Restaurants get shaken up by a dose of salt alarmism

11 September 2015 - 02:53 By Reuters

New York City health officials unanimously voted yesterday to require chain restaurants to add a warning label to menu items that contain more than the daily recommended amount of sodium, making it the first city in the US to do so. The rule, which will go into effect on December 1, requires restaurants to add a salt-shaker symbol next to food items that contain more than 2300mg of sodium, the maximum daily amount recommended by US health officials.The rule aims to improve the overall health of New Yorkers and contribute to Mayor Bill de Blasio's plan to reduce premature mortality by 25% by 2040, the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said. A 2008 New York City law required chain restaurants to post calorie counts on menus.The US Food and Drug Administration has since implemented a similar rule, which will go into effect in December 2016 and require all chain restaurants to publicly post calorie information."This is just the latest in a long litany of superfluous hoops that restaurants here in New York must jump through," Melissa Fleischut, president of the New York State Restaurant Association, said."Every one of these cumbersome new laws makes it tougher and tougher for restaurants to find success."..

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