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Food fight: Industry responds to NYC sodium mandate

As restaurants in New York City prepare themselves to label menu items that contain more than 2,300 mg of salt (the recommended daily limit), the National Restaurant Association is moving forward with its plan to file a lawsuit intended to stop the Board of Health's regulation from taking place.

e icon mandated for display on any menu items containing 2,300 mg salt or more effective 12/1/15

December 1, 2015 by Betsy Craig — CEO and Founder, MenuTrinfo

As restaurants in New York City prepare themselves to label menu items that contain more than 2,300 mg of salt (the recommended daily limit), the National Restaurant Association is moving forward with its plan to file a lawsuit intended to stop the Board of Health's regulation from taking place.

The New York City Department of Health proposed in early June that chain restaurants with 15 or more locations add a symbol next to menu items that contain more than 2,300 mg of salt, the recommended daily limit. The city's board of health voted unanimously in September to pass the proposal, making New York City the first in the United States to mandate the labeling of high-sodium menu items. The mandate takes effect today, however, the battle over sodium is just now starting to take place.

Through its pending lawsuit, the NRA is looking to take a stand for the city's small businesses, which the association sees as taking the biggest hit in regard to sodium mandates.

In an article in Capital New York, NRA spokeswoman Christin Fernandez said the board "is dealing yet another blow" to many of the city's locally owned restaurants. "That is why we are taking legal action against this latest assault which goes too far, too fast for New York’s restaurant community," she said.

As consumers have so far proven, the disclosure of calorie counts on menu items have had little impact on their ordering habits and the salt shaker icon next to high-sodium menu items will likely yield the same result. Longer-term results are still unknown and many, myself included; hope these measures will eventually have an impact on consumer habits effecting the publics health.  My deepest concern is that the New York City mandate could also potentially open the door for other food icons, for example, next to items that contain higher-than-recommended amounts of sugar, iron or calcium, to name a few.

Additionally, as it stands under the Affordable Care Act, restaurant chains with 20 or more locations are already required to post nutritional information on their menu boards and paper menus with sodium included in those disclosures. That should be enough, but many believe it isn't.

So where will this all lead?

As the NRA asserts that the latest round of sodium mandates exceed the scope of the board's regulatory authority, consumers are still struggling to understand just how much sodium exists in the foods they eat.

The average American consumes approximately 3,400 mg of sodium per day, well over the recommended daily allowance, with menu items from their favorite brands under the microscope. Schlotzsky's medium-sized Turkey Original-Style sandwich has 2,630 mg of salt, TGI Friday's sesame jack chicken strips have 2,700 mg and Red Robin's Monster Salted Caramel Milkshake contains 3,399 mg of sodium. And while it's easy to review online nutritional information either at home or at the office, many time-starved consumers fail to research how much sodium is in their favorite menu items prior to their order.

As previously noted, increased levels of sodium have been attributed to high blood pressure and can lead to heart disease and stroke. This is why groups such as the National Salt Reduction Initiative (NSRI) have lobbied for voluntary salt reductions in food items. However, New York City's Board of Health has taken this initiative one step further, creating a categorical food fight as a result.