Sea Salt

Gathering sea salt. Salt field Hon Khoi in Nha Trang, Viet Nam. Quang Nguyen Vinh / Pexels / 2016 / CC0 1.0

In a broad sense, all salts are sea salt — even what we think of as “ground salt”. After all, the vast deposits that are mined from the ground were deposited there by prehistoric seas as they evaporated and receded.

Sea salt is extracted from sea water by evaporation either through the sun or through man-induced steam. It is very often cleaned to remove other undesirable elements that would affect not only the taste, but its salability. In many jurisdictions, it must be refined to a certain degree of purity (typically 97% sodium and higher) in order to be legally sold as salt.

Though there are many brands of sea salt, sold at different prices, often many of them come ultimately from the same source or refiner.

The taste of sea salt

Sea salt often doesn’t really taste greatly different from regular salt — salt is salt is salt.

Perceived taste difference between sea salt and other salt, and one sea salt from another, can sometimes be owing to trace elements in the salt:

“The minerals sea salt contains depend on the body of water from which it is evaporated. This may promote a different taste or color in the salt.” ^[1]Wergin, Allyn. Is sea salt healthier than table salt? Mayo Clinic. 27 July 2015. Accessed March 2022 at https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/is-sea-salt-healthier-than-table-salt

However, what can particularly make sea salt appear to taste different, as far as our tongues are concerned, is the manner in which it dissolves on our tongues — and this can be determined by the crystalline structure of the salt, for instance whether it is chunky or flaky.

“The crystals in sea salt tend to be larger, and larger crystals diffuse more slowly on the taste bud, making the flavor last longer, says Michael Tordoff, who studies taste perception and the physiology of salt at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia.  There are additional elements in sea salt that are not found in regular table salt that could affect the flavor, like potassium, calcium and magnesium, Tordoff says, but “they may add some bitterness,” not saltiness.

“Basically, this is all marketing,” Mark Kurlansky, author of the book Salt: A World History, told NPR in 2010 when Wendy’s made a big deal of adding sea salt to its fries. “Sea sounds a lot better than rock [salt]. But if the product is pure, it is the same,” he says.” — Fulton, April. Three Burning Questions Answered About Salt. National Public Radio. 21 September 2012. Accessed March 2022 at https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2012/09/20/161498088/three-burning-questions-answered-about-salt

Cooking Tips

Using a good sea salt such as Maldon in cooking is like using extra virgin olive oil in cooking — besides being wasteful money-wise, it really just shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the product — that cooking actually renders the product quite ordinary and destroys it.

That being said, where sea salt can taste better in cooking is in countries like Canada where regular table salt is heavily iodized by law, which some people feel gives a harsh taste to food, and in those instances, yes, sea salt (which is not fortified with iodine there) can provide a way of avoiding an iodized taste — but don’t use the expensive ones, just use the regular ground ones.

Regular, un-iodized ground sea salt is also better to use in dough recipes using yeast than iodized table salt, because iodine impedes yeast.

Standard sea salt for cooking. © CooksInfo / 2020

Nutrition

In general, sea salt when first extracted from the sea is only about 75% sodium chloride. In the United States, however, salt can’t be sold for human consumption if it is less than 97.5% sodium chloride. (Many other jurisdictions adhere to the similarly-high world Codex figure of 97%.) So if the manufacturer wants to sell it for human consumption in the world’s biggest marketplace, it needs to be refined. Once refined, American law says that sea salt packaging can’t claim nutritional superiority, because it is very similar to table salt after the refining.

The purity laws concerning salts exist to protect consumers. Salt was a valuable product, so of course adulteration by unscrupulous traders to increase their profits was common.

Sea salt does not have meaningful health benefits from other minerals present in it:

 “While it’s true that magnesium, potassium, calcium and other nutrients remain in sea salt and some culinary salts, those trace elements are so minute that they actually have negligible nutritional value… most of the minerals naturally found in sea salt can be acquired through other foods in the diet in more meaningful quantities. The more significant contribution of these additional minerals is to add flavor.” ^[2]Iodized salt or sea salt: Which is better for you?. Iodine Global Network. February 2019. Accessed March 2022 at https://www.ign.org/blog-salt-myths-2019.htm

Is sea salt lower sodium?

The sodium profile of sea salt as sold to consumers is identical to that of any other salt; it is not lower sodium:

“By weight, sea salt and iodized salt contain the same amount of sodium….”  ^[3]Iodized salt or sea salt: Which is better for you?. Iodine Global Network. February 2019. Accessed March 2022 at https://www.ign.org/blog-salt-myths-2019.htm

The Mayo Clinic says:

“The sodium content of sea salt and table salt is identical at 40 percent when measured by weight (i.e. grams). However, because some sea salt may have larger crystals than table salt, sea salt may have less sodium by volume because fewer crystals will fit in a measuring device — such as a spoon. All in all, there is no significant difference in the sodium content of regular table salt and sea salt.” ^[4]Wergin, Allyn. Is sea salt healthier than table salt? Mayo Clinic. 27 July 2015. Accessed March 2022 at https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/is-sea-salt-healthier-than-table-salt

Sea salt and iodine

Unless it has been fortified, sea salt naturally contains only a very small amount of iodine:

“Sea salt, as usually produced, does not contain enough iodine to meet minimal human needs because the average iodine content of ocean salts is approximately 2 ppm.” ^[5]Geraldo Medeiros-Neto, and Ileana G.S. Rubio Iodine-Deficiency Disorders. In: Jameson, Larry J., et al, Ed. Endocrinology: Adult and Pediatric (Seventh Edition). W.B. Saunders. 2017. Chapter 91, Pp 1584-1600. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-18907-1.00091-3

This trace amount of iodine in sea salt is so minuscule that it is of no practical use in fulfilling your body’s iodine requirements:

“Raw sea salt does contain some iodine but not nearly enough to meet every day needs, so to meet iodine requirements, other sources are required.” ^[6]Iodized salt or sea salt: Which is better for you?. Iodine Global Network. February 2019. Accessed March 2022 at https://www.ign.org/blog-salt-myths-2019.htm

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