to enter specific foods to glean data regarding nutritional content of same.
GoodGuide takes it a step further. And they’ve just added 30,000 MORE foods to their database. Granted, they are packaged foods. But that’s where the convenience and the smart phone connection comes in.
But there is one major innovation with the new listings: GoodGuide offers a nutritional analysis of the packaged foods, using a measure called the “ratio of restricted to recommended” nutrients.
The San Francisco company’s staff of 11 analyzes and evaluates products using a scale of 1 to 10.
Product scores are based on potentially hazardous ingredients, environmental impact and the social, labor and political practices of the manufacturer.
But there is one major innovation with the new listings: GoodGuide offers a nutritional analysis of the packaged foods, using a measure called the “ratio of restricted to recommended” nutrients.
This is derived by adding up all the recommended vitamins, minerals and other nutrients, then adding up restricted fats, sugar, salt and cholesterol, and creating a ratio of the two figures that indicates how healthy the food is overall.
Other factors taken into account include whether the product includes genetically modified organisms, trans fat or fructose. Information is available on how far packaged foods were shipped, whether the animals used to make them were treated humanely and if products are Fair Trade or organically certified.
“We rate the additives, colors, etcetera, and ask if they are hazardous,” said O’Rourke, adding, “We have colors used here that are banned in Europe.” from sfgate article here
No smartphone? No worries!
You can do a ratings search from your computer at the GoodGuide site here: GoodGuide.com
And they don’t just do food. GoodGuide also rates over 66,140 other consumer products.
Check it out and let me know what you think!
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Thanks for the great post about GoodGuide! Our rating system is a simple way to de-code the labels of supermarket foods, which can often be so misleading. GoodGuide provides an easy-to-use nutritional breakdown, and adds information that the label of a product won’t tell you – like which ingredients are banned in other countries, and does it exceed accepted thresholds for certain ingredients like sugar and sodium. We hope you enjoy your exploration of the site and that it becomes a useful tool in making better food choices. –Jodie, GoodGuide
Hi Jodie!
Thanks for the elaboration! I must say, I think GG is quite progressive and look forward to playing around more on your site.
The additional details you’ve provided in your comment are helpful, too.
I appreciate that you came by to comment!
Lani