What's in a Snack? Nutritional Assessment of University Vending Options

Abstract

ObjectiveNutritional quality of foods in vending machines are implicated in contributing to the development of obesogenic environments. Therefore, we evaluated snacks sold in vending machine using two validated assessment tools.Design, Setting and ParticipantsA list of high-grossing vending machines were collected from the vendor of a large land-grant university. Snacks in the top 25% revenue generating machines were analyzed using Nutrition Environment Measurements Survey-Vending (NEMS-V) & Health Density Vending Machine Audit Tool (HDVMAT).Outcome Measures and AnalysisSnacks were inventoried and analyzed to determine the healthfulness and density of nutrients. NEMS-V categorizes foods into Red/not healthy, Yellow/minimally healthy and Green/healthiest. HDVMAT takes additional nutrients into consideration and uses a nutrient density scoring system and categorizes snack foods into unhealthy, somewhat healthy and healthy.ResultsNEMS-V analysis categorized 93-100% of snacks from machines inventoried as unhealthy/red and 2.9-6.7% as healthiest/green. Using HDVMAT, 40-53% of the same snacks were categorized as unhealthy and 8-13% as healthy. About 22% of buildings do not have access (within 0.5 miles) to food sources other than vending machines and 89% of buildings do not have access to other food sources after 6 PM.Conclusions and ImplicationsStudents with limited access to other food sources after hours must rely on unhealthy snacks available from vending machines. Comparatively, HDVMAT is a less stringent tool. Even using the less restrictive assessment tool, very few foods are deemed healthful. Findings can be utilized to encourage stakeholders on campus to adopt and enforce healthy vending policies. Also, assessment of the food environment enables development of population-based interventions focusing on desirable behavior changes.FundingNone. ObjectiveNutritional quality of foods in vending machines are implicated in contributing to the development of obesogenic environments. Therefore, we evaluated snacks sold in vending machine using two validated assessment tools. Nutritional quality of foods in vending machines are implicated in contributing to the development of obesogenic environments. Therefore, we evaluated snacks sold in vending machine using two validated assessment tools. Design, Setting and ParticipantsA list of high-grossing vending machines were collected from the vendor of a large land-grant university. Snacks in the top 25% revenue generating machines were analyzed using Nutrition Environment Measurements Survey-Vending (NEMS-V) & Health Density Vending Machine Audit Tool (HDVMAT). A list of high-grossing vending machines were collected from the vendor of a large land-grant university. Snacks in the top 25% revenue generating machines were analyzed using Nutrition Environment Measurements Survey-Vending (NEMS-V) & Health Density Vending Machine Audit Tool (HDVMAT). Outcome Measures and AnalysisSnacks were inventoried and analyzed to determine the healthfulness and density of nutrients. NEMS-V categorizes foods into Red/not healthy, Yellow/minimally healthy and Green/healthiest. HDVMAT takes additional nutrients into consideration and uses a nutrient density scoring system and categorizes snack foods into unhealthy, somewhat healthy and healthy. Snacks were inventoried and analyzed to determine the healthfulness and density of nutrients. NEMS-V categorizes foods into Red/not healthy, Yellow/minimally healthy and Green/healthiest. HDVMAT takes additional nutrients into consideration and uses a nutrient density scoring system and categorizes snack foods into unhealthy, somewhat healthy and healthy. ResultsNEMS-V analysis categorized 93-100% of snacks from machines inventoried as unhealthy/red and 2.9-6.7% as healthiest/green. Using HDVMAT, 40-53% of the same snacks were categorized as unhealthy and 8-13% as healthy. About 22% of buildings do not have access (within 0.5 miles) to food sources other than vending machines and 89% of buildings do not have access to other food sources after 6 PM. NEMS-V analysis categorized 93-100% of snacks from machines inventoried as unhealthy/red and 2.9-6.7% as healthiest/green. Using HDVMAT, 40-53% of the same snacks were categorized as unhealthy and 8-13% as healthy. About 22% of buildings do not have access (within 0.5 miles) to food sources other than vending machines and 89% of buildings do not have access to other food sources after 6 PM. Conclusions and ImplicationsStudents with limited access to other food sources after hours must rely on unhealthy snacks available from vending machines. Comparatively, HDVMAT is a less stringent tool. Even using the less restrictive assessment tool, very few foods are deemed healthful. Findings can be utilized to encourage stakeholders on campus to adopt and enforce healthy vending policies. Also, assessment of the food environment enables development of population-based interventions focusing on desirable behavior changes. Students with limited access to other food sources after hours must rely on unhealthy snacks available from vending machines. Comparatively, HDVMAT is a less stringent tool. Even using the less restrictive assessment tool, very few foods are deemed healthful. Findings can be utilized to encourage stakeholders on campus to adopt and enforce healthy vending policies. Also, assessment of the food environment enables development of population-based interventions focusing on desirable behavior changes.