While certain states can enact their own laws regarding nutritional labeling, federal legislation that would require certain restaurant and vending
machine owners to provide an informative nutritional and calorie label to customers has been somewhat halted.
Overall, the
buzz in the vending machine industry has been a mixed bag about the subject of a possible requirement of nutritional labeling. Many news agencies have
debated this federal legislation, and have noted that it could take the FDA one year or more to come up with uniform nutritional labeling regulation -
if it's enacted at all. But one thing remains true, a vending machine business can offer a low startup, with the ability to set your own work hours and
earn extra income.
The federal law will require restaurants (fast food included) and vending machine owners who have 20 or more locations, or vending machines, to provide
calorie counts for every individual offering. For a vending machine owner, this means that they'll have to provide an easy-to-see label on the front of
their respective machines.
This change is slated to go live on November 1, but it's expected to take longer than that, due to federal "red tape." In a related story, the issue of
food allergies was presented as another possible idea.
This food allergy legislation was invoked at Boston, MA where a council was tasked with determining how to accommodate food allergies for the
individual customer. However, this is still a work in progress.
The community however feels taken back by all the government and state agenda going on. One person commented that he felt like the issue of nutritional
labeling and food allergy information was related to personal accountability - someone has to take hold of their own individual problems, instead of
letting everyone else direct their habits.
Others feel that the overall scope of the labeling agendas is to "dumb down" life values - that people should realize the need to teach and learn
themselves, without the need for other people to tell them that, it's bad to eat too many candy bars for example.
Whatever the case, this could affect how we provide nutritional information to customers. Although this specific legislation could be enacted and
enforced in the near future, it is unclear how things will work out. We've also talked about the viability of healthy vending, with
legislation like this
Boston.com
has an article for further information on this issue, "Calorie posting rules for restaurants delayed"