Evaluating the Healthfulness of UNH’s Vending Machines
Amanda Buks Jessica Palmer Taylor Messina Jesse Morrell
Nutrition Program - Department of Molecular, Cellular and Biomedical Science; University of New Hampshire, Durham NH
Availability of Healthy and Unhealthy Products
Introduction
Food and beverage products sold in vending machines at schools and on campuses
have been implicated as a contributing factor to the obesity epidemic we face today.
Among the 3 UNH campuses, Durham, Concord, and Manchester, there are 128
machines with approximately $500,000 in sales per year.1 Several assessment tools
have been developed to evaluate the variety, price, and healthfulness of vending
machine products. Although vending machines provide convenient snacks and
beverages to college students, they may have limited healthy options.
Snacks
Healthy
27.7%
Unhealthy
72.3%
Purpose
The goal of this project was to characterize the availability of healthy snacks and
beverages sold in vending machines on the UNH campus.
Methods
n=9
In Feb. 2014, audits were completed using photographs taken of 21 vending machines
(9 snack and 12 beverage) located in 8 UNH buildings (4 residential, 2 academic, 1
student union, and 1 recreation center).
Each beverage product was given a scale from 0 to 2 based on the number of calories
to fluid ounces and what type of beverage it was.
Beverages
Product Must Contain
<200 kcals
<10% Daily Value (DV)
0%
<12.5 grams
<10% DV
>10% DV
>10% DV
>10% DV
>10% DV
>10% DV
>10% DV
>10% DV
For each criteria met, a snack received a point. The healthfulness of a snack was then
put on a scale from 0 to 12. A snack qualifies as a healthy snack if it receives greater
than or equal to 5. Somewhat healthy snack receives a score of 3 or 4. Unhealthy snack
receive a score of less than or equal to 2.3
The healthfulness of each vending item was evaluated via a nutrient density scoring
tool. To meet this goal, 3 vending audits were used:
Syracuse University Quick Audit
•
Designed to calculate:
•
% of healthy snacks and beverages
•
% of variety of the products
healthy
Healthy
24.6%
Each snack product in the vending machines were given a healthy dense snack score
after analyzing 12 different nutritional criterion:
Nutritional Criterion
Calories
Saturated fat
Trans fat
Sugar
Sodium
Fiber
Calcium
Iron
Potassium
Vitamin C
Vitamin D
Vitamin E
Distribution of Beverages
somewhat
healthy
unhealthy
Unhealthy
75.4%
Key Findings
n = 12
Variety of Choice Among Healthy Products
100%
The main finding of this audit was that the majority of snacks and beverages
available to UNH students via vending machines on campus are of minimal
nutritional value.
Among beverage products:
• 24.6% were rated healthy
• Variety was available for 51.7%
Among snack products:
• 27.7% were rated healthy
• Variety was available for 61.8%
90%
80%
Most healthy and unhealthy snacks were priced the same.
70%
Future Plans
Our data will be sent to Syracuse University to be further analyzed and compared to
other vending machines on college campuses around the country.
60%
50%
References
1Rick
40%
MacDonald, personal communication, March 31, 2014.
2Voss
30%
Syracuse University Detailed Audit
•
Similar to quick form
•
Compares healthy and unhealthy products
•
Compares prices between products
61.80%
51.70%
C, Klein S, Glanz K, Clawson M. Nutrition environment measures survey – vending: Development, dissemination,
and reliability. Healthy Promotion Practice. 2012;13:425-430.
3Byrd-Bredbenner,
Carol, et al. "Sweet and Salty. An Assessment of the Snacks and Beverages Sold in Vending Machines
on US Post-secondary Institution Campuses." Appetite 58.3 (2012): 1143-151.
20%
2
Nutrition Environment Measures Survey-Vending Protocol
•
Visual tool
•
Examines distribution of the healthy, somewhat healthy and
unhealthy products
Acknowledgments
10%
0%
Variety of Healthy Variety of Healthy
Snacks (n = 86) Beverages (n = 86)
•
•
•
•
Dr. Tanya Horacec and Melissa Matthews, Syracuse University
Pamela Wildes, Poster Printing Assistance
Hamel Center for Undergraduate Research
Department of Molecular, Cellular & Biomedical Sciences