Because So Many People Are Under The Impression That A Candy Bar Is Made Of Kale
There's no area of our lives that the Obama administration will leave un-meddled.
Obamacare regulations mandate that vending machines must have the calorie counts on them. Not just on the products, which is already mandated. As John Dunham writes at REGonomics:
According to the law, like restaurants, vending machine operators must provide a sign in close proximity to each article of food or the selection button that includes a clear and conspicuous statement disclosing the number of calories contained in the article. In other words, vending machine operating companies must post the calorie content of each item in the machine somewhere near the selections themselves. They must do this even though the calorie content is already included on the product nutrition label. The FDA suggested that the implementation cost of the legislation for vending machine operators would be $25.8 million with a recurring annual cost of about $24 million. Notwithstanding the fact that most people purchasing from vending machines are likely buying soft drinks, candy, salty snacks or something other thin quinoa or kale, and probably don't care much about calorie counts, over a 5-year period, this rule will cost consumers well over $120 million dollars....If the regulations cost what FDA suggests - and regulatory impact analysis figures are always low by a huge amount - the cost would appear to be small, just under 0.13 percent. But this is the cost to the operator. When this is marked up using very conservative retail margins, the cost of the regulation to the consumer would be about 0.16 percent. So the cost to consumers over 5-years would be more like $144 million.
On top of this, consumers receive virtually nothing for their $144 million in higher overall costs. The information on the required sign is already available on the products themselves, so the regulation is repetitive. The effect of the information on consumer behavior is also murky. While activists like Mayor Bloomberg love regulations like calorie counts on vending machines, consumers really don't get much value from them. Research on whether menu labeling has an impact on nutrition suggests that while people generally underestimate the calorie count on food purchased at restaurants, but they react by increasing calorie intakes once they find out. (United States Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service). In New York, consumers reacted by purchasing more calories after menu labeling went into effect.
This is probably why the FDA was unable to quantify any benefits to the proposed rule in its own Regulatory Impact Analysis. Even so, the law is now the law, and since it was passed without ever being read, we are now finding out that silly provisions, like calorie counts on vending machines, are part of Obamacare.
via @reasonpolicy
It just gets more and more ridiculous. Anybody with an IQ higher than a jar of Miracle Whip knows that vending machine food is JUNK. ALL of it. I don't care what organic/gluten-free/no trans fat/fried in sunflower oil/made from virgin goat milk mumbo jumbo is printed on the label: if you can buy it for $0.50 in a foil bag from a vending machine, it's JUNK.
There have been healthy solutions to junk food (and homemade recipes for anything you could buy in a vending machine) for years. This isn't about people wanting to be healthier, it's more smoke and mirrors. Grown people know full well what they're putting in their bodies (or they simply don't care). This is just money for the feds, more imposition on businesses (many vending machine operators do it as a small business), and excuse #897 for people who will blame everything but themselves for their poor decisions.
P.S. "while people generally underestimate the calorie count on food purchased at restaurants, but they react by increasing calorie intakes once they find out." No kidding! People don't understand (or don't care to understand) proper nutrition! "Oh wow! The double cheeseburger is ONLY 440 calories! I can get fries too! It'll just be burned off when I walk the dog!"
bellflower at October 15, 2014 12:34 AM
I'm all for labeling myself, then people make their own choices. Even if they're dumb ones.
NicoleK at October 15, 2014 1:53 AM
One result of this "regulatory" requirement will be less vending machines.
If a vendor cannot afford the upkeep of signs on certain vending machines they will remove them if they aren't making money.
Just how does that benefit the consumer?
Charles at October 15, 2014 2:50 AM
Not only is there apathy here in the person of the vending-machine customer... just what about Americans suggests that they are avid readers of posted crap?
Most "information" presented is without benefit to the spectator - it's an exercise in ego by the busybody in charge. So long as that Snickers™ bar doesn't have mercury in it, we're golden!
On the other hand...
If you want producers to put out any foodstuff they wish, without Federal and state inspections (see prior nuttuness about raw milk on this blog), then the consumer has a right to know what's in there.
