Cerebos | Frequently Asked Questions

Are "Kosher Salt" and Table Salt that is Kosher Different?

Kosher Salt is the name of a particular type of salt (sodium chloride) that is available in supermarkets and other stores that sell groceries. It is produced by a manufacturing method explained above and is certified as Kosher by one of many rabbinical inspection institutions that carry out food plant inspections. Table Salt, both plain and iodized, is usually listed as manufactured under the same rabbinical institutions. An identifying emblem will notify the consumer that the salt has been produced and packaged under strict kosher conditions. If the kosher emblem is missing from the label, it is safe to assume that the salt is not necessarily certified as produced under kosher inspection.

What is the difference between Kosher Salt and Sea Salt?

Many chefs prefer kosher salt in cooking certain dishes, usually as a topping, to add special crunch or taste to food.Kosher salt is made by similar evaporation processes as cubic table salt, both plain and iodized. However some processes allow their crystals to growth at normal atmospheric pressure which makes a different shaped and larger crystal possible. These are used for Kosher Salt. Kosher salt contains no additives. In other manufacturing processes, Kosher Salt is made by compressing table salt crystals under pressure and then sizing the resulting agglomerates to yield a coarse-type salt. Sea salt is produced by evaporation of seawater at atmospheric temperature and pressure. Depending upon the geographic location, altitude, and composition of the salt ponds from which the salt originates, the salt may take on certain colours representing some of the trace minerals in the area. Some of these impart a different taste or flavour, either pleasant or possibly objectionable to the taste of the salt, and hence, the food to which it is added.

What is iodized salt?

Adding iodine to salt is a relatively simple task.Many people erroneously assume that because salt iodization was achieved nearly a century ago, that the problem no longer exists. Tragically, that's wrong. In 1990, only about 20% of the world's households had access to iodized salt and were protected against Iodine Deficiency Disorders. After a major push, access now exceeds 70%.Scientists identified iodine as an element in the early 19th century and only 20 years later, French scientist J-B. Boussingault reported his conclusion that iodized salt would be an effective prophylaxis for goiter, stating "I am convinced that goitre would disappear...if the authorities made available in every district town...a depot of salt containing iodine."David Marine (1880-1976) is the "father" of iodized salt in the United States; fortifying salt pioneered the approach of adding nutrients to foods. As the result of research on endemic goiter and iodine deficiency by Marine and co-workers research, the Michigan State Medical Society, in 1924, launched a goiter prevention program using iodized salt. It was the first example of a designed "functional food." Medical science since has identified a far more serious threat than the cosmetic problem of goiter -- mental retardation. The "hidden hunger" of iodine deficiency causes a 10-15% reduction in a population's IQ capability, mental retardation and cretinism.In the United States, salt producers cooperated with public health authorities and made both iodized and plain salt available to consumers at the same cost. Newspapers urged people to use iodized salt for the prevention of iodine deficiency. The Michigan program was highly successful and iodized salt use quickly spread throughout the country. Ultimately, household use of iodized salt eliminated iodine deficiency in the North America. In 1955, researchers reported that 75.8% of U.S. households used only iodized salt. Recently, the National Academy of Sciences increased the recommended intake level for iodine and nutrition surveys show a small but steady erosion in Americans' iodine intakes. The technology for iodizing or iodating salt is well known, readily available, and inexpensive. One particular problem is that some countries lack high quality salt manufacturing and packaging technologies. Some food manufacturers fear using iodized salt will interfere with the colour or taste of their products and affect consumer acceptance; for the most part, such concerns are insignificant. Both potassium iodide and potassium iodate are used to add iodine to salt. Daily Iodine intakes of 1,000 - 1,100 micrograms are safe for adults and children over 4 years of age, according to the World Health Organization (1994) and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (2004) respectively. Potassium iodate is preferred in some countries, particularly in tropical regions, because it is more stable than potassium iodide under hot, humid conditions. Loss of iodine from iodized salt produced and sold is not a concern because producers use moisture-proof packaging and add stabilizers; and storage conditions in the grocery distribution system are suitable. Table salt packaged and stored under proper conditions has an extended shelf life.

What is rock salt mining?

Salt occurs naturally in underground deposits, and occasionally in surface deposits in arid areas, as the mineral halite.

Ancient salt deposits are widespread. There are ten major salt basins in the western hemisphere, in both North America and Poland as well as deposits around the world. Some of the deposits are famous. A number of these salt deposits are mined for halite, commonly known as rock salt. Salt deposits formed as horizontal salt beds in ancient oceans and were later buried deeply beneath sediments as mountains eroded. Later, some of these buried salt deposits were geologically deformed by tectonic forces within the earth. Salt tectonics help geologists understand other minerals too. Salt domes are a major type of salt structure resulting from tectonic deformation, though off-shore salt basins can also be tectonically active, as off the coast of Brazil. Both bedded salt deposits and salt domes or diapirs are mined by drilling and blasting.

