Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/10/18/most-table-salt-contains-plast.html
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I’d expect you could find traces of a lot of things in salt, considering the sensitivity of modern techniques. Are we talking parts per billion here, or parts per trillion, or what? And how does that compare to other substances that are produced with the involvement of seawater?
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Salt comes from the sea. The sea is full of plastic, which we put there. So now 90% of table salt contains plastic.
Wait, what?
It’s not like seawater is physically filtered to extract the salt.
Just think of it as roughage.
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See also: “Microplastics”
I think there still is a lot of air evaporation that goes on with making salt, and perhaps that’s how the salt is getting contaminated.
Some table salt – Morton’s, in my experience – contains dextrose.
I know this because one summer I found dead ants in my salt shaker.
Dead ants in your salt shaker?
Yes. Dead ants my salt shaker. So I read the salt carton, and found that the ingredients (salt has ingredients?) include dextrose.
I’m assuming that the ants (two, maybe three ants) were attracted to the dextrose, and died from being trapped in a salt shaker full of salt.
Apparently iodized salt contains dextrose in order to prevent the potassium iodide from oxidizing and being lost.
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I was curious too, but apparently seawater is used to process mined salt and create the salt brine lagoons and such used to make table salt. This would explain why salt production is both isolated to particular spots (like other forms of mining) but also close to the sea.
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On the plus side: Dry-aged ants are probably more delicious than regular ants.
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I don’t use table salt. ever. Not even for brining. While it in theory dissolves more easily than other types of salt, it also tends to have more additives in it that may not be readily disclosed. I prefer salt to just be salt…plastic withstanding.
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Most people are probably better off adding plastic to their meals instead of salt anyway so this is actually good news.
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How is it that your initial post got flagged, exactly?
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Someone felt I hadn’t added to the conversation. Probably someone who felt I was being a salt elitist.
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The other day I told my friend, Bertrand: “Careful! That salt contains plastic, Bertrand!”
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