A Manhattan judge ruled Wednesday that chain restaurants in New York City must warn customers about salt-laden foods, siding with the city’s new edict.
“We’re not mandating that you can’t have an item on a menu with more than 2,300 milligrams” of sodium, Justice Eileen Rakower said.
“It’s not a ban, it’s information, it’s a warning. Some people love salty food and they are just going to go ahead and eat those foods,” the judge said.
The National Restaurant Association said it will appeal the ruling.
Starting March 1, chain restaurants that don’t post a salt-shaker icon next to menu items that exceed the 2,300-milligram daily recommended limit of sodium will be fined $200.
Mayor de Blasio wasted no time weighing in, tweeting, “If your meal has so much sodium that it merits a salt shaker on the menu, then — for the sake of your health — order something else.”
Douglas Kellogg, a spokesman for the conservative nonprofit Reclaim New York, called de Blasio’s tweet “outrageous.”
“Who does he think he is, Mayor Poppins?” Kellogg quipped.
“That’s a disturbing sign these rules aren’t just recommendations, but de Blasio wants the city Health Board to insert itself into every little aspect of our lives,” he said.