Star ratings.
Guiding Stars uses a proprietary rating formula (patent pending) that credits a food's score for the presence of vitamins, minerals, fiber and/or whole grains and debits a food's score for the presence of trans and/or saturated fats, cholesterol, added sugars, and added sodium.
The resulting score determines whether the item receives 1, 2, 3 or no Stars. Just check the shelf tag. The more positive attributes the product has, the more Guiding Stars it will receive.
It is important that all information collected for analysis be available to consumers. We collect all product data for Guiding Stars from the following sources:
1. For food items that fall under the FDA/FSIS regulations, nutrient information is obtained from the Nutrition Facts label and ingredients list.
2. Data for food items that are not required to carry nutrition information fact labels (i.e., fresh produce, meat, seafood, etc.) is obtained from the USDA National Nutrient Database.
Guiding Stars Simplifies Comparisons
100 calories* of each product is analyzed to evaluate its nutritional makeup. This approach makes it easy to compare like items with different serving sizes.
*A 100 calorie unit is used as a reference for consistent measurement and is not necessarily the recommended serving size.
