Grocery shopping at Food World in Troy will be a little easier before the end of the year for customers who have special dietary needs.

Belle Foods, the company that owns and manages the local Food World, is implementing signs with a color-coded guide to note healthy attributes of products sold in the store.

The labels will indicate up to four different characteristics, such as gluten free, sugar free, heart healthy or low carb. Each attribute will be assigned a color code that will allow customers to know about the product with a quick glance at the “Simply Healthy” shelf label for the product.

“We want to make healthy shopping easier for our customers,” said Bill White, president and chief executive officer of Bell Foods. “Food allergens can be a scary thing to deal with as a parent and we felt it was our job to make buying these items as simple as possible. Customers will no longer have to spend valuable time reading the back of a label to determine if a product is safe for their family.”

The new label system will first be used in Belle Foods stores in Hoover and Alabaster where the company has recently remodeled stores. Fifty-seven other stores will then implement the system.

Paul McLaughlin, who handles public relations for Belle Foods, said the shelf labels should be in Troy by the end of the year and the store will be remodeled and rebranded shortly after the beginning of the year.

“We are definitely the first in the Southeast to do this,” McLaughlin said. “We think it’s a great thing for our customers.”

Belle Foods took over operations of the Troy Food World on July 1.