LOCAL POLICIES

Green Cart Policy

Locale: New York City

Environment: Food carts that sell produce

Increases permits for food carts that sell fresh produce (“green carts”) in neighborhoods that report low fruit and vegetable consumption.

Formally recognizes that access to fresh produce affects fruit and vegetable consumption in low income neighborhoods.

Establishes 1500 vendor permits for fresh fruit and vegetables in areas where fruit and vegetable consumption is particularly low.

Only includes neighborhoods where more than 15% of residents surveyed consumed no servings of fruits and vegetables on the previous day.

Prohibits “green carts” from selling items other than fresh fruit and vegetables.

Allows “green carts” to operate only in those designated neighborhoods with the most need.
Provides a plan for implementation, inspection, and enforcement.

Operation of Day Care Services Amendments

Locale: New York City

Environment: Day Care Centers

Amends the health code to include stricter guidelines for nutrition standards, quality physical activity and television viewing at all public and private group day care services operating within New York

Physical Activity Requirements
Adequate periods of outdoor play shall be provided for all children. In inclement weather, active play shall be conducted in safe indoor play areas.

Children 12 months or older attending a full-day program shall receive 60 minutes of physical activity per day. Children attending less than a full day program shall participate in a proportionate amount of such activities.

Children ages 3 and older shall receive at least 30 minutes of structured and guided activity, including basic movement, creative movement, motor skills development, and general coordination.

Day care operators shall document physical activities and make documentation available to the Department upon request.

Children shall not be allowed to remain sedentary or sit passively for more than 60 minutes continuously, except during scheduled rest or naptime.

Television, video and other visual recordings shall not be used with children under age 2.

Television viewing for children ages two and older shall be limited to no more than 60 minutes per day of educational programs or programs that actively engage child movement.

Food Requirements
Juice shall only be provided to children eight months of age and older. Only 100% juice shall be permitted and children shall receive no more than six ounces per day. Beverages with added sweeteners, shall not be provided.

When milk is provided, children ages two and older shall only be served milk with 1% or less milk-fat, unless milk with a higher fat content is medically required for an individual child.
Water shall be made available and be easily accessible to children throughout the day.

Restaurant Calorie Labeling

Locale: New York City

Environment: Food Service Establishments

Providing calorie information is a public heath intervention to help address the rapidly growing
twin epidemics of obesity and diabetes. Providing clear and comprehensible point-of-purchase calorie information allows consumers to make more informed and healthier food choices in restaurants.

Accordingly, Health Code §81.50 has been repealed and reenacted to require that information on
calorie content values of menu items be available to patrons of FSEs at the point-of-decision for all menu items that are served in standardized portions. The food service establishments covered by this provision would be any establishment in the City of New York that is one of a group of 15 or more food service establishments doing business nationally under the same name and offering for sale substantially the same menu items, regardless of whether such food service establishments are owned and operated by the same entity. Fifteen was found to be an appropriate cut-off to focus on chains with standardized menus, and will cover the vast majority of such chain restaurant locations.

This Health Code amendment will cover approximately 2,400 restaurants (10% of all FSEs). Clear
and conspicuous posting of calorie information would be required on all menu boards and menus, as well as on food item display tags, adjacent or in close proximity, to the menu item, using a font and format that is at least as prominent in size as that used to post either the name or price of the menu item. This provision requires covered FSEs to make such information available to their customers in plain sight at the point-of-decision.

Trans fat ban in NYC

Locale: New York City

Environment: New York City Food Establishments

Summary of the Regulation

New York City’s Health Code amendment phases out the use of artificial trans fat in all food service establishments required to hold a New York City Health Department permit, including restaurants, caterers, mobile food-vending units, and mobile food commissaries:

Beginning July 1, 2007 –

You may not use partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, shortenings, or margarines for frying, pan frying (sautéing), grilling, or as a spread unless you have product labels or other documents from the manufacturer showing that these ingredients contain less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving.

You may continue to use trans fat-containing oils and shortenings for deep frying, cake batter and yeast dough until the regulation takes full effect on July 1, 2008.

Beginning July 1, 2008 –

No food containing partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, shortenings, or margarines with 0.5 grams or more trans fat per serving may be stored, used or served by food service establishments.

The regulation does not apply to food served in the manufacturer’s original, sealed packaging, such as a package of crackers or a bag of potato chips.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/cardio/cardio-transfat-bro.pdf