The National Restaurant Association, a restaurant trade group, then sued the city’s Board of Health saying the rule unfairly burdened restaurant owners.
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It requires chain restaurants to put a salt-shaker icon on menu items that top the recommended daily limit of 2,300 milligrams of sodium.
Association spokeswoman Rachel Salabes did not immediately return a message seeking comment Wednesday, but in court papers the group criticized the rule as arbitrary, illogical and an unconstitutional abridgment of First Amendment speech rights.
It’s not hard to find items like these on the menus of the restaurant chains implicated in the ruling. A judge in the country’s most populous city has ruled on Wednesday that big restaurant chains and eateries will be fined of up to $600 if they failed to post salt warning signs on their menu items that are high in sodium.
“This is really good news for the health of New Yorkers”, Dr. Mary Travis Bassett, the city’s health commissioner, said outside the courthouse. “We encourage everyone dining at these establishments to use this easily accessible information when making food choices”. “Some people love salty food and are just going to eat those salty foods regardless of whether there’s a salt icon next to it”, Supreme Court Justice Eileen Rakower said.
NEW YORK (AP) – A judge has ruled certain New York City restaurants can be fined for not posting salt warnings for some food items on their menus. The daily recommended limit of salt is noted within the Dietary Guidelines drawn by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Health and Human Services (HHS). Bloomberg, the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News, had asked restaurants and food manufacturers to voluntarily reduce the amount of salt in their menu items.
S. Preston Ricardo, a lawyer for the restaurant group, said the association meant to appeal.
The average American consumes about 3,400 mg of sodium per day and experts say too much salt can increase the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease and high blood pressure. “It’s just enough information to cause consumers to be confused and ill-informed”, he said.
Food establishments will also be required to post a warning statement where customers place their orders.
The rule which is the first of its kind in the Unites States, and lawmakers agree that it would be beneficial to the New Yorkers.
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They’ll have to act quickly – the city Health Department requirement went into effect in December and the city is slated to start enforcing the regulation on March 1.
