FoodBEAMS
In response to the childhood obesity epidemic, Federal, state and local governments across the nation have been creating legislation which regulates the nutritional quality of food and beverage sales in a variety of school, afterschool, government, childcare and healthcare settings. In August 2007, the Samuels Center was awarded an NIH SBIR grant to develop FoodBEAMS to monitor implementation and assess compliance to various nutrition standards.
What is FoodBEAMS?
FoodBEAMS is a web-based assessment tool that can be used to:
- Catalogue foods and beverages sold in a variety of settings such as schools, workplaces, and other community settings
- Link to a nutrient database of over 5,100 foods and beverages
- Assess food and beverage adherence to California’s competitive food and beverage standards
- Assess food and beverage adherence to nutrition standards developed by other states, agencies and institutions
How has FoodBEAMS been used?
FoodBEAMS has been used as a data collection instrument in many schools and other various settings as part of the following studies and programs:
- Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) county and state level evaluations
- California Community Transformation (CTG) county and state level evaluations
- Minnesota Statewide Health Improvement Program (SHIP), Olmstead County Evaluation
- The California Endowment’s Healthy Eating Active Communities (HEAC) Program
- RWJF Healthy Eating Research (HER) Round 1 California SB12 & SB965 Implementation Study
- RWJF HER Round 1 Washington PLAN Study
FoodBEAMS Works!
FoodBEAMS enables users to efficiently and effectively understand the competitive school food and beverage environment, monitor policy adherence, and identify areas for improvement within schools and other community settings. FoodBEAMS is available for use free of charge. Technical assistance is also available.
Visit http://www.foodbeams.com/ today to sign up for your own account.