Bad news for restaurant owners in New York, as after an almost half a year period of consideration, the law proposed this July regarding the addition of a salt shaker sticker in the menu, alongside items containing more than 2,300 mg of sodium has come into effect. Read on to find out more about the New York City salt warning controversy.
- Every cell in the human body contains salt, with an adult weighing in at about 250 grams
- Throughout history, there have been about 14,000 different uses for salt
- Only seven percent of the World’s salt production is eaten, while the rest is used by the chemical industry
- The average intake of salt for all Americans aged 2 and up is approximately 3,400 mg per day, 1,100 more than recommended
- Foods you think of as being salty are not the only ones contributing to your daily sodium intake
Finding out that most Americans not only eat more salt each day than the maximum recommended amount, but there are single servings that contain even more than that, officials decided to pass a law that constrains all restaurants that have 20 or more locations to apply a sticker in their menu next to these overly salty products.
Many restaurant owners are protesting, prompting the National Restaurant Association, which represents more than 380,000 businesses nationwide, to sue the New York City Health Department over this regulation. The offended parties claim that the regulation in unnecessarily burdensome to restaurant owners, since they would have to change their menus.
This is not the first time the National Restaurant Association has gone against the city officials and sued them, as the controversial soda ban proved. In that case, the officials reconsidered the regulation and cancelled it altogether.
In this case, however, health advocates insist that it’s only right to show your customers what they are eating. And seeing that the regulation only applies to chains with 20 or more restaurants, it’s unreasonable to claim that changing a few menus will lead to bankruptcy.
The salt shaker sticker will have to be present in menus alongside all items that contain at least the maximum dose of salt recommended each day, 2,300 mg. If they fail to provide the sticker, the restaurant will have to pay a fine of $200. Actually not that salty a fine, is it?
Regardless of the results of the lawsuits, this controversy speaks volumes about the state in which America finds itself. With concerned officials fighting for healthier citizens, and franchise owners fighting to keep pumping their clients full of chemicals, it’s up to the people to decide how they want to live.
Be the change you want to make in the world.
Image source: Pixabay
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