Fan of salty dishes? Well now everyone will know after a new symbol has popped up to expose highly salty dishes in restaurants.
New York City has started a new era in nutritional this week after making it a requirement for chain restaurants to start putting a special symbol on highly salty dishes.
The rule will require a salt-shaker emblem on some sandwiches, salads and other menu items that top the recommended daily limit of 2300 milligrams — about a teaspoon — of sodium.
It comes as health advocates, federal regulators and some in the food industry are trying to get Americans to cut down on salt, with experts saying most Americans consume too much of it.
“With the high sodium warning label, New Yorkers will have easily accessible information that can affect their health,” city health commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett said when the Board of Health approved the new warning in September. She’s due to discuss it further at a news conference on Monday, according to AP reports.
The average American consumes about 3400 mg of salt per day, so it’s not exactly surprising that the lnd of fatty fried foods and delicious mac and cheese needs to cut back.
A T.G.I. Friday’s New York cheddar and bacon burger counts 4280 mg, for example; a Chili’s boneless Buffalo chicken salad has 3460 mg, according to figures come from the companies’ published nutritional information.
But salt producers say the city is acting on misimpressions about the risks of salt in New Yorkers’ diets – and of course they would – their livelihood depends on Americans eating salt!
An international study involving 100,000 people suggested last year that most people’s salt intake was OK for heart health, though other scientists faulted the study.
“Every one of these cumbersome new laws makes it tougher and tougher for restaurants to find success,” New York State Restaurant Association President Melissa Fleischut said, according to AP reports.
It will apply to an estimated 10 per cent of menu items at the New York City outlets of chains with at least 15 outlets nationwide, according to the Health Department. Officials say those chains own about one-third of the city’s restaurant business.
