Nutrition Month Alert: Canada's largest grocery retailer - Loblaw Companies - hosting nation-wide dietitian day event on March 3

Loblaw banner stores offer Canada's largest assortment of fresh offerings along with a broad range of services to empower Canadians to make healthier choices

BRAMPTON, ON, March 1, 2012 /CNW/ - (TSX: L) -To mark Nutrition Month, on March 3, a nation-wide 'dietitian day' will take place at Loblaw banner stores across Canada. As part of a livelifewell™ corporate commitment to helping Canadians make healthier choices, dietitians will be in select stores from 10AM to 2PM to debunk nutrition myths and provide tips on how to make healthier food choices for customers' individual needs.  This exciting event is part of an official sponsorship of Dietitians of Canada's Nutrition Month campaign.  In addition to this event, at select stores, dietitians offer one-on-one consultations and guided grocery tours on different topics such as diabetes, heart health, gluten-free diets and family nutrition.

"Healthy living is something many Canadians strive for, but between eating the right foods, exercising and being mindful of growing health risks, it can feel like a daunting endeavor," says Alexis Williams, Dietitian, Loblaw Companies Limited. "With a large assortment in Loblaw banner stores of health-related products and services in the country, Canadians can embrace the products and expertise they need to help them accomplish their health goals."

Fresh First
Start at the fresh departments for healthier choices and great tasting foods.  From seafood to meat to produce and baked goods, Loblaw banner stores sell the most fresh food of any retailer in Canada*!  Loblaw is committed to offering customers a large assortment of fresh and local produce annually - up to 40% of produce sold in Loblaw banner stores in August and September 2011 alone was fresh Canadian-grown produce and an in-house team dedicated to sourcing the best growers and produce across North America works year round to ensure customers can choose great tasting, fresh produce.

Culinary Convenience
There isn't always time to cook from scratch and Canadians need quick, tasty options they can feel good about feeding their family.  In the recent Loblaw Companies livelifewell™ survey, compiled from a national online poll conducted by Vision Critical for Loblaw Companies Limited, results reveal that 50 per cent of Canadians look to food labels for information to help them make healthy lifestyle choices. The newly-designed packaging of PC^® Blue Menu™ products makes it easy to quickly identify nutritional benefits with plus (+) and minus (-) symbols identifying nutritional attributes of products so customers can see what the products contain more or less of, right away. Loblaw banner stores also offer the competitively-priced PC^® Organics^™ range of products and select stores house comprehensive Natural Value™ sections to meet the needs of many Canadians' strict dietary restrictions and preferences.   For more information about new PC^® Blue Menu™ products, pick up a copy of the newest President's Choice^® Insiders Report^®, now in select stores, or online at www.pc.ca/bluemenu

Empowering customers to make healthier choices
In addition to the broad range of products available at Loblaw banner stores, Canadians can also benefit from a unique and extensive roster of in-store offerings, including in-house experts and partnerships with third party organizations to provide a true health and wellness destination experience for customers. From one-on-one counsel with pharmacists and eye-care professionals, to President's Choice Cooking School classes, Loblaw banner stores have ample resources to help support customers on their journey towards a healthier lifestyle - all under one roof

• Your local dietitian is one grocery shop away - The Loblaw Companies Limited livelifewell™ survey, revealed that Canadians view nutritionists and dietitians as trusted sources for healthy lifestyle information.  It also identified price as a barrier towards making healthier choices. However, only 1 in 10 Canadians actually turned to a nutritionist/dietitian for healthy living information in the past year.  With the unique offerings available through the Loblaw dietitian program, at select Loblaw banner stores customers can enjoy hands-on guidance from a dietitian free of charge.
  
  
• Hypertension Canada - Customers can visit their in-store pharmacy to receive the S.A.L.T. (Sodium Awareness Lifestyle Tips) educational booklet with guidelines for daily sodium intake.  The booklet also includes a list of low-sodium foods, coupons for low-sodium products and a tool to help track daily sodium intake. Loblaw pharmacies also provide cardiovascular risk assessments which include a blood pressure reading and cholesterol level.
  
  
• Canadian Diabetes Association (CDA) and Loblaw pharmacies provide customers with an experience that focuses on food and nutrition including free personalized, computerized diabetes risk assessments, featuring a customized printout, and support for disease management. Education sessions and CDA-approved cooking classes are also available. Since the program launch in 2011, participating Loblaw pharmacies have conducted 20,000 risk assessments and 450 diabetes-related educational classes.
  
  
• Anaphylaxis Canada - Introduced by Loblaw and Anaphylaxis Canada, the Food Allergy Management Assessment program is designed to help parents and allergy patients better manage potentially life-threatening food allergies. The program offers useful tools like wallet cards, an Anaphylaxis Emergency Plan, auto-injector instruction sheets and an automated program that provides reminders two weeks prior to the auto-injector expiration date.

*AC Neilsen

About the survey

Vision Critical conducted an online survey on February 1, 2012 among 1,004 randomly selected Canadian adults who are Angus Reid forum panelists. The margin of error—which measures sampling variability—is +/- 3.1%, 19 times out of 20. The results have been statistically weighted according to the most current education, age, gender and region Census data to ensure a sample representative of the entire adult population of Canada. Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding.

About Loblaw Companies LimitedTSX: L

Loblaw Companies Limited, a subsidiary of George Weston Limited, is Canada's largest food retailer and a leading provider of drugstore, general merchandise and financial products and services. Loblaw is one of the largest private sector employers in Canada. With more than 1,000 corporate and franchised stores from coast to coast, Loblaw and its franchisees employ more than 135 000 full-time and part-time employees. Through its portfolio of store formats, Loblaw is committed to providing Canadians with a wide, growing and successful range of products and services to meet the everyday household demands of Canadian consumers. Loblaw is known for the quality, innovation and value of its food offering. It offers Canada's strongest control (private) label program, including the unique President's Choice®, no name® and Joe Fresh® brands. In addition, the Company makes available to consumers President's Choice Financial® services and offers the PC® points loyalty program.

Product samples, regional versions of the President's Choice^® Insider's Report^® and high-res images are available.

*Programs offered at select Loblaw banner stores. See your store for details.

Or to arrange an interview with aBlue Menu™ panel member please contact:

Loblaw Companies Limited
905-459-2500
[email protected]

Hill+Knowlton Strategies
Michelle Dias
416-413-4635 / [email protected]
Miriam Sherkey
416-413-4732 / [email protected]