NY congressman tries to ban any and all salt used in restaurants!!!

[GotRocks]

Even this is not pizza specific, I feel it is well worth mentioning. How could someone even make a pizza without using salt?
Dough needs salt, Cheese needs salt as part of it's manufacturer, and imagine any canned tomato product without salt? YUK!
What about the guys doing seared Tuna on a salt slab tableside? would that heated slab of salt also be banned?

In my opinion, this guy who authored this bill is an idiot!! Not a single restaurant could abide by this if it became law, all the famous deli meats need salt as a preservative or they would become a bad science experiment with botulism involved.

http://www.manhattanstyle.com/news/new-york-chefs-protest-over-proposed-salt-ban/

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[thezaman]

wow, between that and the idea of 18 percent tax on pizza , any one want to buy a pizza joint in ohio?? remember we americans cannot think for ourselves the government has to help us with our decision making. my wife a nutritionist by trade approves of this , i hope here consulting business can pay our bills because a saltless taxed pizza would be an hard thing to sell.

[GotRocks]

wow, between that and the idea of 18 percent tax on pizza , any one want to buy a pizza joint in ohio?? remember we americans cannot think for ourselves the government has to help us with our decision making. my wife a nutritionist by trade approves of this , i hope here consulting business can pay our bills because a saltless taxed pizza would be an hard thing to sell.

Really?? The wife agrees that salt should be banned from all foods prepared in a restaurant?

Maybe this politician once got a bowl of overly salty soup which sent him on this tangent to try and abuse his power, but he obviously has not thought this through too well.
What next? no salted rim on a margarita glass?
 How could any delicatessen in New York serve their wonderful cured meats, sausages, and cheeses? Salt is used to preserve the meats and it is vital in the safety of cured meats.
Under this law, no bakery could bake bread, no pizza place could serve cheese or their dough! No hot-dogs, no pastrami, salami, corned-beef, or anything could even be produced without breaking the law if it passes.

Salt is a vital mineral needed to sustain mammal life, you just cannot legislate that no salt is allowed in any food preparations. I think this guy just committed political suicide, which is a good thing for people what think like him.

[scott123]

Ummm... the bill says that restaurants can't add salt to food.  They can use foods, though, that contain salt. This has no bearing whatsoever on deli meats, sausages and cheeses.  It also doesn't include bread (and crust by extension).

What it's attempting to legislate (in a somewhat overbearing fashion) is the concept of letting consumers salt their food rather than salting their food for them.  It's really not a bad idea, it's just the approach that's draconian.

[Puzzolento]

Nothing new here. In Los Angeles, they passed a moratorium making it illegal to build fast food restaurants in minority-heavy East L.A. The obvious unstated rationale is that the backers believe only white people are smart enough to eat correctly. A corollary is that people do not have the right to decide what they eat.

This is what comes of voting for people who say the state will take care of you.

I hope the salt law passes so New Yorkers get a taste of reality and realize what their prevailing political bent leads to. It would do them a world of good. I would love to turn on cable news and listen to the outraged cries of New Yorkers who just realized where they were headed, and who have had an abrupt change of heart.

Next step: ban pizza entirely. Nanny-staters in the medical profession already talking about an 18% tax on it.

No one who knows anything about cooking could believe this won't destroy chefs' ability to cook properly. It is impossible to cook a broad range of foods well without the ability to add salt during the preparation stage. It's scary that anyone thinks this law is okay or even tolerable.

[Ronzo]

big government nanny state... good ol' NY. Glad I left.

Let people make up their own friggin minds and live with the results of their decisions.

I'm so sick of this nanny state garbage.

[pcampbell]

I will stay out of it but I do not believe this will go anywhere.

NYC did ban artificial trans fats though, if I understand correctly.

But salt is natural , we just eat too much of it.  However isn't that what dining out is largely about. 

I believe they are working on a soda tax also in NYC.

[scott123]

I will stay out of it but I do not believe this will go anywhere.

Yes, that's a good point. This is basically the ramblings of one crackpot assemblyman.

[Ronzo]

If I still lived in NY, I'd vote with my feet all over again... "buh bye"...

The mentality of these so-called "elected officials" is one of the many reasons I no longer live there.

[PizzaHog]

Just my 2 cents but we over eat sodium due to processed and prepared foods which is full of it, in more ways than one.  I don't mean salami, but the stuff we are inundated with in boxes, cans, frozen, fast food etc.  A large mcdonald's triple choc shake has 510 mg sodium for gosh sakes.  If one of these politicians really wanted to help our sodium intake going after the processed food giants would make way more of a difference but then no more $$ from the lobbyists.  Just more useless grandstanding that will effect the small businessman who is an easy target.

[GotRocks]

Ummm... the bill says that restaurants can't add salt to food.  They can use foods, though, that contain salt. This has no bearing whatsoever on deli meats, sausages and cheeses.  It also doesn't include bread (and crust by extension).

