BILL ANALYSIS �
Bill No: AB
727
SENATE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION
Senator Roderick D. Wright, Chair
2011-2012 Regular Session
Bill Analysis
AB 727 Author: Mitchell
As Amended: May 27, 2011
Hearing Date: June 28, 2011
Consultant: Paul Donahue
SUBJECT : Public contracts; vending machines - healthy and
sustainable food
SUMMARY : Requires at least 50% of food and beverages
offered in vending machines and cafeterias located on state
property to meet specified nutritional guidelines by the
year 2014.
Existing law :
1) Regulates various aspects of the provision of food and
beverages in vending machines, including that blind persons
shall have priority in contracts to operate vending
facilities on state owned or leased property.
2) Governs contracting between state agencies and private
contractors, sets forth requirements for the procurement of
supplies, material, equipment, and services by state
agencies, and charges the Department of General Services
(DGS) with management and oversight of state contracting
policy and procedures.
3) Requires vendors that operate or maintain vending
machines on state property to offer 35% of the food in a
machine to meet "accepted nutritional guidelines," as
defined.
4) Requires vendors that operate or maintain vending
machines on state property to offer at least one-third of
the beverages in a machine that meet accepted nutritional
guidelines.
AB 727 (Mitchell) continued
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5) Requires DGS, to consult with CalEPA, members of the
public, industry, and public health and environmental
organization to provide state agencies with information and
assistance regarding environmentally preferable purchasing.
This bill :
1) Adopts changes that limit existing "accepted nutritional
guidelines" governing food and beverages that may be
offered for sale in vending machines on state owned or
leased property, providing additionally that these
nutritional guidelines shall be further assessed when the
Federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans are revised by the
USDA.
2) Increases from 35% to 50% the percentage amount of the
food and beverages in vending machines on state property
that must meet these newly modified nutritional guidelines.
The 50% requirement is effective on January 1, 2014.
3) Requires vendors to offer drinking water as a beverage
option in vending machines on state property at a price not
exceeding that of other beverage options in the machines.
4) Specifies that, beginning January 1, 2014 or upon
expiration of an existing contract, whichever is later,
food sold in any state-owned or state-leased building at
food concessions and cafeterias must at least meet standard
criteria for food and nutrition guidelines for concessions
as determined by Health and Sustainability Guidelines for
Federal Concessions and Vending Operations (federal
Guidelines).
5) Requires DGS, when approving contracts for the purchase
of food to be sold in any state-owned or state-leased
building at food concessions, cafeterias, or vending
operations, to:
a) Give preference to purchasing food items grown,
packaged, or produced within California;
b) Give preference to purchasing food items that meet
the sustainability guidelines for food, as determined
by federal Guidelines; and,
AB 727 (Mitchell) continued
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c) Not include contract provisions that may serve as a
disincentive to purchase food items that are grown,
packaged, or produced within California and that meet
the federal Guidelines.
6) Requires DGS to consult with CalEPA, members of the
public, industry, and public health and environmental
organization so as to provide state agencies with
information and assistance regarding environmentally
preferable purchasing including the federal Guidelines, in
order to develop practices that promote the acquisition of
healthy, sustainable, and environmentally preferable
purchasing.
7) Makes legislative findings and declarations concerning
the problems of obesity, advantages of buying local and
sustainable food, and on increasing availability of
well-balanced and health food and snack items.
COMMENTS :
1) Rationale : According to the author, with the rise of
obesity, and a subsequent increase in health insurance
costs, it is important that Californians are provided with
healthier food options. The author states that national and
state efforts have led to the promotion of food procurement
policies with locally and regionally grown foods.
The author notes that LA County requires 100% of the food
sold in vending machines on county property must meet state
nutritional guidelines. The city of Chula Vista requires
that vending machines at city facilities contain 100%
healthy snack and beverage options. This bill would
require that at least 50% of the food and beverages offered
in vending machines meet accepted nutritional guidelines.
2) Nutritional guidelines versus mandates: This bill
modifies the "accepted nutritional guidelines" in existing
law for vending machines, and mandates that food sold in
any state-owned or leased or state-leased building at food
concessions and cafeterias must at least meet standard
criteria for food and nutrition guidelines for concessions
as determined by Health and Sustainability Guidelines for
Federal Concessions and Vending Operations. In addition,
the "accepted nutritional guidelines" must be re-assessed
when the USDA revises the Federal Dietary Guidelines.
