New York has taken a step forward to becoming the first US city to require chain restaurants to warn diners if a dish has more than a teaspoon of salt. Beginning Tuesday, it will be compulsory for chain restaurants in New York City to put warnings on high-sodium food under a new law meant to limit salt consumption. Any food item with a salt shaker icon beside it contains at least 2,300 milligrams of sodium, which is about a teaspoon, and the equivalent of the daily recommended intake.
The Board of Health approved the new warning in September. It will require a salt-shaker emblem on some sandwiches, salads, and other menu items that top the recommended daily limit of 2,300 milligrams—about a teaspoon—of sodium.
“Many New Yorkers are not aware of the connection between sodium and high blood pressure, stroke and heart attack,” city Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett said, adding that those are the leading causes of death in New York City and the country. “Most people don’t know that they are not going to control their sodium intake by taking the salt shaker off the table.”
Experts have said that Americans consume too much salt, which considerably raises their chances of high blood pressure and heart-related diseases. However, the plan has faced opposition and a potential court challenge from restaurant groups and salt producers, who say the city is going over the top with this.
“When you see this warning label, you know that that item has more than the total amount of sodium that you should consume in a single day,” city Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett said Monday at an Applebee’s in Times Square as 40 of the chain’s New York City-area locations announced they had added the labels ahead of the deadline.
“It’s not hard to get 2.3 g of sodium into your face,” Dr. Howard Weintraub, co-director of NYU Langone Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease, said on Monday. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in New York City, which claimed almost 17,000 lives in 2013, as a report by the health department said. It noted a “well-established connection” between sodium intake and high blood pressure, a major risk factor for heart attack and stroke.
Restaurant groups have condemned and criticized the sodium labels as inconvenient. However, Zane Tankel, the chief executive of Apple Metro, a consortium of Applebee’s locations in the New York City area, said it was just part of doing business in the region. On a visit to the restaurant Monday, the salt icons appeared next to meals like chips and salsa and the chicken quesadilla. Mr. Tankel said Applebee’s hadn’t changed its menu but supported the sodium warnings as a matter of transparency. “We sell lousy food, we sell very healthy food, we sell food that is very tasty and enjoyable,” he said. “We’re not the food police.”
While the new rule goes into effect Tuesday, city officials said health inspectors wouldn’t begin assessing $200 fines on restaurants that don’t comply until March.
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