News | Industry Updates New energy label brings big changes for refrigerated vending machines


New energy consumption regulations came into force on 1 March in Europe which will see the least efficient refrigerated vending machines banned from being sold and requiring all new chilled machines to display an official energy label. The UK will introduce parallel


Regulations imminently for the Great Britain (GB) market, but Northern Ireland will apply the EU Regulations, with the main visible difference in requirements being the flag on the label itself. For the first time, refrigerated vending


machines will have an official energy rating – similar to those already displayed on TVs and washing machines – and be required to display this for customers/operators, while complementary energy performance targets will progressively ban inefficient machines and continue the drive by vending manufacturers to make machines more sustainable. The EVA withdrew its Energy Measurement Protocol (EMP) for refrigerated machines in July 2019 to help prepare the industry for the changes the new Regulations bring. The EMP, developed by EVA technical experts, enabled manufacturers to test and compare similar machines and has been credited with helping manufacturers introduce a raft of energy saving measures for more than a decade. The new Regulations and the official


energy consumption standard EN 50597 go beyond this previous voluntary approach and introduce the most common refrigerated vending machines to stringent new targets and obligations. While at the moment of its withdrawal


the EMP often produced an unofficial energy rating from test results for


refrigerated vending machines of ‘A’ or ‘A+’, the new official energy label (based on a A- G rating) will not permit any refrigerated vending machine to be better than a Class C at its introduction and has been designed so that most machines cannot be a Class A until at least 10 years from now. Due to the inherent design differences


between e.g. a closed front machine versus a glass front machine, we know that different types of refrigerated machines will typically have different benchmark results. Indeed drum/carousel machines are not expected to achieve better than the lowest rating of Class G, while closed front can and bottle machines could for instance be rated D upon the label introduction. This will have huge consequences for


procurement with many governmental and institutional buying guides currently requiring machines rated Class B or better. This is simply no longer possible and any guides not updated will need to do so immediately. As manufacturers must enter all machine technical details and


energy performance on a combined European product database – with part of this available publicly – the best performing machines will be able to be easily viewed. Ecodesign not only places targets on


energy efficiency of machines, but regulates a lot of ‘end of life’ measures, such as accessibility and replacement of parts. As of 1 March, manufacturers are required to make certain spare parts available for eight years. An important practical change is that


operators as well as manufacturers must ensure that only authorised information is displayed for marketing and promotional purposes. Claims such as ‘Machine previously rated as class A++’ should absolutely not be promoted and could lead to enforcement measures. The EVA and its technical experts have


been working with the EU Commission on these files since 2013 and has published detailed guidance for members on how to comply with the new Regulations.


Get your workplace testing kits


The Automatic Vending Association has reminded vending businesses that the Government is, until the end of March, providing workplace COVID-19 testing kits free of charge to businesses with 50 or more employees (this is 50 employees in total whether or not on a single site). The aim is for staff to be tested on a twice weekly basis as


part of the drive to find and isolate those who are asymptomatic. P Public Health England has now confirmed that lateral flow test


results no longer require a PCR confirmatory test. You can register for your test kits at https://www.gov.uk/get- workplace-coronavirus-tests.


4 | vendinginternational-online.com


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28