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Except for packaged food sold at the federal Health & Human
Services offices, the federal concession and vending
machine guidelines are "strongly encouraged" in all
properties managed by the federal government - in other
words, they are guidelines - they are not a mandate.
Similarly, Section 4205 of the Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act of 2010 requires only that vending
machine operators provide calorie and other nutrition
information to consumers - it does not mandate what can be
placed into the vending machines.
3) Competing obesity studies : On July 9, 2009, the UCLA
California Center for Public Health Advocacy (CCPHA)
released the Economic Costs of Overweight, Obesity and
Physical Inactivity Among California Adults - 2006. The
study claims the total annual estimated cost to California
for overweight, obesity and physical inactivity was $41.2
billion - $21 billion for overweight and obesity, and $20.2
billion for physical inactivity. In their report, CCPHA
recommended that California state agencies promote health
through their policy and funding decisions. This study is
one of those cited by sponsors to support the policies
mandated in this bill, AB 727.
However, in 2005 the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
had to admit that it had published a flawed study claiming
that 400,000 people die annually from obesity-related
illness. After publishing its correction in the Journal of
the American Medical Association, CDC announced that it
would review the methods it uses to calculate the health
effects of being overweight. The identified flaws in the
obesity study were the result of an internal investigation
by the CDC, which found among other things that there were
"fundamental problems centered around both the data and the
methodology" used in the study. According to newspaper
accounts, some CDC researchers later criticized the study's
methodology, claiming they felt under political pressure to
endorse it.
Moreover, British researchers have discovered what has been
characterized as a "master switch" gene for obesity and
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diabetes. The study,<1> published in Nature Genetics on
May 16, 2011, seems to suggest that diet may play a
relatively minor role in the development and expression of
obesity.
Researchers found that a gene linked to type 2 diabetes and
cholesterol levels is in fact a "master regulator" gene,
which controls the behavior of other genes found within fat
in the body. Because fat plays a key role in
susceptibility to metabolic diseases such as obesity, heart
disease and diabetes, this study highlights the regulatory
gene as a possible target for future treatments to fight
these diseases. The researchers found an association
between the KLF14 gene and the expression levels of
multiple distant genes found in fat tissue, which means it
acts as a master switch to control these genes. This was
confirmed in a further independent sample of 600
subcutaneous fat biopsies from Icelandic subjects. These
other genes found to be controlled by KLF14 are in fact
linked to a range of metabolic traits, including body-mass
index (obesity), cholesterol, insulin and glucose levels,
which tends to highlight the interconnected nature of
metabolic traits.
Under this bill, beverages containing 100% fruit juice are
deemed to meet "accepted nutritional guidelines," yet
peer-reviewed studies suggest that fruit juice may in fact
contribute to increased obesity in children. (See, e.g.,
Fruit Juice Intake Predicts Increased Adiposity Gain in
Children From Low-Income Families: Weight
Status-by-Environment Interaction. Faith MS, et al.
Pediatrics. 118;2006: 2066-2075)
As suggested above, the science does not appear to be
settled on whether there is a direct causational link
between dietary choices and obesity. The facts,
circumstances and studies such as those cited above tend to
call into question the claims by proponents of this bill
that eating snack foods and drinking sweetened beverages
causes obesity. It may be more accurate and appropriate to
-------------------------
<1> The study was one part of a large multi-national
collaboration known as the MuTHER study (MuTHER stands for
Multiple Tissue Human Expression Resource). The study
involved researchers from King's College London, University
of Oxford, The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, and the
University of Geneva.
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suggest that there may be a correlation between obesity and
consuming "bad" foods and beverages, but in reality the
true cause of obesity is more elusive and depends on
complicated individual circumstances involving genetics,
blood chemistry, overall calorie intake, and exercise.
A policy issue raised by this bill is whether the
evidentiary link between dietary choices and obesity is
sufficient to warrant enactment of mandates in this bill.
