Food Salt

French legal definition

The food salt of quality is a crystalline product being composed mainly of sodium chloride, coming from salt-water marshes, rock salt or brines coming from the dissolution of rock salt and answering the following specifications:

sodium chloride: not less than 97% of the extract dry, not included/understood additives;
Copper: not more than 2 mg/kg;
Lead: not more than 2 mg/kg;
Arsenic: not more than 0,5 mg/kg;
Cadmium: not more than 0,5 mg/kg;
mercury: not more than 0,1 mg/kg.

The denomination of sale of the food salt of quality is “food salt”, “salt of table” or “cooking salt”.

Use

In Cuisine it makes it possible to season the dishes. The Italians prefer the deicing salt with which they raise their pastes; the Belgians use more readily table salt packed in sachets.

Salt allows also the conservation of the food. With the the Middle Ages, it was the principal means of preserving the meats and fish and of thus surviving the food shortages. Today still, certain African areas deprived of refrigerating apparatuses, use salt to preserve meats and fish, just like the consumers of the countries known as developed find in the trade of the salted products: Turnip salted, Herring smoked, Cod, etc

Refined salt is also used to ensure the operation (regeneration in positive ions) of the water-softeners present in the Lave-vaisselle S. One speaks then about “regenerating salt”. It is interesting to note that several experiments récententes proved that the use of deicing salt (cooking salt) was perfectly valid in the place of regenerating salt and did not pose any problem with the apparatuses.

Salt not refined is also used for déneiger or to thaw out the road S (fusion known as “Eutectique”).

History

Salt is known since the Préhistoire for its characteristics of seasoning and conservation of food. It was also used in the religious rites among Greeks, the Romans and Hébreux.
This natural elements were of a great strategic importance and economic and were the subject of an important trade, sometimes on large distances.
The control of the supply salt was one of the keys of the military expansion of the Roman empire. The armies of conquest of Cesar carried with them saltings which ensured part of their provisioning without they having recourse to the plundering of the conquered territories. This strategy limited resistances and ensured a durable establishment of civilization romaine.
The role of the salt as key of the military provisioning will perdura until the invention, at the end of the XVIIIe century, of novel methods of conservation of food. He thus played a crucial role in the great maritime conquests, authorizing the transport of vivres for voyages of exploration at the random stopovers.

He was also used as means of exchange or Monnaie, in particular in China. One finds the same etymological origin for the words “salt” and “wages” (in Latin salarium , sum given to the soldiers for the purchase of salt). Salt under the name of “cake of salt” was an old currency with the Tibet and in Ethiopia.

In France, salt was taxed during several centuries via a specific tax called Gabelle. Its unpopularity took part in the release of the French revolution. A road of salt with the Italy is still in the geography of the Provence. The salt smugglers were called “false sau (L) niers” and the agents in charge to track them, the “Gabelou S”.

Origin

The salt, of marine origin, can be extracted from the sea, the Saumure, i.e. of salt water charged or fossil layers (salt gem). The sea salt is collected (gathered) in saline Marais, as with Guérande or Saline-with-Giraud. Fossil salt or rock salt is extracted from the salt mines, as with Bex in Switzerland, Varangéville in France, or Wieliczka in Poland. The brine salt is extracted by evaporation from water. This evaporation perhaps natural or caused by the man who heats salt water. This salt names salt ignigene.

Various forms

Natural salt

See also: Fleur of salt, salt-water Marshes, Rock salt

Natural salt is not refined and contains still all its Minéraux natural. Natural salts thus have gustatory properties and an aspect different following the quantity from minerals which they contain. Thus, the Fleur of salt or the marine salt collected to the hand has a single savor which changes an area to another.

The Fleur of salt or the salt of the salt-water Marsh S or the rock salt not refined return in this category. Some affirm that the salt not refined of sea is healthier than the salts refined because of its mineral and natural qualities. However, natural salts can not contain sufficient iodine to prevent the diseases due to insufficiency of Iode like the Goiter.

Refined salt

The Raffinage makes it possible to obtain a salt of the white color preferred by the consumer, composed of practically pure NaCl (99,9%), this, with the detriment of its food qualities. Additives, such of anti-binders or fluorinated or iodized compounds can be found in refined salt.

