New York City Salt Warnings on Menus Start Tuesday

Chain restaurants around the city will have to start highlighting meals that are high in salt this week. A new rule from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene goes into effect Tuesday, requiring establishments that are part of chains with 15 or more locations nationally to mark dishes that contain 2,300 milligrams (about a teaspoon) or more of sodium. “Every one of these cumbersome new laws makes it tougher and tougher for restaurants to find success”, New York State Restaurant Association President Melissa Fleischut said when the city health board approved the salt requirement. Experts say most Americans consume too much of it, raising their risks of high blood pressure and heart problems.

When it was passed in September, public health advocates applauded the proposal, but salt producers and restaurateurs called it a misguided step toward an onslaught of confusing warnings.

Mary Bassett, the city’s… Until Tuesday, they may have been blissfully unaware of the sodium content of a Chipotle loaded chicken burrito (2,790 mg), Subway’s foot-long spicy Italian sub (2,980 mg), TGI Friday’s classic Buffalo Wings (3,030 mg) or Applebee’s grilled shrimp and spinach salad (2,990 mg). The figures come from the companies’ published nutritional information. An global study involving 100,000 people suggested previous year that most people’s salt intake was all right for heart health, though other scientists faulted the study.

Tiny saltshaker symbols will appear on chain restaurant menus across the city in an effort to fight increasing numbers of heart disease and stroke, writes Reuters. “We look forward to the sodium warnings being in place before the end of this calendar year and encourage the restaurant industry to be supportive of this public health imperative”, Steinbaum said. “We got in front of it simply because you gotta do it”, he said at the news conference Monday.

It led the development of voluntary salt-reduction targets for various table staples – some manufacturers have since squeezed some salt out of products from ketchup to canned beans to cookies – and tried to limit the size of some sugary drinks. Those eateries amount to about one-third of the city’s restaurant traffic, Angell added.

New York City is the first city in the nation to require the high sodium labels, but won’t start enforcement with fines until March 1, 2016. “But I think the key is people need to understand what it is”.