Management

Military Health Officials Consider Better-For-You Products In Vending Machines

Oct. 14, 2015

Eric Dell (left), SVP of Government Affairs at NAMA, shows off a FitPick machine. Military health officials want to make better-for-you food options more accessible on military bases and part of that push would place products in vending machines that align with NAMA’s FitPick and FitPick Select standards. — Eric Dell (left), SVP of Government Affairs at NAMA, shows off a FitPick machine.
Military health officials want to make better-for-you food options more accessible on military bases and part of that push would place products in vending machines that align with NAMA’s FitPick and FitPick Select standards.

Military health officials want to make better-for-you food options more accessible on military bases worldwide, including what’s available in vending machines. Military.com reports that while franchise QSRs and vending machines with “highly processed snacks” are a common sight on bases, officials are looking to change that.

Part of that change would place products in vending machines that align with NAMA’s FitPick and FitPick Select standards. Military vending machine standards currently only require that 15 percent of products be ‘healthy’, the source reports.

The move comes as the Defense Department finalizes its Healthy Base Initiative, a demonstration project that examines select military installations’ efforts to support improved nutritional choices, increased physical activity, obesity reduction and decreased tobacco use, reports Military OneSource.

Capt. Kimberly Elenberg, the director of United States Public Health Service's medical readiness and training program, told the source that she would also like to immediately see menu labeling at all of the restaurants on the installations.