Health: The Good Food-Picking Seal

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Health-minded shoppers wandering through supermarkets these days are understandably bewildered about what to buy. Barraged by conflicting ^ nutritional advice and hyperbolic health claims for various foods, consumers are no longer sure what is good or what is bad for their bodies. Soon they will have a new aid intended to help them navigate grocery aisles more easily. Starting next month, some food packages will bear a logo from the American Heart Association, a heart with a superimposed check mark and the legend TESTED & APPROVED.

The seal is the focus of an ambitious new nutrition-education effort by the A.H.A. But instead of winning universal plaudits for the program, the organization finds itself under fire from trade and consumer groups and even federal agencies, which charge that the project may add to shoppers' confusion. Under the plan, called HeartGuide, food manufacturers submit their products to be analyzed for cholesterol, salt, and total- and saturated-fat content. Items that meet the A.H.A.'s criteria are allowed to use the seal on labels and in advertisements. The imprimatur is currently limited to four categories -- margarines and spreads, canned and frozen vegetables, crackers, and oils and shortenings -- but in coming months it will be extended to other groups, perhaps cookies and frozen desserts. So far, about 100 products have been enrolled in HeartGuide; all are expected to pass the tests.

Everyone benefits, according to the A.H.A. Consumers get some clear dietary guidance, and companies get a marketing advantage. C&W Foods of San Francisco has submitted its line of frozen vegetables as an image booster. "Frozen vegetables are the Rodney Dangerfield of the vegetable category," observes C& W President Gary Spakosky. "The seal will help frozen vegetables as opposed to fresh ones, which will not have the seal." The A.H.A. predicts that the program will stimulate introduction of more healthful products. One manufacturer eager to participate reformulated its product before entering it for testing.

But industry groups complain that companies that do not want to join may be forced to if competitive products bear the seal. To cover costs, the A.H.A. charges participants hefty fees, ranging from $15,000 to $640,000 annually, depending on a product's market share. "It looks like an extortion racket," says Richard Sullivan of the Association of Food Industries. Consumer groups are concerned because the A.H.A. has not yet made public the amount of fat, cholesterol and salt it considers acceptable. "We don't know whether the standards are too lax," says nutritionist Bonnie Liebman of the Center for - Science in the Public Interest. Another objection: the A.H.A. will not disclose which products fail in testing.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration fear that the A.H.A. seal may foster simplistic notions about foods and imply some therapeutic benefit from specific brands. The USDA has banned use of the seal on meat products, including frozen dinners and entrees. "The program would have set up the idea of good foods and bad foods, and there is no scientific support for that," says Lester Crawford of the USDA. "There are good diets and bad diets."