Soda merchants thinking they could M.C. Escher their way into selling more liquid with deceptively small-looking cups when the sugary beverage ban begins Tuesday are out of luck. According to the Daily News, Health Department employees will be inspecting establishments with 17-ounce measuring cups to ensure that they are complying with the law.
“Will they deploy sugar sniffing dogs to detect the amount of calories from sugar?" a lobbyist for the National Association of Theatre Owners says. Indeed, why should the Health Department actually enforce the law? This is New York City—no restaurant would ever attempt to game the system.
The DOH's enforcement plan was revealed in an affidavit in the lawsuit that soda companies have filed against the city for enacting the ban, and is designed to give establishments a 1-ounce margin of error. We can't wait to pay an extra quarter for a special 16.9-ounce "Jailbait" cup of Vanilla Coke.
