Skip to footer

Judge yanks teeth out of New York salt law, one day before fines were to begin

Just days after a judge struck down a restaurant trade group’s challenge to the new sodium-labeling law, another judge boosted the group's case today by temporarily halting its enforcement, which would have started tomorrow.

|
New York City Health Department/AP/File
This icon of a salt shaker is intended to serve as a graphic warning to NYC consumers of high salt content in foods. A judge temporarily blocked the city from fining restaurant chains that fail to post this label on menu items that top the recommended daily limit of 2,300 milligrams of sodium. That's about a teaspoon.

One day before New York City could start fining chain restaurants if they break a new law requiring them to label high-sodium menu items, a New York appeals court temporarily halted its enforcement.

A judge halted the law Monday in response to a request by the National Restaurant Association, a restaurant trade group that, according to its website, has been fighting the emasure since Mayor Bill de Blasio first proposed it in June, arguing that it is unfair and burdensome to restaurant owners.

“The association is pleased by today’s decision to grant emergency relief for the men and women that own and operate New York’s restaurants from this unlawful and unprecedented sodium mandate,” the association said in a statement.

The issue has become the latest flashpoint between Americans seeking more information about the food they consume and those who are uncomfortable with government intervening in how people choose to eat.

Just last week, Justice Eileen Rakower of New York state Supreme Court in Manhattan ruled in favor of the city, pointing out that the law did not restrict the use of sodium, but only required chains to provide consumers with a cue to make an informed decision.

"Information is power," Justice Rakower said in her ruling on Friday, according to Reuters. 

That ruling appeared to clear the way for the city to begin fining restaurants up to $600 for failing to comply beginning on Tuesday. Monday's ruling from the appellate court puts that on hold.

The law took effect in December. New York City has already banned trans fats at restaurants, and required the posting of calorie counts on menus. It also tried, but failed, to ban oversize sodas in 2014.

The sodium rule is likely the first of its kind in the country. It requires city restaurants with 15 or more locations nationwide to post a warning symbol next to menu items with more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium, the daily limit recommended by the federal government.

The city’s Department of Health said in a statement that it will continue to warn chains that are not compliant with the new law, though it won’t be able to issue violations.

“We are confident, despite the stay of enforcement for now, that the court will uphold the sodium warning rule," said the health department in a statement.

The court will decide likely later this month whether to continue halting the fines until it rules on the restaurant association's appeal.

This report uses material from Reuters.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Judge yanks teeth out of New York salt law, one day before fines were to begin
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2016/0229/Judge-yanks-teeth-out-of-New-York-salt-law-one-day-before-fines-were-to-begin
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe