Restaurants required to be More Transparent

The Board of Health will vote today on whether chains will be required to add saltshaker symbols next to menu items with at least a day’s worth of sodium, which FDA defines as 2,300 milligrams. Mayor de Blasio’s administration has already expressed their support for this regulation, and want more transparency for customers in restaurants. “It’s quite difficult for consumers to understand which products might have too much sodium in them” a Health Department official expressed.

The New York State Restaurant Association has opposed implementing symbols identifying sodium levels, as it is a step toward food-warning fatigue, and seeing it as a warning label than food products for consumers. The New York State Restaurant Association lawyer said “The concern, at some point, is that warning labels and the confluence of warnings on menus will lead to a collective shrug by consumers…as every item on a menu will be flagged as inappropriate in one way or another.”

If this regulation is passed by the Health Department, New York will be the first in America to put transparency and regulations to salt levels.

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