The Overall Nutritional Quality Index (ONQI), a supplemental, easy-to-read nutrition labeling system, will be introduced on a voluntary basis next year by participating Wegmans, IGA, Hy-Vee, and Food City grocers. ONQI was developed by a bunch of nutrition and health experts and assigns products a value from 1 to 100 by scoring a number of good and bad qualities of the food. Shoppers can then compare similar products easily to see which one is more nutritionally sound.

Since the system isn’t government-mandated, it’s probably not going to find widespread usage beyond the stores listed above, which are all part of the Topco Associates grocers cooperative. Topco will be applying it to some of their private label brands “in the second half of 2008” and will make the system available for grocers to put on shelves next to products.

We think if this is going to catch on, it needs to be called something fun like “Oinky,” and it needs a mascot, like maybe a pig. A skinny pig.

ONQI isn’t the only labeling system in the works—the suspiciously named Nutrition Rich Food Coalition, “whose members include the National Dairy Council, National Pork Board and other commodity organizations,” is also working on something, which we suspect will prove once and for all that an all-milk, all-pork diet is the healthiest and most All-American choice you can make.

“Wider nutrition labeling systems headed to stores in U.S.” [Reuters]
(Photo: Getty)

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