Food In Vending Machines Research Articles

Framework of Nutritious Food in Technology of Vending Machine for People Health

the vending machine make our life easier. When we buy at vending machine, it will save our time which is we could not go to shop to buy food. But many of vending machine foods are not healthy enough for our body to eat. This research is discussing about the healthier of vending machine which is we must think what type of food are our body need means that the healthy food not likes snack or carbonate drink. The objective of the research is to measure the healthier vending machine for human life. It means the food in vending machine should be healthy to our body. The methodology of the research is three phase firstly preliminary research, identify the element of healthy vending machine and last method is the finding research.

RESERVE VENDING MACHINE FOOD WASTE SEBAGAI DEPOSITO MELALUI QRIS BANK SAMPAH RUMAH TANGGA

The problem of waste is one of the things that need to be considered by society, especially food waste. Household waste management has begun to be carried out using the Reduce, Reuse and Recycle (3R) method but has not yet used technology. By using Finite State Automata (FSA) which is the basic concept of the Vending Machine (VM), waste management can be more economically by converting waste into balances for Rubbish Bank customers which of course becomes income for the society. In the payment method, QRIS applies where the customer does not get cash but immediately gets the balance which will go into the customer's own account. This implementation certainly reduces the amount of waste because it applies paper less and cashless. In this Reserve Vending Machine Food Waste process using Non-Deterministic Finite Automata (NFA).

Consumption, Attitudes, and Trends of Vending Machine Foods at a University Campus: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Vending machines (VMs) have been identified as an obesogenic factor, offering mainly energy-dense and nutrient-poor foods, with limited healthy options available. This cross-sectional study aimed to assess consumption trends and attitude toward vending machine (VM) foods in a university setting. A web-based survey was conducted among 1250 students and staff. Most participants reported weight gain (43.4%) and poorer food choices (53.4%) since joining the university. Participants described VM foods as expensive (53.7%) and lacking variety (34.3%). Over 81% demanded the availability of healthier options. About 75% of participants were VMs users. The most frequently purchased VM items were water, chocolate, and chips. Males reported consuming nuts, soda, iced tea, and energy drinks more frequently than females (p < 0.005). The main reasons for using the VM were hunger and lack of time. Over 40% nominated fresh fruits, baked chips, sandwiches, and dry roasted nuts to be provided in the VMs as healthier food options. Males and those responsible for buying their own food were more likely to select healthier options (p = 0.001). Findings can be used to inform stakeholders of current vending behaviors and to plan tailored interventions to improve the nutritional quality of vended items and promote healthier food choices.

Assessment of nutritional quality of snacks and beverages sold in university vending machines: a qualitative assessment

PurposeVending machines (VMs) provide quick access for snack foods and beverages for students during their study days. These vended foods have been reported to affect the student's nutritional status and contributing to obesity by increasing the caloric intake. This study aimed to evaluate the nutritional value of snacks and beverages provided by VM at the university campuses.Design/methodology/approachA cross-sectional observational study in one large urban university with four campuses was conducted. In total, 55 VMs were found distributed over 50 buildings of the four university campuses. Of the vending slots surveyed, only 57 snacks and beverage food items were found repeated. These items were vended and analyzed using nutrient databases, and their nutritional quality was assessed using nutrient adequacy ratio and nutritional quality score.FindingsMost vended snacks were salty (77%) and sweet (23%). Neither snacks nor beverages were nutrient-dense, and the majority (65%) of snacks and beverages were calorie-dense, with high contents of sugar, sodium and saturated fat; while they were low in vitamins C and A, calcium, iron, sodium, protein and dietary fibers. None of the vended beverages met the low calorie, low sugars and high-fiber criteria.Research limitations/implicationsOne limitation of the current work is represented in the fact that VM snacks and beverages are not fixed throughout the year days, and exposed to continuous changes, depending on the customers' attitudes and economic and financial considerations related to the operating contractor company and the customer students. Thus, a continuous, long-term evaluation is suggested to be conducted for a more representative and reflective evaluation of the nutritional quality of vended snacks and beverages.Practical implicationsPoor nutritional quality has been found for vended foods. Healthier food options should be provided to improve students' dietary intake.Social implicationsAttention has to be directed toward the nutritional quality of VM foods, and how to provide adolescents and young adults with healthy options.Originality/valueThis is the first study conducted in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Gulf Cooperation Council countries (GCC) assessing the nutritional value of vending machine foods in university settings.

