Changing snack and beverage trends in New York City are impacting everyone from small, local companies to the largest snack food distributor. To be successful in the long run, both big and small companies need to understand what consumers are looking for.

Meals

Rather than eating three meals per day, more consumers are looking for ways to enjoy six to eight smaller meals or snacks each day. While the nutritional needs of New York City employees and students have not changed, how they get those nutrients has. This means that each “mini-meal” consumed while at work or at school needs to be nutritionally solid.

Healthy snack and beverage options need to provide the right type of nutrition to meet those nutritional needs, but in smaller quantities. One way to do that is to offer snacks and beverages with the right balance of protein, carbohydrates, and fat that will get them to their next consumption occasion.

Plant-based Snacks

While New York City consumers are gravitating toward snacks with high protein and fibrous plant ingredients, many other consumers are not. Historically, “healthy” plant-based snacks lacked flavor and had unusual textures. Dr. Christine Cioffe, senior vice president of PepsiCo Sustainability and Global Snacks R&D explained it best when she said, “People might change their behavior for something with a functional benefit, but overtime will fall off if it’s not flavorful.” Today, there are many delicious plant-based snacks available.

Determining which plant-based snack and beverage products to offer in the office break room or school lunchroom might sound overwhelming, but here are two approaches depending on the situation.

• Survey employees or students about which plant-based products they already enjoy outside of work or school.
• For new products and especially when people are suspicious about the taste, encourage employees or students to try new products by creating a trial run period for products at no cost. Then survey everyone to learn which snacks are the most popular.

Organic, Non-GMO, and Socially Good Practices

Consumers want transparency about a number of things from the origins of their prepackaged snacks to how companies are accountable for their environmental footprints and the health of their consumers.

Helping New York City employees and students understand both the big picture and the little picture is important. For the little picture, provide information about what each term means, why it is relevant, and where to look for information on each product. Explaining why companies need to invest in socially good business practices and how it benefits the consumer is a great place to start understanding the big picture.

How is your business or school helping New York City employees or students meet their snacking goals? Consider removing the extra noise and offer only healthy snacks and beverages in your break room or lunchroom vending machine. We’ve done the hard work and made sure that all-natural and organic snacks and beverages are available. In addition, all of our options meet or exceed the minimum nutritional standards established by the USDA School Food Service Program.

For more information about adding healthy snack and beverage vending machines to your location, contact Healthy Vending at 917.572.3671.

When are healthy vending machine snacks and beverages still healthy snacks and beverages? When the term genetically modified organisms on the packaging has been changed to bioengineered.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is proposing a terminology change from ‘genetically modified organisms’ (GMO) to ‘bioengineered’ (BE) for certain foods. The proposed new rule aims to establish a national standard, the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard (NBFDS), to disclose information about the BE status of snacks and beverages for consumers, and how those foods must be labeled.

Bioengineering, as defined by the proposed act, is a food “(A) that contains genetic material that has been modified through in vitro recombinant deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) techniques; and (B) for which the modification could not otherwise be obtained through conventional breeding or found in nature.”

What does that mean in plain English? The current term, GMO, will be replaced with BE, and products that meet a predefined set of criteria must follow the newly established rules to comply with the proposed act. Unfortunately, this change will place more of the burden on the consumer to understand the different components of the proposed rule, and how each one impacts labeling.

Unlike the USDA organic label, the label for the NBFDS won’t be a single icon that is easily recognized. Instead, companies have the option of using a text declaration on packaging, such as “bioengineered food” or “bioengineered food ingredient,” or in a sentence such as “contains/may contain a bioengineered food ingredient.” Additionally, companies have a third option of using a digital link or QR code disclosure rather than a label, text or sentence.

The following are a few important points to know about the new labeling requirements when choosing snacks or beverages from the office break room vending machines.

• The most predominant ingredient in a food, snack, or beverage would independently be subject to established (Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA)) labeling requirements. This includes raw produce, seafood, dietary supplements, and most prepared foods such as breads, cereals, non-meat canned and frozen foods, snacks, desserts, and drinks.
• If a meat, poultry, or an egg ingredient is the third-most predominant ingredient, or lower, the food would be subject to the new BE labeling regulations.

Three important exceptions to the new BE labeling regulations are (1) when the first ingredient is meat, poultry, or eggs followed by any other ingredient even if that ingredient is one that has been genetically modified; (2) when the most predominant ingredient in a food is broth, stock, water, or a similar solution, and the second-most predominant ingredient in the food is meat, poultry, or eggs; and (3) if the food item in question is from an animal that consumed feed produced from or contained a BE ingredient.   

Rather than expecting New York City employees to keep track of every snack or beverage that falls under the new labeling requirements, remove the guesswork and offer only healthy snacks and beverages in their break room vending machines. And don’t forget about New York City students when considering which type of vending machines to add to the school lunchroom. Not only are healthy snacks and beverages better for their growing bodies, but they are also better for their long-term health.

For more information about adding healthy vending machines to your office break room or school lunchroom, call Healthy Vending at 917.572.3671. We look forward to hearing from you.