Refined salt is employed the most in the Alimentation. Approximately 7% of refined salt are also employed like Additif, but the majority is sold for the industrial use, for the manufacture of the Papier, for the adjustment of the color of the Textile S and of fabrics, to produce Savon S and Détergent S. salt has a great commercial value.

Today, the major part of refined salt is prepared starting from the Rock salt extracts from the salt mines. After raw salt was re-installed mines, it is refined to purify it and improve its storage. The purification comprises usually a phase of recrystallization. During this phase, a brine solution is treated with chemicals which precipitate the impurities (mainly salts of Magnésium and Calcium). Multiple stages of evaporation are then employed to gather the pure crystals of Sodium chloride, which are dried with the furnace or in Autoclave.

Agents anti-binders and potassium iodide, because salt is iodized, are generally added at the time of the phase of drying. These agents are hygroscopic chemicals which absorb moisture avoiding the filling of the salt crystals. The agents anti-binders used are the Phosphate, the carbonates of Calcium or Magnésium, salts of fatty-acid (acid salts), the magnesium oxide, the dioxide of silicon, the Aluminosilicate of tricalcic sodium and the alumino-calcium silicate. Concerns were raised concerning the possible toxic effects of aluminum in the last two compounds, however the European Union and the United States allow their use in limited quantities. The salt of refining is then ready for packing and the distribution.

Salt of table

The salt of table is a salt refined container with 95% or more of the almost pure Sodium chloride. It contains usually substances which prevents the filling of the crystals (agents anti-binders) as the sodium silicoaluminate (the common noun is Tixolex) and a negligible quantity of sugar reversed to prevent salt from turning a yellow color once exposed in the light of the sun, and to prevent a loss of Iode by vaporization. It is usual to put some grains of rice believed in the Salière S to absorb moisture when the agents anti-binders are not effective enough.

The salt of table is mainly used in Cuisine and with table like Condiment, often associated with the Poivre. The iodized salt of table made it possible to reduce the insufficiencies of iodine in the countries where it is employed. The Iode is important to prevent the insufficient production of the hormones thyroid (hypothyroidism), which can cause the Goiter, stupidity in the children, and the Myxœdème in the adults.

The salt of table is now employed everywhere in the world.

Modes of obtaining salt

The manufacture and the use of salt are one of the oldest chemical industries. Several sources of production are possible.

Rock salt

The marine salt

Salt in the food

At the man

According to the theory of fundamental savors, at the human the direction of the Goût (through the Language) is sensitive to five savors: sweetened, salted , acid, bitter and Umami. Salt thus has a function of Exhausteur of taste which largely explains its use in Cuisine.

The salt of table can be “iodized” by addition of a salt of Iode, this element being necessary to thyroid gland for the secretion of the thyroid hormones and also being used for the intellectual development. The sale of iodized salt is imposed by the regulation in several countries. The ions chlorides and sodium contained in salt are also very important for the operation of the organization. Indeed, these ions play a part in the conduction of the nerve impulse, in the contraction of the Muscle S and in the retention of water in the body.

In France, the salt consumption is too important. This overconsumption, also due to salt being in the industrial preparations, would involve serious health issues, like the Hypertension or the Obésité and would be the cause of several tens of thousands of untimely deaths each year. There exist other salts (like the Chlorure of potassium K Cl, present in the salt of table not refined), less vermin, but not very widespread and more expensive.

In the animals

In the animals, salt is also essential since it provides the same organic functions as at the man. Often, the wild animals especially the herbivores lick the salted stones or saline the natural sources of salt. In Agriculture, the Bovidae, Ovidae and other herbivores have at disposal them stones to lick.

This need is due to the high consumption of Calcium because of their mode vegetarian. Moreover, the Bovidae lose even more salt at the time of the Traite. This is why one gives them stones with salt to be licked to meet their needs.

Salt and health

Expressions

It is like a soup without salt : activity without interest when one removes an element from it;
To put its grain of salt : to bring its point of view to a discussion;
To put salt on the wound : to add to the torments which already a person undergoes;
a salted note : a high invoice;
a salted joke : a fatty or vulgar joke with strong sexual connotation;
Pepper and salt : hair containing of the black and white hair is said in general;
the salt of the life : the attraction of the life.
With a grain of salt : with a doubt

See too

salt

External bonds

Experiments and work on salt
File on salt, Futura-sciences

Zh-min-nan: Iâm

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