STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 3871 2019-2020 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY January 31, 2019 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. ORTIZ -- read once and referred to the Committee on Health AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to requiring chain restaurants to label menu items that have a high content of sodium The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. The public health law is amended by adding a new section 2 1356 to read as follows: 3 § 1356. Chain restaurants; sodium content of menu items. 1. For 4 purposes of this section the following terms shall have the following 5 meanings: 6 a. "Chain restaurant" shall mean a restaurant which is one of fifteen 7 or more restaurants that are operated under the same name at different 8 locations within the state and are operated under the same ownership or 9 by franchise agreements. 10 b. "Restaurant" shall mean any commercial eating establishment which 11 is devoted, wholly or in part, to the sale of food for on-premises 12 consumption. 13 2. Every chain restaurant operating within this state shall cause to 14 be placed on its menus a salt-shaker-like symbol next to any food item 15 that is offered for sale by such restaurant that contains more than two 16 thousand three hundred milligrams of sodium. Such menus shall also 17 contain a statement that the placement of such salt-shaker-like symbol 18 next to a menu item indicates that such menu item contains more than two 19 thousand three hundred milligrams of sodium. 20 3. Any chain restaurant that violates the provisions of this section 21 shall be subject to a civil penalty of not more than two hundred fifty 22 dollars for each menu that does not comply with the requirements of this 23 section. 24 § 2. The provisions of this act shall not apply to chain restaurants 25 located in any city with a population of one million or more on and EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD08222-01-9A. 3871 2 1 after the date on which such city, or any department of such city, 2 adopts or enacts, a rule, regulation, ordinance, local law, order or 3 policy having the same or substantially similar effect as the provision 4 of this act; provided, however, that any restaurant located in such city 5 shall be used in calculating the number of restaurants located within 6 this state for purposes of paragraph a of subdivision 1 of section 1356 7 of the public health law as added by section one of this act. 8 § 3. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall 9 have become a law.