N.Y. Public Health Law 2827 – Plant-based food options
§ 2827. Plant-based food options. 1. Upon request by a patient or the patient's lawful representative in a hospital providing inpatient or residential care, the hospital shall offer the patient a plant-based food option as an alternative to every meal or snack offered in food service to the patient. All the hospital's written material describing food offerings shall include the availability of a plant-based food option. The plant-based food option shall be offered at no additional cost to the patient beyond what would be charged for a comparable non-plant-based food option.
Terms Used In N.Y. Public Health Law 2827
- Hospital: means a facility or institution engaged principally in providing services by or under the supervision of a physician or, in the case of a dental clinic or dental dispensary, of a dentist, or, in the case of a midwifery birth center, of a midwife, for the prevention, diagnosis or treatment of human disease, pain, injury, deformity or physical condition, including, but not limited to, a general hospital, public health center, diagnostic center, treatment center, a rural emergency hospital under 42 USC 1395x(kkk), or successor provisions, dental clinic, dental dispensary, rehabilitation center other than a facility used solely for vocational rehabilitation, nursing home, tuberculosis hospital, chronic disease hospital, maternity hospital, midwifery birth center, lying-in-asylum, out-patient department, out-patient lodge, dispensary and a laboratory or central service facility serving one or more such institutions, but the term hospital shall not include an institution, sanitarium or other facility engaged principally in providing services for the prevention, diagnosis or treatment of mental disability and which is subject to the powers of visitation, examination, inspection and investigation of the department of mental hygiene except for those distinct parts of such a facility which provide hospital service. See N.Y. Public Health Law 2801
2. The hospital shall respond in a reasonable manner and time to any request made under this section. The request shall be effective for every hospital meal or snack in which the patient is reasonably expected to participate. This section does not preclude the offering of plant-based food options to patients who have not requested it, and does not preclude an individual who has requested a plant-based food option from selecting a non-plant-based food option.
3. As used in this section:
(a) "Plant-based food option" means a food or beverage that is free of animal products and that has nutritional value comparable to the non-plant-based food option that it replaces.
(b) "Animal product" means meat, poultry, seafood, dairy, eggs, honey, and any derivative thereof.
4. This section shall not apply to patient nutritional support products including, but not limited to, infant formulas, nutritional modulars, oral nutritional supplements, enteral nutrition formulas, and parenteral or intravenous nutrition, prescribed or ordered by a health care professional, licensed, certified or otherwise authorized to practice under title eight of the education law, acting within the professional's lawful scope of practice. However, where a request is made under subdivision one of this section, and a health care professional is considering prescribing or ordering a patient nutritional support product under this subdivision, the health care professional shall consider and advise the requester whether a medically suitable plant-based food option is reasonably available.