T HE G ROCERY S TORE AND Y OU : I S Y OUR F OOD H EALTHY ? By Ricky Benner and Stefanie Richman By Stefanie Richman and Ricky Benner

Q UESTION : Does the average Wegmans product contain enough nutrition* to meet the FDA’s RDI values? *Testing Total Fat, Sodium, and Vitamin A content

P ROCEDURE Use Wegmans online product list as sampling frame This list is common to all Wegmans Exclude non-edible products Take stratified sample of 102 products by department Determine what percentage of all edible products are in each department Take SRS within each department Products already numbered in each dept. Generate random numbers on TI-84 Ex: Dairy contains 1693 products, about 7% of population (7/102), so we use randInt(1,1693,7) to generate 7 random products Locate products in online list Record products’ nutritional info per serving: calories, total fat, sodium, total carbohydrates, sugar, protein, and Vitamin A We entered our data into Fathom and created the appropriate histograms and tests

B ACKGROUND ON Was founded in 1916 by John and Walter Wegman More than 75 stores spread across New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia and Maryland Plans to open a store in Massachusetts this year Most Wegmans stores are the “superstore” or “megamarket” type, which includes a large area with large variety of foods aimed at an upscale market and the Market-Café in store dining areas In 1979, Wegmans began branding their own products offering basic commodities with a lower price than the national brands In 1992, it started a line of health products called "Food You Feel Good About" The next sub-brand launched was "Italian Classics" In 1995, Wegmans introduced its imported pastas, canned tomatoes, olive oils, etc In 2002, Wegmans launched its own line of organic products

B ACKGROUND ON H UMAN N UTRITION People require energy to function This energy comes in the form of food When people eat then digest, the energy stored in the food is converted into chemical energy, which is then used or stored in the body Specific nutrients are absorbed by the body to maintain proper functioning 7 Basic nutrients: carbohydrates (includes sugars), proteins, fats, vitamins (includes Vitamin A ), minerals (includes sodium ), fiber, water Deficiencies in specific nutrients cause illnesses Chronic consumption of excessive nutrients like fat and sodium cause illnesses like obesity

B ACKGROUND ON T HE R ECOMMENDED D AILY I NTAKE The Recommended Daily Intake (RDI) is the amount of a nutrient per day the FDA claims is sufficient for about 98% of the US population The Daily Value (DV) included on nutrition labels tells how much of a nutrient is in one serving of a product, and the % Daily Value is the DV as a percentage of the RDI The %DV makes it easier for people to fill their RDI quota RDI Values of 8 Macronutrients Nutrient Unit of Measure Daily Values Total Fatgrams (g)65 Saturated fatty acids grams (g)20 Cholesterol milligrams (mg) 300 Sodium milligrams (mg) 2400 Potassium milligrams (mg) 3500 Total carbohydrate grams (g)300 Fibergrams (g)25 Proteingrams (g)50

B ACKGROUND ON N UTRITION L ABELING In 1990, the FDA introduced the controversial Nutrition Labeling and Education Act, requiring companies to mark their food products with the “Nutrition Information” label, becoming effective in May Now called “Nutrition Facts,” the label requires a product’s DVs and %DVs to be visibly displayed on the product’s packaging Calories, fat content, protein, vitamins, and other DVs are included

T OTAL F AT ( G ) P ER S ERVING V S. F REQUENCY IN S AMPLE H ISTOGRAM Right skewed Unimodal Mean is grams, which is a low fat content Range is from 0 to 18 grams, which means some products have a low fat content and some have a high fat content A lot of items we sampled have between 0 to 2 grams of fat in them, which means the items have a low fat content

1 S AMPLE T - TEST : F AT Hypothesis: Ho: µ = (grams of fat) Ha: µ < (grams of fat) Conditions: 1. Randomization 2. Population ≥ 10n 3. Normal population or n ≥ 30 Checked: 1. Sample is representative of population 2. n = X 10 = 1020 There are more than 1,020 food items in Wegmans 3. n = 102 ≥ 30

1 S AMPLE T - TEST : F AT C ONT. All conditions met, Student’s t distribution, 1 Sample t-test Mechanics: t = = – = P (t < │df = 101) = 0.42 k Conclusions: We fail to reject the Ho because p-value of 0.42 is greater than the alpha equal to We have sufficient evidence that the true average fat content in Wegmans food items per serving is equal to fat grams.

