Grocery Shoppers Are Following Stars to More Nutritio...(with Stars increased 3 1/2 times more .....),Health

than no-Star cereals, which increased only slightly.

-- Movement of yogurts with Stars grew more than 3 1/2 times faster than

no-Star yogurts.

-- Movement of Starred frozen dinners/entrees outpaced frozen no-Stars,

growing about 4 1/2 times faster than frozen dinners/entrees without

Stars.

The constant: fresh fruits and vegetables -- all fresh produce gets Stars. A few sections of the store, namely seafood and bakery, showed no impact from Guiding Stars.

"We're talking about more than a billion food product decisions since Guiding Stars was launched," said Caren Epstein, director of external communications at Hannaford.

"The genesis of the idea came from our shoppers themselves -- we talked to them about different ways we could help make the time they spend in our stores an even better experience, they told us about their confusion and frustration with available nutritional information, and that led to Guiding Stars," said Epstein. "These first-year results indicate to us that we're definitely on the right track in offering our customers a useful tool that can help improve their shopping time with us."

A recent survey of 744 shoppers from Hannaford's customer panel also shows positive momentum:

-- Awareness of Guiding Stars is at an all-time high -- Customer awareness

of the system has grown to 81 percent, the highest level of awareness

yet.

-- Shoppers use the system time and again -- Half of those aware of

Guiding Stars say they use it "fairly often."

Two categories not yet rated are coming shortly:

-- Baby foods will be rated starting September 15. Parents may be happy

to know that 82 percent of all baby foods in the store receive at least

one Star.

-- Star ratings for oils and other fats will be in Hannaford stores toward

the end of this year.

The only categ
'/>"/>