Not satisfied with having violated rights and gotten a trans fat ban and calorie count posting mandates in NYC, Mayor Bloomberg is now talking about getting New Yorkers to cut their sodium intake by “encouraging” food manufacturers to reduce the amount of salt in their products. He claims he won’t legislate salt reductions, but a) that’s only because they’d be nearly impossible to enforce (what food manufacturer is going to come up with salt-free products just for the NYC market?) and b) the city first started out saying it wanted voluntary participation in trans fat reduction and calorie count postings, too. And when “encouragement” didn’t work, the city turned to force.

What’s to say Bloomie won’t try to get as much of a salt ban as he can? He’ll probably do it the same way the calorie-count postings and the trans-fat ban were done: by imposing salt restrictions on restaurants. NYC can’t force manufacturers of packaged foods to toe the line — most would just quit doing business in the city rather than revamp their recipes and factories to suit the demands of one market’s bureaucrats. But it can tell restaurants to change their in-city operations…or else.

This type of regulation hits chain restaurants hardest. In NYC, calorie-count postings are mandated only for restaurants with 10 or more locations in the city; the majority of city restaurants have only a single location, so the onus falls mostly on fast-food chains. I’m sure our city nanny realizes that if he tries to impose salt restrictions on all restaurants, he’d have a revolt on his hands; in fact, city chefs are already speaking out against Bloomie’s sure-to-later-be-backed-by-force “request.” But he can demonize McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Starbucks, et al., and those chains will likely meekly change their NYC operations if ordered to do so.

They shouldn’t. If individuals want to eat more salt than is good for them, that’s their right, and it’s the right of restaurants to flavor their foods in any way they please. It’s the market, not Nanny Bloomberg, that should decide how much salt is in our food.

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