College Student Perceptions on Snacks Sold in Vending Machines and on How to Improve Vending Machine Food Choices: A Qualitative Study (P04-132-19)

ObjectivesCollege students spend most of their time on campus, where they are exposed to unhealthy vending machine (VM) snacks, increasing their risk of weight gain and co-morbidities. Improving VM snacks to healthier options could lead to a healthier student body. The objectives of this study were to identify the on-campus VM food choices of Florida International University (FIU) students and their perceptions about how these could be substituted with healthier alternatives. This was a preliminary study for a future intervention to improve quality of the snacks offered in VM at FIU. MethodsStudents were recruited through flyers and mass e-mails. After contacting and screening, 20 students participated in this mixed-methods study. The study was approved by the IRB and participants signed a consent form. They completed a demographic survey, a food preference questionnaire and a focus group, which was audio-recorded. Recordings were transcribed and analyzed using NVIVO. Data from the questionnaires were analyzed with descriptive statistics. ResultsMost participants were female (75%), 18–24 years of age, seeking a bachelor’s degree (55%), and identified the most with Latin American/Hispanic cuisine (40%). Students purchased VM snacks a few times per month (45%) and preferred purchasing savory foods (80%). A total of 40% were somewhat unsatisfied with the selection of VM snacks and 50% were somewhat unsatisfied with the nutritional value of these foods. The main reason for purchasing from VMs was convenience and a fast solution to their hunger. Participants noted that certain areas of the university had healthier VM snacks than others, which cost more. They suggested the improvement of availability and accessibility of healthier snacks (i.e., protein foods and fresh, safe products), particularly for those with special needs (i.e., financial, allergies, disabilities), and placement of healthy snacks in high traffic areas. Creating a health culture, through the use of nutrition education, within FIU was deemed necessary for improving the quality of snacks on campus. ConclusionsThis study proved the need for improving snacks offered in VMs on campus and students are open to supporting this initiative, but suggested to be accompanied by a nutrition education program. Funding SourcesFlorida International University internal funds.

Vending machine foods: evaluation of nutritional composition

The nutritional quality of vending machine foods may be a factor that contributes to significantly increase obesity and associated diseases, and the vending industry is significantly growing worldwide. This study aims to evaluate the nutritional composition of vending machine foods and to compare it with the consumption of the Gran Canaria population.Food products from 74 snack and 71 refrigerated vending machines located in Las Palmas (Gran Canaria), and on university campuses, were nutritionally assessed. The percentages of sales per food type were accessed during a 12 month-period to verify user preferences. Significant differences (p <0.05) were found in the content of nutrients compared with the Kruskal-Wallis test with all the food groups. Sandwiches (wholemeal and white bread) had the lowest energy levels, while croissants had the highest. We highlight the increased sodium content in baguettes compared to the other foods.The findings suggest that vending machine foods contain more fat/saturated fat, calories and sodium than recommended. Further studies on the nutritional assessment of vending machine foods, governments’ awareness and policies that promote the intake of healthy foods are essential to increase the amount of foods with an appropriate nutritional profile according to recommendations in vending machines.

An (un)healthy poster: When environmental cues affect consumers’ food choices at vending machines

Environmental cues can affect food decisions. There is growing evidence that environmental cues influence how much one consumes. This article demonstrates that environmental cues can similarly impact the healthiness of consumers’ food choices. Two field studies examined this effect with consumers of vending machine foods who were exposed to different posters. In field study 1, consumers with a health-evoking nature poster compared to a pleasure-evoking fun fair poster or no poster in their visual sight were more likely to opt for healthy snacks. Consumers were also more likely to buy healthy snacks when primed by an activity poster than when exposed to the fun fair poster. In field study 2, this consumer pattern recurred with a poster of skinny Giacometti sculptures. Overall, the results extend the mainly laboratory-based evidence by demonstrating the health-relevant impact of environmental cues on food decisions in the field. Results are discussed in light of priming literature emphasizing the relevance of preexisting associations, mental concepts and goals.

Profits, commercial food supplier involvement, and school vending machine snack food availability: implications for implementing the new competitive foods rule.

The 2013-2014 school year involved preparation for implementing the new US Department of Agriculture (USDA) competitive foods nutrition standards. An awareness of associations between commercial supplier involvement, food vending practices, and food vending item availability may assist schools in preparing for the new standards. Analyses used 2007-2012 questionnaire data from administrators of 814 middle and 801 high schools in the nationally representative Youth, Education, and Society study to examine prevalence of profit from and commercial involvement with vending machine food sales, and associations between such measures and food availability. Profits for the school district were associated with decreased low-nutrient, energy-dense (LNED) food availability and increased fruit/vegetable availability. Profits for the school and use of company suppliers were associated with increased LNED availability; company suppliers also were associated with decreased fruit/vegetable availability. Supplier "say" in vending food selection was associated with increased LNED availability and decreased fruit/vegetable availability. Results support (1) increased district involvement with school vending policies and practices, and (2) limited supplier "say" as to what items are made available in student-accessed vending machines. Schools and districts should pay close attention to which food items replace vending machine LNED foods following implementation of the new nutrition standards.

University Food Environment: An Assessment of the Nutrient-Density of Vending Machine Foods

University Food Environment: An Assessment of the Nutrient-Density of Vending Machine Foods

State but not District Nutrition Policies Are Associated with Less Junk Food in Vending Machines and School Stores in US Public Schools

Background Policy that targets the school food environment has been advanced as one way to increase the availability of healthy food at schools and healthy food choice by students. Although both state- and district-level policy initiatives have focused on school nutrition standards, it remains to be seen whether these policies translate into healthy food practices at the school level, where student behavior will be impacted. Objective To examine whether state- and district-level nutrition policies addressing junk food in school vending machines and school stores were associated with less junk food in school vending machines and school stores. Junk food was defined as foods and beverages with low nutrient density that provide calories primarily through fats and added sugars. Design A cross-sectional study design was used to assess self-report data collected by computer-assisted telephone interviews or self-administered mail questionnaires from state-, district-, and school-level respondents participating in the School Health Policies and Programs Study 2006. The School Health Policies and Programs Study, administered every 6 years since 1994 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is considered the largest, most comprehensive assessment of school health policies and programs in the United States. Subjects/setting A nationally representative sample (n=563) of public elementary, middle, and high schools was studied. Statistical analysis Logistic regression adjusted for school characteristics, sampling weights, and clustering was used to analyze data. Policies were assessed for strength (required, recommended, neither required nor recommended prohibiting junk food) and whether strength was similar for school vending machines and school stores. Results School vending machines and school stores were more prevalent in high schools (93%) than middle (84%) and elementary (30%) schools. For state policies, elementary schools that required prohibiting junk food in school vending machines and school stores offered less junk food than elementary schools that neither required nor recommended prohibiting junk food (13% vs 37%; P=0.006). Middle schools that required prohibiting junk food in vending machines and school stores offered less junk food than middle schools that recommended prohibiting junk food (71% vs 87%; P=0.07). Similar associations were not evident for district-level polices or high schools. Conclusions Policy may be an effective tool to decrease junk food in schools, particularly in elementary and middle schools.

Promoting healthier vending machines on a college campus

Vending machine foods are typically high in sugar, sodium, calories and unhealthy fats. Healthier food options must be preferred by consumers and profitable to vendors to be offered. This study of vending machine use on a college campus explores the effects of changing food options to promote healthier foods through point of purchase marketing. The study includes attitudinal data related to changes in vending machine foods to improve nutritional quality, effects of a marketing campaign, and sales data. Preliminary results indicate that students do perceive the choices to be significantly healthier, without compromising the perceived value, tastiness satiety, or convenience offered by available choices.

