California Automatic Vendors Council Reports Progress On Measure To Restrict Electrolyte Replacement Beverages In Schools

The California Automatic Vendors Council (CAVC) announced that AB 1746, which CAVC opposed, was held on the assembly appropriations suspense file and is, therefore, dead for the year, according to Sandra Larson, senior director and counsel for the National Automatic Merchandising Association. The measure would have restricted the sale of electrolyte replacement beverages in middle schools and high schools to specified times before and after school. The bill would have changed existing law which permits the sale of only certain beverages to pupils at schools in California. The beverages that may be sold include fruit-based and vegetable-based drinks, drinking water, milk, and, in middle and junior high schools, an electrolyte replacement beverage if those beverages meet certain nutritional requirements. CAVC actively opposed this bill and lobbied against the bill during their legislative day on May 9, 2012.