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Does providing nutrition information at vending machines reduce calories per item sold?

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Abstract

In 2010, the United States (US) enacted a restaurant menu labeling law. The law also applied to vending machine companies selling food. Research suggested that providing nutrition information on menus in restaurants might reduce the number of calories purchased. We tested the effect of providing nutrition information and ‘healthy’ designations to consumers where vending machines were located in college residence halls. We conducted our study at one university in Southeast US (October–November 2012). We randomly assigned 18 vending machines locations (residence halls) to an intervention or control group. For the intervention we posted nutrition information, interpretive signage, and sent a promotional email to residents of the hall. For the control group we did nothing. We tracked sales over 4 weeks before and 4 weeks after we introduced the intervention. Our intervention did not change what the residents bought. We recommend additional research about providing nutrition information where vending machines are located, including testing formats used to present information.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Jason Baker, Scott Milman, Jill Shaw and Lindsay Burkart for their assistance and support with the vending machine labeling and data collection. Dr Kelly Rulison assisted at each stage of this research and mentored critical thinking throughout.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Public Health Education, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 437 HHP Building, P.O. Box 26170, Greensboro, 27402, NC, USA

    Deirdre A Dingman

  2. University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, USA

    Mark R Schulz, David L Wyrick, Daniel L Bibeau & Sat N Gupta

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  1. Deirdre A Dingman
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  2. Mark R Schulz
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  3. David L Wyrick
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  4. Daniel L Bibeau
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  5. Sat N Gupta
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Deirdre A Dingman.

Additional information

Does presenting nutrition information and ‘healthy’ designations on food sold from ‘vending machines’ in college residences in the United States reduce the number of calories students purchase? This study suggests that these interventions were not sufficient.

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Dingman, D., Schulz, M., Wyrick, D. et al. Does providing nutrition information at vending machines reduce calories per item sold?. J Public Health Pol 36, 110–122 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1057/jphp.2014.38

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/jphp.2014.38

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