Heather Grebert
Randall Phebus
Introduction to Food Science
July 5, 2014

Supermarket Survey

To discover the differences and similarities between "new" or "compositionally altered" foods and their original versions, I headed to my local Hy-Vee supermarket. My first goal was to discover the differences in prices between these products. I expected to find the compositionally altered products to be more expensive, and the original products to be less expensive. An additional goal was to observe how the shelf position of the product made a difference. At first I thought that the shelf position of a product was selected at random, but as I will discuss I did actually discover that shelf position was intentional, and made a difference in the marketing of the product. Another goal which I intended to attain was to find out what the differences in ingredients and nutritional composition between the altered products and the original products. My plan was to first find various foods that were “new” or “compositionally altered”, and then to write down new facts as I found out about them in a notebook. I had a few foods in mind that I thought I predicted to be compositionally altered (such as soda, bread, and granola bars). Considering that I usually do not usually do my own grocery shopping, I was very excited to discover more about the supermarket.

The initial food I sought out to explore was Hidden Valley Ranch dressing. The food was both fat free and cholesterol free. As compared to its original product, the fat free, cholesterol free Hidden Valley Ranch dressing cost $3.79. This was nineteen cents more expensive than its original product, which was $3.50. All types of Hidden Valley Ranch dressings were found on the second shelf to the top, which was at eye level. Ingredients which the altered Hidden Valley Ranch dressing contained were