Will a New Health Law Lead To Healthier Choices At the Vending Machine?

By SheSpeaksTeam Jan 26, 2014

If you find yourself taking multiple trips to the office vending machine each week, you may soon find yourself receiving more information than you bargained for courtesy of a new health law. The calorie information associated with the snacks will soon be listed on the outside of roughly 5 million vending machines under new label regulations from the Food and Drug Administration.

Fox News reports about the new health law that will be implemented in nearly 11,000 companies that operate 20 or more vending machines. Companies who offer and service vending machines have about a year to add caloric information to their machines, which may be additions to the digital read outs or just print signs stuck to the machines.

Owner of Brennan Food Vending Services in Londonderry, Carol Brennan, is not happy with the changes she will have to make and doesn’t think they will make a difference. She explains, “It is outrageous for us to have to do this on all our equipment.” She adds, “How many people have not read a label on a candy bar? If you're concerned about it, you've already read it for years.”

While consumers wait for the new label regulations to be implemented on vending machines, there are already some ways to make healthier snack choices at work and school. The vending machine industry has had the “Fit Pack” system in place since 2005. The program, used by almost 14,000 businesses and schools, allows consumers to make healthier choices by adding stickers to certain snacks that contain healthy levels of fat and sugar.

What do you think of the new health law that will require vending machines to display the snack’s calorie count?

Do you think this will encourage people to make healthier snack choices?