Radwaste at October 15, 2014 3:39 AM
I'm all for labeling myself, then people make their own choices. Even if they're dumb ones.
Maybe their "choice" will be to remain hungry when the vending machines become fewer and farther between or when the price of a snack goes up because of the requirements.
Last night, I wanted ice cream on the way home but I decided against it. Gregg got me a candy bar a few days ago, and I only allow myself one dessert a week. What stopped me? Allowing myself only one desert a week and being in the habit of sticking to that -- I didn't have to go into 7-Eleven and read the calorie and sugar content on one of those little Haagen-Dazs one-scoops!
Amy Alkon at October 15, 2014 7:14 AM
There's no "nuttiness" about raw milk on this blog. I don't have an impaired immune system and I (and many French people) have been eating unpasteurized dairy products for years and are not all dead.
What keeps businesses from poisoning you is not wanting to go out of business, not the fact that the government places onerous and stupid requirements on food producers (which don't protect you from all the salmonella outbreaks, etc. -- they just give you the sense you are protected).
Amy Alkon at October 15, 2014 7:16 AM
You're lucky Amy. I can't get raw milk where I live unless I drive 7 hours to a county where it's legal. The local farms here were doing cow shares but a string of raids and general terrorizing by local authorities ended that. I find it ridiculous that I can go 30 feet up the road and eat 5 Guys until I need two seats on the bus, but somehow the federal government wants to "protect" me from a perfectly safe product. I need the government to fix the roads and maintain the military, not raid my refrigerator for dairy contraband and slap extra signs on the vending machine.
bellflower at October 15, 2014 11:23 AM
If you want producers to put out any foodstuff they wish, without Federal and state inspections...
I was unaware that the items in vending machines were from unregulated/uninspected producers.
Oh, and... blaming "Obamacare" (again) is fairly inane, especially from a California resident. The state that's responsible for more product labeling requirements than the rest of the free world.
I cite...
Those idiotic stickers on extension cords.
Those foolish "drowning hazard" warnings on 5 gallon buckets.
Do I need to continue?
There are literally thousands of foolish labeling requirements on food and non-food products. And the vast majority are not the result of Obamacare.
DrCos at October 15, 2014 12:47 PM
If I was a vending machine operator, I would love to see if I could get away with putting a sign on all the machines that say, "EVERYTHING IN THIS MACHINE HAS UP TO 5000 CALORIES. PLEASE PURCHASE AT YOUR OWN RISK!" That would save me a lot of money and time.
Fayd at October 15, 2014 2:22 PM
"There's no "nuttiness" about raw milk on this blog."
Sure there is. You've gone on at length about government forbidding you from doing what you want, even though you personally have no means whatever to determine if the pint you got today is going to poison you.
I'm not sure you've grasped the idea that inspection requirements provide instructions to producers, that these actually form the basis of consumer protection before production occurs, or that state university ag departments generally develop the standards.
I hope you can remember my citation of Happy Cow Creamery...
Radwaste at October 15, 2014 3:47 PM
"I was unaware that the items in vending machines were from unregulated/uninspected producers."
They aren't. You added that yourself.
Radwaste at October 15, 2014 4:19 PM
You've gone on at length about government forbidding you from doing what you want, even though you personally have no means whatever to determine if the pint you got today is going to poison you.
I'm not sure you've grasped the idea that inspection requirements provide instructions to producers, that these actually form the basis of consumer protection before production occurs, or that state university ag departments generally develop the standards.
Didnt they just jail a couple of food producers in Georgia (brothers I think) for refusing to recall contaminated food from a plant which had PASSED government inspection?
lujlp at October 15, 2014 9:48 PM
In support of Charles at October 15, 2014 2:50 AM
This regulation doesn't make sense if you think it is about informing the consumer. It is a weaponized regulation which intends to eliminate vending machines.
The part "near the item bein sold" will be interpreted as within 3". The maintainers of the machines will make some mistakes, be fined, then give up. Vending machines are not a high profit business.
Of course, if your machine is selling tofu bars, then the regulators will look the other way.
Severe punishment combined with selective enforcement is all that is necessary for totalitarianism.
Andrew_M_Garland at October 16, 2014 7:47 PM
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