New York City’s latest warning label for salt-laden chain restaurant food has faced a court battle as restaurateurs sued on Thursday, arguing that health regulators overstepped legal limits to act out the first-of-its-kind condition.

The suit by National Restaurant Association has come only two days after the rule became effective, that compelled chain eateries to place a salt-shaker icon on menu items that cross the standard daily limit of 2,300 milligrams of sodium. The group had promised to challenge the rule approved by the city Board of Health, sprinkling salt warnings on a number of dishes ranging from pizzas to burgers to salads.

A copy of the suit said that ironically, the regulation is going to baffle and deceive consumers into potentially going for less healthy food via the law’s spotty, inconsistent application and imprecise scientific distortions. The association filed the suit in a Manhattan court late Thursday, and wasn’t instantly accessible on electronic records.

The association has said that the health board disobeyed its legal boundaries and is making water dirty as a time when federal regulators are working on menu labeling rules across the nation.

The suit has also branded the salt warning as ‘nonsensical’, in its appliance to just some food vendors and has argued that it has breached free speech rights of restaurateurs by making them post a warning they argued as based on ‘scientifically controversial opinion’.

The city Law Department has mentioned that it would go through the claims. However, it is confident that the Board of Health has the power to pass this rule.