In case you can't tell which foods at your local Walmart are healthful, the world's largest retailer will make it obvious right on the package with a "Great For You" label.
The Bentonville, Ark.-based chain will slap the green icon on the front of whatever in-house brand items it deems nourishing. Starting this spring, those items will include Walmart's Great Value tomato puree, pure canola oil, whole-wheat bread and other foods that meet a certain nutrition standard.
The label can also be used by other major food brands. The company said it worked with customers, suppliers, health groups and more to develop the Great For You guidelines.
"This is not meant to lecture our customers," said Leslie Dach, executive vice president for corporate affairs for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. "They can buy a dessert when they want to. But when they want to buy a cracker, we can help steer them to a healthier cracker if that's what they're looking for."
Wal-Mart Stores, which has already lowered the prices on fresh fruits and vegetables, is not the first company to try to promote healthful foods. But as the country's largest grocery store chain - and one that caters in particular to budget-conscious consumers - it plays an influential role in the health of U.S. families.
Even first lady Michelle Obama, with whom Wal-Mart has worked in the past on dietary initiatives, lauded the effort, saying that "giving parents the information they need to make healthy choices is a key piece of solving childhood obesity."
Starting last year, Wal-Mart said it would try to improve the healthfulness of the food on its shelves while also making selections such as fat-free salad dressing and low-sodium lunch meat more affordable. Among the announced goals: cutting back sodium in packaged foods, eliminating industrially produced fats and more.
Consumers are already faced with a plethora of labels in grocery aisles. Critics were especially concerned when food companies created a new, green Smart Choice logo in 2009 that anointed products such as Lucky Charms and Froot Loops as being healthful.
Experts on nutrition and health generally commended the standards Wal-Mart established for the Great for You label.
"The criteria are pretty strict, I'll give them credit for that," said Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University. "The label will only go on to about one-fifth of their products."
In principle, however, Nestle is opposed to such labels because, she said, they are too often little more than "green 'buy me' schemes."
"Will this increase sales of so-called better for you Walmart brand products? Maybe," Nestle said.
"Will it make people healthier? That's going to be a much more difficult question to answer." The New York Times contributed.
