New York City’s proposed salt-shaker icon warning chain-restaurant patrons about high sodium levels was unanimously approved by the city’s health officials. (See the August NewsBites.) The menu icon, which will be mandated as of Dec. 1, will identify items containing more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium—an entire day’s maximum intake, according to current recommendations. Only restaurants with more than 15 locations nationwide are affected by the new rule, the first of its kind in the country. Mayor Bill de Blasio had proposed the labeling as part of an initiative to reduce premature mortality among New Yorkers by 25% by 2040. The president of the New York State Restaurant Association called the requirement “the latest in a long litany of superfluous hoops” that restaurants must jump through.
