Nutrition Facts: What Do Those Labels Mean?

If you've been to a Hy-Vee grocery store recently, chances are you've seen some numbers right next to the price of an item of food.

It's a "NuVal" - a nutritional value placed on each and every food product. 

Tuesday on Up to Date, Harvest Public Media's Jessica Naudziunas joined guest host Brian Ellison to explain why there's more to grocery shopping these days because of nutritional ratings, on-label claims and even in-store dieticians.  We asked: do customers buy healthier food as a result of such labeling?  Do lower NuVals discourage people from purchasing "bad" foods?

We also spoke with Mike Nugent, general manager of NuVal, LLC about the program, and Hemi Weingarten, co-founder and CEO of of Fooducate, a smart phone app that allows you to scan a bar code of the item you're considering and learn more about its nutritional value.

Hear more about Jessica's recent visit to HyVee to examine its NuVal ratings.

Jessica Naudziunas is Harvest Public Media's connection to Central Missouri. She joined Harvest in July 2010. Jessica has spent time on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday and WNYC's Soundcheck, and reported and produced for WNIN-FM in Evansville, Ind. She grew up in the City of Chicago, studied at the University of Tulsa and has helped launch local food gardens in Oklahoma and Indiana.