Health Law Requires Vending Machines to Display Calorie Counts

As obesity continues to be a contributing factor to such health conditions as hypertension and heart disease, working to combat these medical problems remains extremely important. Thanks to President Barack Obama's health care law, vending machines will begin to list calorie information to hopefully persuade some from purchasing unhealthy options.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) estimates that nearly five million vending machines will be required to provide calorie information with the new law. The final rules regarding the information release will be listed sometime next year, according to the health organization, with an estimated overhaul that will cost the industry close to $25.7 million at the beginning of the process. Going forward each year, the cost would be around $24 million, with the vending machine industry including around 10,800 companies and each operating 20 machines or more. However, it's noted that almost 75 percent of these companies will employ just three or fewer workers.

The vending machine companies will have one year to comply with the new standards. However, the industry is urging the government to enforce a new two-year deadline to make the transition more flexible for companies.

 "It is outrageous for us to have to do this on all our equipment," owner of Brennan Food Vending Services in Londonderry, Carol Brennan stated, according to NBC. Brennan currently employs five people and services hundreds of vending machines. "How many people have not read a label on a candy bar? If you're concerned about it, you've already read it for years."

Yet could being more aware of calorie information from snacks in vending machines help combat the obesity epidemic? 

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that more than one-third of adults in the United States are obese, and as many children and teenagers like to pick snacks out of vending machines, the CDC notes that 17 percent of all children and adolescents are obese-that's triple the rate from just one generation ago!

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