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" It won&amp;#039;t be pr  etty. Imagine having lunch in your favorite restaurant when, suddenly, dozens of police pour through the door, stumbling over tables and scattering waitresses and trays full of dishes as they rush to the kitchen, the very room in which a heinous crime has just been committed: the head cook has added salt to the day&amp;#039;s special.  A remarkably shortsighted and \u2013 let&amp;#039;s just be blunt \u2013 dumb bill has been introduced into the New York State Assembly by Assemblyman Felix Ortiz, a Democrat from Brooklyn. If passed, it would forbid restaurants in the Empire State from adding salt to their food at the risk of a thousand-dollar fine per offence. I&amp;#039;m not making this up. &amp;quot;No owner or operator of a restaurant in this state,&amp;quot; reads the bill, &amp;quot;shall use salt in any form in the preparation of any food for consumption by customers of such restaurant, including food prepared to be consumed on the premises of such restaurant or off the premises.&amp;quot; The bill was introduced last week. Ortiz&amp;#039; heart is in the right place \u2013 his father struggled with high blood pressure before succumbing to a heart attack \u2013 but the legislator knows bubkes about cooking. Salt brings out flavor, of course, but it does far more than that.  Salt is a preservative, &amp;quot;the presence of sufficient salt in a food discourages the growth of spoilage bacteria while allowing harmless flavor-producing (and salt tolerant) bacteria to grow,&amp;quot; writes Harold McGee in his authoritative book On Food and Cooking.  If restaurants were forbidden to use salt in their food, would this prevent them from making their own pickles and preserves, as well? What would happen to bakers? Salt regulates &amp;quot;the activity of the yeast, it makes the dough more manageable and predictable,&amp;quot; writes Laurel Robinson in The Laurel&amp;#039;s Kitchen Bread Book. Without the presence of salt in the dough, the yeast may rise too quickly and then - abruptly - stop, resulting in collapsed dough. Removing salt completely from the cooking process in commercial kitchens, Ortiz believes, puts &amp;quot;the control of the sodium intake amount into the customer&amp;#039;s hands, it would give them an option to exercise a healthier diet and healthier lifestyle.&amp;quot; Pish. Not consuming vast quantities of processed convenience foods, or restaurant food, for that matter, and not sprinkling extra salt on everything else will do far more to help people control their sodium levels than Ortiz&amp;#039; ridiculous bill. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.delish.com/food/news/a38035/back-away-from-the-salt-shaker/>