4) Blind vendors : In 1936, the federal Randolph-Sheppard
Act authorized the Business Enterprise Program (BEP). This
program was intended to provide jobs for people who are
legally blind. The California Department of Rehabilitation
administers the federal BEP. Under federal and state law,
legally blind individuals are given priority on contracts
to operate food services facilities within federal and
state buildings.
The Department of Rehabilitation supports vendors within
the program by providing financial assistance for
equipment, counseling, and fiscal oversight services. An
argument can be made that additional restrictions on
vending machine offerings in state buildings might drive
customers away from blind vendor facilities to outside
facilities where choices aren't restricted.
5) Support : Supporters state that public facilities should
serve food that promotes health and prevents disease, and
that access to fresh, wholesome foods is a key component to
a health community. Supporters observe that obesity and
diabetes are on the rise in the state, particularly in
communities of color. They believe that healthier food
options in state buildings will help reduce the prevalence
and cost of diet-related diseases, and promote the overall
health and wellbeing of state employees and the general
public.
Supporters also state that AB 727 will strengthen the
state's investment in its agricultural communities and will
benefit the environment by providing state agencies with
assistance regarding environmentally preferable purchasing.
6) Opposition : Opponents state that this bill is overly
restrictive and would prohibit the offering of most soft
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drinks, including colas, teas and sports drinks. This
eliminates consumer choice.
Opponents further suggest that consumer demand and
purchasing habits affect the selection of beverages, and
that these decisions are best left to the operators of
these vending machines, whose livelihood will be negatively
impacted by arbitrary standards governing what products can
be offered for sale.
Opponents state that AB 727 arbitrarily attempts to define
foods as 'good' or 'bad,' 'healthy' or 'unhealthy.' They
believe that the approach is overly simplistic, and fails
to recognize that foods and beverages contain many items
that can affect one's health.
Opponents also state that the bill would place vending
machine sales at a disadvantage against other retailers
including cafeterias and food concessions on the same
property, because the bill requires them to stock 50% of
their items that meet the nutritional guidelines in the
bill and would require cafeterias and commissaries to stock
only 25% of their items to meet these nutritional
guidelines. Thus, cafeterias right across the hall from a
vending machine will have a financial advantage in having
the ability to stock more beverages and snacks that do not
fit the nutritional restrictions in the bill.
Opponents note that they supported previous legislation
which placed nutritional guidelines in state law for
vending machines on state property and required 35% of
products to meet these guidelines. Vendors significantly
modified their machine offerings in state buildings in
order to comply with the current law, and they are
committed to continuing to make these choices available.
7) Related legislation :
SB 490 (Alquist) Chapter 648, Statutes of 2007 prohibits
schools from selling foods containing trans-fats.
SB 441 (Torlakson) Chapter 597, Statutes of 2007 requires
that at least 35 percent of the food and beverages sold at
vending machines in state buildings and facilities meet
accepted nutritional guidelines.
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SB 677 (Ortiz) Chapter 415, Statutes of 2003 limits the
types of beverages that can be sold to pupils in elementary
and middle or junior high schools. The law exempts sales of
certain beverages at specified school events.
SB 19 (Escutia) Chapter 913, Statutes of 2001 established a
"comprehensive" nutrition and school health program that
restricts the types of foods that can be sold at schools.
SUPPORT:
Alta Med
American Cancer Society
Baldwin Park Health Eating Active Communities Initiative
California Black Health Network
California Center for Public Health Advocacy
California Church Impact
California Food Policy Advocates
California Food Project
California Medical Association
California Pan-Ethnic Health Network
California Public Health Association - North
California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation
California WIC Association
Community Resource Centers, St. Joseph Health System
Congress of California Seniors
Consumer Federation of California
Consumers Union
County of Los Angeles
Environmental Working Group
Food for People (Humboldt County)
Fresno Metro Ministry
Health Officers Association of California
Humboldt Partnership for Active Living
Latino Coalition for a Healthy California
Madera Coalition for Community Justice
Physicians for Social Responsibility
Prevention Institute
Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, County of Los Angeles
Time for Change Foundation
United Service Workers West (SEIU)
OPPOSE:
California Automatic Vendors Council
California Nevada Soft Drink Association
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Grocery Manufacturers Association
DUAL REFERRAL: Senate Health Committee
FISCAL COMMITTEE: Senate Appropriations Committee
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