Challenges in assessing the implementation and effectiveness of physical activity and nutrition policy interventions as natural experiments

The Ontario (Canada) government has instituted a policy requiring elementary schools to offer at least 20 min of daily physical activity for students in Grades 1-8 and replace non-nutritious vending machine foods with healthier choices. These policy interventions represent 'natural experiments' offering unique opportunities for conducting research and evaluation. The use of natural experiments to contribute evidence on the effectiveness of policy interventions is identified as an underused tool for public health [Tudor-Locke, C., Ainsworth, B. E. and Popkin, B. M. (2001) Active commuting to school: an overlooked source of children's physical activity? Sports Medicine, 31, 309-313; Petticrew, M., Cummins, S., Ferrell, C., Findlay, A., Higgins, C., Hoy, C. et al. (2005) Natural experiments: an underused tool for public health? Public Health, 119, 751-757]. To date, some Canadian school-based food and nutrition policies are being monitored, but their impact on child and youth obesity is unknown [Canadian Institute for Health Information. (2006) Improving the Health of Canadians: Promoting Healthy Weights, Ottawa, ON]. There are a number of challenges to the evaluation of policy interventions as natural experiments. Often, there are little or no baseline data available to use as the basis for assessing change. Government policies that result in the adoption of particular approaches across large jurisdictions, such as provinces, may result in wide variation in the design and implementation of interventions. Thus, in some cases, natural experiments may be at risk of having low potential to be adequately evaluated on key outcomes. In this paper, we discuss the context of these challenges in relation to the Ontario government school physical activity and nutrition policies.

Introduction and Overview of Worksite Studies

The prevalence of obesity has reached epidemic propor-tions in all racial and ethnic groups, with about two-thirds(or 66%) of the U.S. adult population now overweight orobese (1). Among non-Hispanic blacks, the prevalence ofextreme obesity is about 2-fold that of the general popula-tion (1). This increase is likely due to environmental influ-ences that encourage consumption of high portion sizes ofenergy-dense foods, sedentary lifestyle, and limited accessto healthful foods (2,3). Interventions that modify theseinfluences are promising approaches to curtailing the obe-sity epidemic.Worksites are settings for reaching large numbers ofworking adults of varying socioeconomic levels and ethnicbackgrounds. Because studies testing interventions thatmodify the food and physical activity environments forweight control are in their infancy, formative research isuseful in helping to understand the complexities associatedwith changing such environments.This supplement to

Worksite environment physical activity and healthy food choices: measurement of the worksite food and physical activity environment at four metropolitan bus garages

BackgroundThe present research describes a measure of the worksite environment for food, physical activity and weight management. The worksite environment measure (WEM instrument) was developed for the Route H Study, a worksite environmental intervention for weight gain prevention in four metro transit bus garages in Minneapolis-St. Paul.MethodsTwo trained raters visited each of the four bus garages and independently completed the WEM. Food, physical activity and weight management-related items were observed and recorded on a structured form. Inter-rater reliability was computed at the item level using a simple percentage agreement.ResultsThe WEM showed high inter-rater reliability for the number and presence of food-related items. All garages had vending machines, microwaves and refrigerators. Assessment of the physical activity environment yielded similar reliability for the number and presence/absence of fitness items. Each garage had a fitness room (average of 4.3 items of fitness equipment). All garages had at least one stationary bike and treadmill. Three garages had at least one weighing scale available. There were no designated walking areas inside or outside. There were on average < 1 food stores or restaurants within sight of each garage. Few vending machine food and beverage items met criteria for healthful choices (15% of the vending machine foods; 26% of the vending machine beverages). The garage environment was perceived to be not supportive of healthy food choices, physical activity and weight management; 52% reported that it was hard to get fruits and vegetables in the garages, and 62% agreed that it was hard to be physically active in the garages.ConclusionThe WEM is a reliable measure of the worksite nutrition, physical activity, and weight management environment that can be used to assess changes in the work environment.

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

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.