The potato is a very healthy food

Problem is, part of that message is lost, because the organisations conveying this message are obviously stakeholders. Let's just say that we do not expect a "rice board" to convey any other message than that rice is the best food in the world.

That is why I found it of particular interest to read that Dr. Katz of the Yale Prevention Research Center, together with a group of scientists had developed what they call an "Overall Nutritional Quality Index" (ONQI™) or NuVal Score.

A single score between 1 and 100 summarizes all nutritional aspects of a food, the higher the number, the healthier the food. It will serve similar objectives as the Health Check label of the Heart and Stroke foundation or the traffic light system in the UK: help the consumer make healthy choices.

The Researchers developed complex and proprietary algorithm with as input a range of "healthy" and the "unhealthy" substances in the food, that eventually results in a single score. The idea is summarized in the graph below:

This Nuval score is now published for a range of foods. Of course, the first thing I did was check out where the potato ends up. Here are some highlights:

Food	Nuval Score	Food	Nuval Score	Food	Nuval Score
Potatoes	93	Broccoli	100	Salmon	87
Brown Rice	82	Pineapple	99	Hamburger	25
White rice	57	Apple	96	Dark Chocolate	10
Pasta	50	Skim milk	91	Apple pie	2

Potatoes score better than all meats and fish and better than milk, even if it is skim milk . Although many vegetables and fruits score higher than potatoes, potatoes score better than grapes, banana, blackberries and Iceberg Lettuce.

The system will be introduced shortly - probably still this year - by at least three supermarket chains in the United States.

I have not seen any scores for potato products yet. I am working to figure out how a manufacturers can use these scores in product development. I will keep you updated.

Bron: PotatoPro Newsletter