FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
CONTACT:
Meredith Gremel, Vice President, Corporate Affairs & Communications, 616-878-2830
SpartanNash’s Clean Ingredient Initiative includes clean, easy-to-read labels and reduced ingredient counts on more than 400 products
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – SpartanNash has embarked on a Clean Ingredient Initiative for the company’s exclusive Our Family and Open Acres private brands. The initiative focuses on providing simpler products, reduced ingredient lists and clean, easy-to-read labels to store guests.
As part of the Clean Ingredient Initiative, more than 425 Our Family and Open Acres products have undergone reformulations or packaging redesigns since 2018, removing synthetic colors, MSG and other ingredients. In 2019, another 175 products will be added to the Clean Ingredient Initiative.
“Consumer preferences are changing, and our store guests are looking for healthier food options, clean labels and ‘free from’ formats when shopping at their local grocery store or putting food on the table,” SpartanNash Vice President, Private Brands John Paul said. “Our Clean Ingredient Initiative provides them with exactly that, all while giving them the quality, budget-friendly savings and great taste they’re used to with Our Family and Open Acres products.”
To make it simpler and more transparent for store guests to quickly identify Our Family® and Open Acres® products that have undergone reformulation or packaging redesigns as part of the Clean Ingredient Initiative, products now feature clean labels with key attributes listed on the front of the packaging.
For the Our Family brand – which includes more than 1,700 products in every aisle of the store – clean labels are highlighted with leaf icons. For Open Acres – SpartanNash’s private brand for fresh foods – a circular swoosh is used.
“The icon system on Our Family and Open Acres packaging is designed to draw our store guests’ attention to the highlights of each product, calling out fat free, gluten free, non-GMO and other key product attributes,” Paul said. “Though the Clean Ingredient Initiative, we’ve made it easier than ever to identify the private brand products that fit our customers’ healthier lifestyles, so they can make quick, informed decisions at the shelf.”
As part of the Clean Ingredient Initiative, Our Family ice cream now has four SKUs that contain only four or five ingredients, including milk, sugar, cream and the appropriate flavoring. SpartanNash has also successfully partnered with its manufacturers to remove added MSG from a number of Our Family soups, and Our Family fruit and grain bars have been reformulated to remove synthetic colors.
To further promote the Clean Ingredient Initiative in 2019, Our Family spokesperson Molly Yeh – award-winning cookbook author and star of Food Network’s Girl Meets Farm – will highlight products that have undergone reformulations, such as yogurt, mac and cheese and ice cream, tying into in-store and online promotions.
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About SpartanNash
SpartanNash (Nasdaq: SPTN) is a Fortune 400 company whose core businesses include distributing grocery products to a diverse group of independent and chain retailers, its corporate-owned retail stores and U.S. military commissaries and exchanges; as well as premier fresh produce distribution and fresh food processing. SpartanNash serves customer locations in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, Europe, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Bahrain, Djibouti and Egypt. SpartanNash currently operates 159 supermarkets, primarily under the banners of Family Fare Supermarkets, Martin’s Super Markets, D&W Fresh Market, VG’s Grocery, Dan’s Supermarket and Family Fresh Market. Through its MDV military division, SpartanNash is a leading distributor of grocery products to U.S. military commissaries.