Last year we launched a Fit Pick initiative across Clark County. I was a part of a group called Community Choices and we worked for two years developing, testing, and implementing a program to convert machines to have healthier options. My company along with other vendors on the committee started with City and County government buildings. When this program was launched last year, we received national media attention including an appearance in New York’s Times Square!
Today, we just had our one-year reunion meeting. Things are going well. The vendors on the committee estimated that the number of machines with Fit Pick now has grown 20 or 30 fold since last year!
You may wonder why I decided on the address for this site as 35-10-35.com…
Today, 35-10-35 is becoming the commonly accepted standard to categorize healthy products. 35-10-35 means a product contains:
No more than 35% of its calories from fat
No more than 10% of its calories from saturated fat
No more than 35% of its weight from sugar
This is the standard that is set forth by Fit Pick, a program created by the National Automatic Merchanising Associaton or NAMA (the trade association for the vending industry). See vending.org or fitpick.org
This is also the standard that is being accepted by more and and more school districts as well as states, including the State of Oregon.
The 35-10-35 is the “base” standard and often times, other criteria may be added such as limitations for calories, sodium, trans fats, etc.
It is important to note that in almost all cases you actually have to get a calculator and calculate numbers to determine if a product meets the requirements. The %DV on the Nutrition Facts is a completely different number than what this standard is looking at.
To calculate the fat percentage, you will take the calories of fat per serving and divide by total calories per serving.
To calculate the saturated fat percentage, you will take the calories of saturated fat per serving and divide by total calories per serving.
To calcualte the sugar percentage, you will take the grams of sugar and divide by the serving size in grams.
Note, if the number of calories from fat and/or calories from saturated fat are not given, you can calculate this by multiplying the number of fat grams by 9 (there are 9 calories per gram of fat or saturated fat).
I got started in the vending business with one machine while I was still in high school, and have subsequently grown Courtesy Vending to be become one of the largest vendors in our market all the while continuing my education.
People keep asking me, What is someone with a Ph.D. doing in the vending business? Its a tough question to answer on the surface because clearly no degree of any level is required to run a vending company. Yet, having the educational background has no doubt allowed me to build not only a successful company, but also provide the laboratory to conduct tests and trials and learn more on consumer behavior as well as the business itself.
Along the way, I have become somewhat an “expert” on healthy vending to the point where many of the inquiries on our company website are no longer from prospects, but from other people looking to get information! I decided to create this blog to share some knowledge and help feed that thirst for information. It’s interesting that even though vending is over a $22 billion industry, searching the Internet for healthy vending issues does not yield much useful results.
Today, the momentum on healthier vending is building. Vending operators can no longer dismiss the talks of healthy vending as yet another fad. Those that respond well will thrive. Those that fail to respond or continue to resist the movement will find themselves in a perilous position. As Charles Darwin eloquently stated, it is not the strongest species that survive, but the ones that best adapt to change.
This blog is aimed not only at the vending operator, but also to the worksites and employers, vending patrons, community advocates, product manufacturers, brokers, schools, local governments, and everyone interested in transforming junk food vending machines into machines that provide healthier choices as well.
I will try to stay current and post new information, new links, new products, and more as I come across it. At the same time, I will use this medium to answer questions people may have. If you do have a question, please send it to me at paresh@35-10-35.com and I will do a post to answer your question!
