Nutritional quality of beverages available in vending machines in health and social care institutions: do we really want such offers?

Abstract

Background Vending machines represent one way of offering food, but they are overlooked in the efforts to improve people’s eating habits. The aim of our study was to analyse the variety and nutritional values of beverages offered in vending machines in social and health care institution in Slovenia. Methods The available beverages were quantitatively assessed using traffic light profiling and the model for nutrient profiling used by Food Standards Australia New Zealand. Vending machines in 188 institutions were surveyed, resulting in 3046 different beverages consisting of 162 unique product labels. Results Between 51 and 54% of beverages were categorised as unhealthy with regard to sugar content. Water accounted for only 13.7% of all beverages in vending machines. About 82% of beverages in vending machines were devoted to sugar-sweetened beverages, the majority (58.9%) presented in 500-ml bottles. The average sugar content and average calories in beverages sold in vending machines are slightly lower than in beverages sold in food stores. Conclusions We suggest that regulatory guidelines should be included in the tender conditions for vending machines in health and social care institutions, to ensure healthy food and beverage choices.

Effects of traffic light labelling and increased healthy range on beverage choices from vending machines

“…This parallels the result of Brown et al ( 18 ) , although their reported increase (50 %) was much larger. These findings suggests that in settings where mostly unhealthy items are on offer (such as vending machines ( 14 – 16 ) ), using traffic lights alone may not be enough to produce a substantial shift towards healthier choices. Traffic lights have been shown to be successful in increasing healthy choices in settings that typically offer a greater variety of healthy items (e.g.…”

“…One environment that is a common source of soft drinks is a vending machine, which often feature a disproportionately high number of sugar-sweetened beverages (14)(15)(16) . Additionally, vending machines do not typically offer nutritional information at the point of purchase.…”

“…In addition to the provision of nutritional information, it is also important to consider the opportunity (or lack thereof) for someone to make a healthy choice (19) . This is particularly pertinent as vending machines have been found to mostly contain unhealthy options (14)(15)(16) . A study by Pechey et al (20) investigated whether reducing unhealthy or increasing healthy options from vending machines could improve the proportion of energy purchased from healthy options.…”

Branded Foods Databases as a Tool to Support Nutrition Research and Monitoring of the Food Supply: Insights From the Slovenian Composition and Labeling Information System

“… List only include studies where Slovenian branded food databases were exploited directly. Food monitoring studies datasets were used for several other studies, for example, to support in the sampling of foods in the food supply for assessment of the content of trans fatty acids in foods ( 64 , 65 ), for assessment of salt iodization ( 66 ), for assessment of dietary intakes ( 67 – 71 ), food marketing ( 25 , 72 – 74 ) and offers in vending machines ( 75 , 76 ). Studies exploiting additional Slovenian branded foods composition datasets ( 44 , 66 , 77 – 79 ) are also not included .…”

“…Similarly, the nutritional quality of foods available in vending machines was also investigated. Rozman et al reported the poor nutritional quality of snacks ( 75 ) and beverages ( 76 ) available in vending machines in health and social care institutions in Slovenia.…”