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A somewhat less publicized portion of the calorie count law is a provision that requires all vendors who own 20 or more vending machines to provide caloric information for their products in a place consumers can view prior to purchase.

“This is going to really be one where you are going to have to see what the regulations are going to require before you see a lot of revamps to any vending machines,” said Kevin Hein, a partner in the Faegre & Benson law firm’s Denver office.

How vending machine owners will comply and actually display calories is a bit more of an unknown at this point, Hein said, because there isn’t already a model for this as there is with the restaurant requirement. He also felt people didn’t have the same knowledge of the law, and that many of the vending machines are owned by small operators who buy them from a manufacturer, then site and stock the machines themselves.

“So the question becomes: A – do you impose it on these small operators? And B – if a machine is not labeled, for example, how do you even track down who the owner is?” Hein said.

Spencer Cox, owner of Vending Services Inc., the parent company for All Iowa Vending, is supportive of the new law and feels it gives his business an advantage because he has been preparing for legislation like this and has an easy solution to the problem. Cox said the National Automatic Merchandising Association (NAMA) also supports the law.

Cox said vending machine manufacturers have developed new high-tech devices that allow for calorie counts to be input into the machine and displayed when a consumer pushes a button to make a request.

But, for existing machines, Cox said his solution for displaying calorie counts will be to set up a schematic for all his machines, make a spreadsheet list of the nutritional values for each product in each spot of the machine, and post it on the side so consumers can make informed choices.

It won’t be a large cost for him, Cox said, but it will take some time, and many vending companies are going to resist complying because of that time and effort.

“You have a lot of people in Des Moines who just do this as a side job by themselves and they have 40 or 50 machines,” Cox said. “From a small operator’s standpoint, they might say, ‘Gosh, now I have to do all this and now people are going to pay more attention to what they eat, so they are going to eat less Snickers, and so I’m going to make less money.'”

Cox said he saw this train coming and has actively expanded his list of product providers to include vendors of healthy items as well, which could bode well if consumers are made aware of the unhealthy nature of traditional vending machine snacks or even demand their machines contain only healthy items.

“I can see why some of the smaller companies might fight the trend a little bit,” Cox said. “But if it is a law, it is a law, and the truth is you have to follow it whether you want to or not.”