The USDA's nutritional guidance system, MyPyramid, has not been the smashing success that organizers hoped it would be when it was unveiled almost two years ago. The problem seems to be that the new pyramid, as opposed to the old one, only provides guidance, not hard and fast numbers to follow. This means that diners need to take responsibility for their health and their choices - and motivating them to do so is not an easy task.

Trying to help the public to better understand and make use of the already in-place system, food manufacturers and retailers have joined together to create the Take a Peak program. The program aims to get people thinking more closely about health and using MyPyramid with in-store advertising, banners, signs and kiosk. Displays will how reminders of how many servings of whole grains should be eaten per day and what serving sizes look like. Some products will be given a logo indicating why it maybe a good choice.

The trial run of the program will cover 2,000 stores in 17 states and includes Publix, Raley's and SuperValue. Depending on the response from consumers, it may not be long before the plan (or propaganda, if you prefer to look at it that way) ends up in stores at the rest of the US, as well.

Consumer Reports always delivers the information that shoppers need to know: what's out there, what is (and isn't) good about it and whether or not it is worth the price or time involved. More often than not, they are evaluating products, but in a recent study, they took a look at some of the stores that sell them.

Based on a survey of more than 20,000 consumers, CR found that the three most important things to grocery shoppers were "short lines, low prices, [fresh] produce," though good service and clean stores were also important. Most shoppers went to multiple stores each week or each month to pick up all the things they needed, shopping for produce at one store and dry goods at another. But using these criteria as a baseline, five supermarkets came out ahead: Wegmans Food Markets, Trader Joe's, Publix Super Markets, Raley's and Whole Foods Markets. All five had a desirable combination of qualities that kept shoppers coming back regularly.

Publix Super Markets in Atlanta, Georgia are testing out a new device, a high-tech shopping cart of sorts, to keep kids quiet while their parents are doing the grocery shopping. The TV Kart is a small, car-shaped cart with a TV screen that plays children's shows, such as Barney, The Wiggles, and Bob the Builder. The carts are electric and have brakes built in, but unlike the non-electric versions in stores at the moment, parents will have to pay $1 to use them - for the convenience of keeping their children quiet.

It's only a small jump from children's TV programming to advertising - and once the kid is in the store, the battle to get the parents to buy whatever the child wants is nearly won. Whether the stores like them or not, it's a good bet that at least one or two parents' or health groups will be questioning the idea.

When I was out in Colorado last September, I noticed that most of the stores carried a brand of bottled water called BIOTA (I later learned that it stands for Blame It On The Altitude). I also learned that the plastic-like bottles are actually made of corn and will supposedly mulch itself in a few months' time if composted.

BIOTA is based in Ouray, which is just outside of Telluride. I figured they were a regional company, but now it seems that Publix, one of the largest supermarket chains in the Southeast, has started carrying BIOTA. Publix customers should start seeing the bottles on shelves this week.

I'm no water snob, but as they go, I thought BIOTA tasted decent and the bottle didn't seem to impart any odd flavors. Oh and the BIOTA site even has a little time lapse film of a bottle breaking down.

Dateline NBC, after interviewing health inspectors and touring dozens of supermarkets all over the country, compiled a list of the 10 least hygienic supermarkets in the country. From expired milk and deli meats to lack of hot water in employee bathrooms, there were many violations that were not immediately obvious to the customer's eyes, but the hidden cameras caught blatantly unhygienic practices and major health and sanitation violations, like dead insects in food products. After analyzing the data from inspections in 2005 of 1,000 stores in 27 states from the each of the top ten grocery chains, the list was final. From fewest violations to most, the least sanitary supermarket chains are:

• Food Lion
• Wal-Mart
• Save-a-Lot
• Costco
• Sam's Club
• Wynn-Dixie
• Kroger
• Publix
• Albertsons
• Safeway

According to the company responses received by Dateline, all the companies are vowing to improve in every area where a critical violation was received. They emphasize that customers who see a violation should report it to the store manager immediately so the problem can be dealt with.