S ODIUM ( MG ) P ER S ERVING V S. F REQUENCY IN S AMPLE H ISTOGRAM Right skewed Unimodal Mean is milligrams, which is a low sodium content Range is from 0 to 800 milligrams, which means some items have a low sodium content and some have a high sodium content A lot of items we sampled have between 0 and 200 milligrams of sodium in them, which means the items have a low sodium content

1 S AMPLE T - TEST : S ODIUM Hypothesis: Ho: µ = (milligrams of sodium) Ha: µ < (milligrams of sodium) Conditions: 1. Randomization 2. Population ≥ 10n 3. Normal population or n ≥ 30 Checked: 1. Sample is representative of population 2. n = X 10 = 1020 There are more than 1,020 food items in Wegmans 3. n = 102 ≥ 30

1 S AMPLE T - TEST : S ODIUM C ONT. All conditions met, Student’s t distribution, 1 Sample t-test Mechanics: t = = – = P (t < │df = 101) = 0.63 k Conclusions: We fail to reject the Ho because p-value of 0.63 is greater than alpha equal to We have sufficient evidence that the true average sodium content in Wegmans food items per serving is equal to milligrams.

V ITAMIN A (I NTERNATIONAL UNITS ) P ER S ERVING V S. F REQUENCY OF V ITAMIN A IN S AMPLE H ISTOGRAM Right skewed Unimodal Mean is international units, which is low Vitamin A content Range is from 0 to 120 international units, which means some items have a low Vitamin A content and some have a high Vitamin A content There are possible outliers at 40-50, 80-90, and international units A lot of items we sampled have between 0 to 20 international units of Vitamin A in them, which means the items have a low content of Vitamin C

1 S AMPLE T - TEST : V ITAMIN A Hypothesis: Ho: µ = (units) Ha: µ > (units) Conditions: 1. Randomization 2. Population ≥ 10n 3. Normal population or n ≥ 30 Checked: 1. Sample is representative of population 2. n = X 10 = 1020 There are more than 1,020 food items in Wegmans 3. n = 102 ≥ 30

1 S AMPLE T - TEST : V ITAMIN A C ONT. All conditions met, Student’s t distribution, 1 Sample t-test Mechanics: t = = – = P (t > │df = 101) = 0.85 k Conclusions: We fail to reject the Ho because the p-value of 0.85 is greater than the alpha equal to We have sufficient evidence the true average Vitamin A content in Wegmans food items per serving is equal to units.

A PPLICATION TO P OPULATION From the 1 Sample t-tests we can conclude that the average Wegmans food item per serving contains... the total fat RDI the sodium RDI the Vitamin A RDI The average Wegmans product does contain enough nutrition, as measured by total fat, sodium, and Vitamin A, to meet the FDA’s RDI values Wegmans is selling products that support good health to their customers

B IAS /E RROR The online list of products might not be representative of the entire store Online list might have online-only products and stores might have location-specific products People do not necessarily eat according to serving sizes When people are grocery shopping they do not buy random items Some foods might not be properly categorized RDI values are for people ages 4 and up Baby items should not have been included, so the sampling frame should have been different Spices and water should not have not been included in the sampling frame because they are not considered a nutritional serving Some nutritional values might not be labeled

P ERSONAL O PINIONS /C ONCLUSIONS Picking a topic that was interesting and meaningful made this project easier Finding the samples took 8 hours because the website takes a long time to load, is difficult to navigate, and is not meant to use for sampling purposes We were surprised to find that our sampling data did meet the RDI values We thought the food would contain more fat and sodium and less Vitamin A We were surprised that the majority of our samples were foods we actually heard of People don’t eat based on a stratified sample; their diets are strongly biased If people ate our stratified sample, they would be healthier Food is only one of many factors affecting health

Q UESTION AND A NSWER S ESSION Do you believe the food you eat meets RDI values? Should companies be required to tell people more about their food or should consumers be held responsible for what they eat?

G UESS T HE N UTRITIONAL I NFORMATION ! What is the total fat in grams for a 1 oz. bag of Lay’s Potato Chips, Classic? A. 1 gram B. 5 grams C. 10 grams D. 14 grams Answer: The total fat is C. 10 grams, which is 16% of your RDI value for total fat

G UESS T HE N UTRITIONAL I NFORMATION ! What is the sodium content in milligrams for a serving of 0.5 cup of Campbell’s Condensed Chicken Noodle Soup? A. 700 milligrams B. 800 milligrams C. 880 milligrams D. 890 milligrams Answer: The sodium content is D. 890 milligrams, which is 37% of your RDI for sodium

G UESS T HE N UTRITIONAL I NFORMATION ! What is the Vitamin A content for 1 large, raw (8 oz.) Granny Smith Apple? A. 2% B. 5% C. 10% D. 13% Answer: The Vitamin A content is A. 2%, which is 2% of your RDI for Vitamin A

G UESS T HE N UTRITIONAL I NFORMATION ! C HALLENGE Q UESTION ! What is the calorie content for 2 tablespoons of Baba Ghanouj? A. 110 calories B. 120 calories C. 150 calories D. 200 calories Answer: The calorie content is A. 110 calories, which is 4% of your RDI for calories