What copy of this bill are you reading where you are seeing exclusions to the proposed ban?
Here is the bill------> http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?default_fld=&bn=A10129&Summary=Y&Text=Y

It specifically states "NO OWNER OR OPERATOR OF A RESTAURANT IN THIS STATE SHALL USE SALT IN ANY FORM IN THE PREPARATION OF ANY FOOD  FOR  CONSUMPTION  BY  CUSTOMERS  OF  SUCH  RESTAURANT" so this also wipes out someone searing tuna on a salt-slab.

This means any restaurant that bakes their own bread, makes their own dough, or anything else for that matter is strictly prohibited from using salt in any part of the process!

There are plenty of places curing their own meats for service at their restaurant as is people making their own mozzarella from curd or fresh milk, grinding their meats for their sausage. If this bill goes through (which I doubt it will) it will make any of those processes illegal.

Idiocy at it's finest from an elected official.

So what put this guy out in left field to push for this??

I see this as a huge threat even if it does not get signed into law, the fact that someone would try to legislate the populations choices without them thinking it through is where it bothers me the most

[scott123]

What copy of this bill are you reading where you are seeing exclusions to the proposed ban?
Here is the bill------> http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?default_fld=&bn=A10129&Summary=Y&Text=Y

It specifically states "NO OWNER OR OPERATOR OF A RESTAURANT IN THIS STATE SHALL USE SALT IN ANY FORM IN THE PREPARATION OF ANY FOOD  FOR  CONSUMPTION  BY  CUSTOMERS  OF  SUCH  RESTAURANT" so this also wipes out someone searing tuna on a salt-slab.

This means any restaurant that bakes their own bread, makes their own dough, or anything else for that matter is strictly prohibited from using salt in any part of the process!

There are plenty of places curing their own meats for service at their restaurant as is people making their own mozzarella from curd or fresh milk, grinding their meats for their sausage. If this bill goes through (which I doubt it will) it will make any of those processes illegal.

That's exactly the bill that I read.  If they bake bread, that makes them a bakery and that excludes the bread. If they make sausage.... that makes them a sausage maker. Cheese... and so on and so on. This bill has nothing to do with bakeries, cheesemakers or butchers OR the restaurateurs that take on those responsibilities.

[dms]

first, Oritiz is an assemblyman, not a congressman.  He's in Albany, not DC. 

Second, he's performing a stunt, not attempting to pass legislation. 

[DKM]

What it's attempting to legislate (in a somewhat overbearing fashion) is the concept of letting consumers salt their food rather than salting their food for them.  It's really not a bad idea, it's just the approach that's draconian.

The problem is its not the same to add salt after the cooking process as during.  Bake bread without salt and then try add salt after it cools and it is sliced.  Its not the same (or any good IMHO).  In fact i think people would over salt trying to make up for the lack of taste.

[thezaman]

i think the 18 percent tax on soda and pizza is a national bill that is being talked about.

[tcarlisle]

Well, anyone that lives in NY state should write your representative -- and if you live in this idiots district then write him. Posting on a board like this is nice venting, but the only way to get your voice to make a difference is to let that voice be heard by the people that cast votes on this type of BS on your behalf.

Bloomberg already chimed in on this: http://blogs.villagevoice.com/forkintheroad/archives/2010/03/bloomberg_ridic.php

To make it against the law is ridiculous, but I run up against this issue of salt all the time just in casual hobby cooking. As I adjust seasonings, guests will often chime in "I can't eat salt!" The health kick bandwagon people jump on is ridiculous. Someone that is overweight by about 50lbs and never gets any physical exercise -- their problem is not sodium intake. A healthy person can eat a meal prepared with salt -- making laws against the food is the wrong approach. If this congressperson wants to solve the real problem, put a tax on people that aren't physically fit. That is what drives up health care costs in this country. Everything else is just a band aid suggestion.

As for the national pizza/soda taxing -- pizza does not cause heart disease and soda's don't cause diabetes. Again, the true cause of this are the people.... the people that eat nothing but fatty foods and sugar drinks without gauging their intake and/or managing their own gluttony. Write your representatives and let them know how you feel about this.

[scott123]

For his part, Ortiz clarified that he didn't want to ban all salt, but merely "the use of salt as an additive to meals...when we have meals prepared by restaurants that pile unnecessary amounts of salt, we have a problem."

[DKM]

For his part, Ortiz clarified that he didn't want to ban all salt, but merely "the use of salt as an additive to meals...when we have meals prepared by restaurants that pile unnecessary amounts of salt, we have a problem."

What does that mean? We have a problem when we don't like the taste of too much salt and then we solve the problem by not eating at that restaurant anymore.

[GotRocks]

Well, that didn't take too long.
Assembly member Felix Ortiz has changed his tune.
http://www.yournabe.com/articles/2010/03/15/brooklyn_graphic/news/courier-yn_brooklyn_graphic-politics3.18.txt

[pizzablogger]

It's really quite silly, sad and offensive that with everything going on in our country right now, a politician would even consider allocating time to something of this nature.