WASHINGTON — The health food movement might have taken over public school lunches, but it hasn’t trickled down enough to alter the contents of the country’s vending machines.
A new analysis of nearly 1,000 vending machines on state and local government-owned properties by the Center for Science in the Public Interest found that food dispensers at public parks, court houses, city and town halls, libraries, public hospitals, state university campuses, and highway rest stops around the nation are filled with, well, junk.
“Vending machines on state and local property are stocked primarily with unhealthy products,” the study concludes.
Indeed, more than 75 percent of of all items found in the vending machines containing food were candy, chips, and cookies, according to CSPI’s findings. Almost a third were candy (just over a third if one chooses to include “fruit gummies” in the category); another 28 percent were potato chips; and 16 percent were cookies and other baked goods.
And more than half of all the items sold in vending machines containing beverages were sodas — 56 percent, to be exact. Another 20 percent are sports drinks, like Gatorade, fruit drinks, which are not to be confused with juices, and energy drinks, like Red Bull and Monster.
While it’s probably not feasible (or financially viable) to sell produce exclusively in the country’s public vending machines, a higher proportion of healthier options like fruits, nuts and vegetables wouldn’t hurt. Especially when the government is working to reign in the country’s waistline, which has expanded to a point that almost three quarters of the population is overweight.
“It doesn’t make much sense to have a big obesity prevention effort and then sell soda and candy out of their own vending machines to their employees, program participants and visitors,” said Katherine Bishop, a nutrition policy associate at CSPI.
Federal, state and local governments don’t, of course, stock the vending machines themselves — vending machine retailers do. But altering the contents of food and beverage dispensers at city halls and public parks around the country is, of course, within federal, state, and local government’s power.
Mandating that more public vending machines carry a higher proportion of healthier options wouldn’t be unprecedented. Many states already do. California, for instance, requires 35 percent of food and at least two-thirds of beverages sold through vending machines in state buildings to meet specific nutritional guidelines. Tennessee requires 30 percent of products sold in vending machines be healthy, while Iowa says 25 percent of food and 50 percent of beverages must meet specific nutritional standards.
And making vending machines more healthy might be pretty prudent. Americans, after all, have a soft spot for the sorts of unhealthy snacks vending machines are stocked with. Chips, chocolate and cookies are three of the four most popular snacks among American adults.
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