Selection of healthy foods from vending machines: effect of point-of-purchase advertising

Abstract

Vending machines represent the number one form of food service in the United States today with annual sales exceeding $22 billion and its significance as a source of food for Americans continues to grow. Traditional vending foods, for the most part, are not considered nutritious or healthy. Concerns over saleability of healthy foods have prevented most vending companies from stocking more healthy food choices in their machines. This study was conducted to determine the preference for and saleability of healthy foods from vending machines compared to traditional vending foods. Total sales (number of items sold) from three vending machines in three different locations on the campus of Ball State University for a 2-week period were studied. Vending machine sites were selected based on accessibility to students, staff & faculty and previous history of high-volume sales. During this 2-week period, healthy foods were introduced into three vending machines along side traditional vending machine items. Healthy foods generally consisted of foods lower in fat, salt and/or sugar relative to other traditional vending foods. Examples of healthy food items introduced into the machines include low-fat turkey sandwiches and fresh fruit, and examples of traditional vending machine foods include salami & cheese sandwiches and pizza. A “Buy Healthy” label was adhered to each individual healthy food item, and a placard to the face of each vending machine describing some of the healthy food choices available in the machine. Data on the number of healthy and traditional vending foods sold per 24-hour period were collected, and totals for a 2-week period for each machine and all three machines were determined. Data were analyzed statistically based on confidence interval testing at the 95% level. A total of 1291 food items were sold from the three vending machines in the 2-week period, of which 623 (48%) were “healthy” items. The confidence interval for data collected from all three vending machines was 0.455 – 0.510. Therefore, with 95% confidence, the probability of a person selecting a healthy food item over a traditional item from these vending machines, when point-of-purchase advertising is used, is between 46% and 51%. In addition, 97% (623 out of 639) of the total number of healthy foods placed in the machines were sold for the 2-week period examined, compared with 66% (668 out of 1004) for the traditional foods. The results from this study suggest that when healthy foods are available in vending machines along side traditional and often less healthy vending foods, and advertised as such at the point-of-purchase, people will choose healthy items about one-half or 50% of the time.