{"id":477,"date":"2018-02-28T11:32:35","date_gmt":"2018-02-28T11:32:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/healthyvendingny.com\/blog\/?p=477"},"modified":"2018-03-02T21:33:33","modified_gmt":"2018-03-02T21:33:33","slug":"new-york-city-healthy-vending-grows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healthyvendingny.com\/blog\/new-york-city-healthy-vending-grows\/","title":{"rendered":"Healthy Vending in New York City Continues to Grow"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Healthy<\/a>Have you noticed that the availability of healthy vending machine options in New York City continues to increase? Traditional snacks and beverages have given way to vegetable chips, protein bars, and naturally flavored water. The catalyst for these changes doesn\u2019t stem from a single event. Instead, multiple perspectives unwittingly met to produce an increase in demand for healthy vending machine snacks<\/a> and beverages.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two of those perspectives are a concern about the increase in obesity rates in the United States and a demand for more nutritionally sound and sustainable snacks and beverages<\/a>. In order to learn more about a specific product, greater visibility of important information needed to occur.<\/span><\/p>\n

Industry Requirements<\/b><\/p>\n

In 2016, obesity rates in the state of New York were 25.5% for adults and 31.8% for children ages 10 to 17. Because of an on-going increase in country-wide obesity rates, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) determined that consumers (both adults and children) needed to be able to easily locate the nutritional information of a vending machine snack or beverage. As a result, new vending machine labeling requirements about the placement of the nutrition label on items purchased from vending machines were developed. Today, caloric information is visible on \u201cvending machine foods for which the Nutrition Facts label cannot be examined before purchase or for which visible nutrition information is not otherwise provided at the point of purchase\u201d (<\/span>https:\/\/www.fda.gov\/Food\/GuidanceRegulation\/GuidanceDocumentsRegulatoryInformation\/ucm513910.htm<\/span><\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Healthy<\/a><\/p>\n

Consumer Demands<\/b><\/p>\n

Many snack and beverage manufacturers, however, have decided to include more information about their healthy vending machine products than the FDA requires. Clear product labeling lets the New York City consumer know what the ingredients are, how many calories are in it, if the ingredients are organic, non-GMO, or vegan, or if the snack or beverage is Fair Trade certified. <\/span><\/p>\n

The following list defines a few of the terms consumers are looking for when deciding whether or not to purchase an item.<\/span><\/p>\n