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Salt warnings required on NYC menus

New York City diners will soon see "salt shaker" symbols on menus to denote dishes high in sodium.

September 10, 2015

The New York City Board of Health voted unanimously Wednesday to require chain eateries for the first time to put a warning label on high-sodium menu items, as was reported by USAToday. Chain restaurants must put "salt-shaker" symbols on menus to denote dishes with more than the recommended daily limit of 2,300 milligrams of sodium, which is about a teaspoon, according to the article. New York is the first U.S. city with such a requirement.

"This really represents, to me, the next step in allowing usable information for our community to make better health decisions," said board member Dr. Deepthiman K. Gowda in the article. "My hope is that this impacts not only consumer practices but also impacts the practices of our restaurants."

According to the AP, city officials said they're just saying "know," not "no," about foods high in a substance that experts say is too prevalent in most Americans' diets, raising the risk of high blood pressure and potentially heart attacks and strokes. Public health advocates applaud the proposal, but salt producers and restaurateurs call it a misguided step toward an onslaught of confusing warnings, the article continued.

"This is another example of the government creating policy based on outdated, incorrect sodium guidelines," Lori Roman, president of the Salt Institute, a trade association for salt producers, said in a statement Wednesday to the AP.

The measure will apply to an estimated 10 percent of menu items at the New York City outlets of chains with at least 15 outlets nationwide, city Health Department Deputy Commissioner Sonya Angell told the AP. Those chains account for about 1/3 of the restaurant traffic in the city, she said.

The average American consumes about 3,400 mg of salt each day. Only about one in 10 Americans meets the 1 teaspoon guideline, the article stated

The vast majority of dietary salt comes from processed and restaurant food, studies show. The AP reported that consumers may not realize how much sodium is in some popular entrees. For example, according to the AP, a Panera Bread Smokehouse Turkey Panini contains 2,590 milligrams of sodium, TGI Friday's sesame jack chicken strips have 2,700 milligrams, a regular-size Applebee's Grilled Shrimp 'n Spinach Salad contains 2,990 milligrams, and a Subway footlong spicy Italian sub 2,980 milligrams.

"There are few other areas in which public health could do more to save lives," Michael Jacobson, executive director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group, said at a city Health Department hearing in July, the AP reported.

Some experts and health board member Dr. Lynne Richardson have urged the city to set the warning limit as low as 500 mg, the article stated.

Scientists are at odds on the findings. Last year, an international study involving 100,000 people suggested that most peoples’ salt consumption was actually OK for heart health, adding that both way too much and too little salt can do harm, according to the AP article. Other scientists fault the study and say most people consume too much salt.

Restaurant owners want the city to leave salt warnings to federal authorities and say healthy-eating initiatives should focus on diet as a whole, not on particular ingredients or foods, according to the AP. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is working on new sodium guidelines.

New York State Restaurant Association President Melissa Fleischut called the vote "disappointing" and said it would burden eateries with redoing menu boards even as the federal government works on labeling rules that could require more changes later, the article stated.

The AP article went on to report that in recent years,New York City has banned trans fats from restaurant meals, forced chain restaurants to post calorie counts on menus and tried, unsuccessfully, to limit the size of some sugary drinks.

Courts have struck down the big-soda ban as overreaching by the health board, according to restaurant representatives criticizing the salt proposal in the AP article. The Health Department says it has clear authority to require warnings, the article stated.