Bedded salt deposits are nearly horizontal, although some contain fault zones and other anomalies. Salt beds range in thickness from a few tens of feet to several thousands of feet. Salt's differential compaction compared to the sediment that covers it can often produce interesting geological results. Salt domes or diapirs formed as salt flowed plastically (because of pressure and heat) upward through overlying sediments. The result is a vertically elongated salt deposit of a mile or more in diameter and perhaps 15,000 to 20,000 feet in vertical length. Mining of both types of salt deposit is similar, although there are other mining methods. The method of mining is called "room and pillar" because the salt is excavated by blasting and loading out a series of rectangular entries and cross cuts. Rectangular pillars in a checkerboard-like pattern, typically 35% to 50% of the original salt, remains to support the mine roof. Rooms in bedded salt mines are 10 ft to 45 ft high, while rooms in domal mines can exceed 100 ft in height. This method has been used for centuries. When a new mine is constructed, two shafts are excavated down to the salt deposit, usually between 500 feet to more than 2,000 feet deep. Shafts are about 20 ft in diameter and lined with concrete. After the shaft is sunk to the salt, rooms are mined in a planned pattern by undercutting, drilling and blasting. An undercutter cuts a horizontal slot or kerf along the floor of the advancing room to provide a second free face for blasting. A drilling rig drills a series of holes into the face, and an ammonium nitrate-fuel oil mixture (ANFO) is pneumatically placed into the holes. The room is then blasted, creating a "muck" pile of salt ready to be transported to an underground crushing and screen station. After loose pieces of salt are removed from the roof and pillars for safety reasons, the blasted salt is loaded into large trucks by front end loaders, or loaded by load-haul-dump units (LHDs) of lesser capacity that pick up the salt and haul it to the crusher. After crushing, the salt is transported by conveyor belts to salt "pockets" at the shaft bottom for loading and hoisting to the surface. Two counter balanced salt skips of up to twenty short tons each are loaded automatically for the 1,000 ft/min trip. At some mines, the skip loading, hoisting, and surface dumping operations are managed completely by computers. Either below ground or on the surface, the salt is re-screened to remove fines, bagged, palletized and prepared for shipment to the salt customer.

How does solution mining for salt work?

Solution mining of salt or halite deposits is just like it sounds.

Once the salt deposit is located, fresh and recycled water is injected through a well (or wells) drilled into an underground salt bed or salt dome, usually between 150 and 1,500 meters (500 to 5000 feet) deep. Dissolution of the salt forms a void or cavern in the salt deposit. Salt brine is withdrawn from the cavern and transported by pipeline to an onsite evaporating plant to make dry salt, or to a chemical processing plant for chlor-alkali or other chemical production. Solution mines located at the site of chemical plants are called captive brine wells.

Some salt solution mines consist of a single well with concentric casings extending into the salt cavern. Others consist of several adjacent wells extending into a single large cavern. Brine is withdrawn either through the outer concentric casing in a single well cavern, or through a separate casing in a multiple well salt cavern. The size and shape of solution mined caverns can be measured and controlled with well logging devices and operating techniques, thus minimizing the potential for surface subsidence. After the end of use for salt or chemical production, solution-mined salt caverns are often used to store natural gas or other products, including industrial wastes such as oil field wastes, or to store compressed air used to run turbines and generate electricity.

How does solar salt production work?

Solar salt is produced by the action of sun and wind on seawater or natural brine in lakes; both temperature and salinity are important.

The water evaporates in successive ponds until the brine is fully concentrated and salt crystallizes on the floor of the crystallizing ponds. Solar salt plants must be located in areas of low rainfall and high evaporation rates, and where suitable low-cost is available. In the Mediterranean, for example, saltworks succeed because evaporation exceeds rainfall by a factor of 3:1; that advantage is even greater in Australia where it can reach 15:1. Seawater contains about 3.5% (by weight) dissolved minerals. Sodium chloride is 77% of that amount, or about 2.7% of seawater. The other 0.8% consists chiefly of calcium, magnesium and sulfate ions. As seawater evaporates, its volume decreases and the concentration of sodium chloride in the resulting brine increases. Thus, saltworks generally extract as sodium chloride a bit over 2% of the weight of the influent seawater. This means that solar saltworks are often quite extensive in area. Often, the concentrating ponds will have distinct coloration, a pink or red, depending on the salt concentration and what species of plants and animals find it habitable. Salt crystals begin to form when the brine concentration reaches 25.8 % sodium chloride (NaCl). As evaporation proceeds, a layer of salt builds up on the earthen crystallizer floors to a thickness of 10 to 25 cm (4-10 in). Sometimes, a layer of salt remains in the crystallizers as "salt floors" to provide support for "harvesting" equipment and to lessen the chance of clay or soil contamination of the salt. A modern, properly operated solar salt plant can produce salt that is more than 99.7 % NaCl (dry basis). After the salt "crop" reaches the appropriate thickness, the salt is harvested with mobile equipment, washed, and placed on stockpile to drain. The principal impurities in solar salt are small amounts of calcium and magnesium sulfate, and magnesium chloride. Clean brine, made by dissolving fine salt, is used to wash the salt to remove small amounts of impurities such as these. Seawater can also be used, but salt losses increase due to dissolution. Depending on the intended use, solar salt may be crushed, screened and dried in kiln or fluidized-bed dryers. Because of its high purity and large crystal size, solar salt is widely used to regenerate water softeners.

What is salt?

Sodium chloride or common salt is the chemical compound NaCl, composed of the elements sodium and chloride. Salt occurs naturally in many parts of the world as the mineral halite and as mixed evaporates in salt lakes.

Seawater has lots of salt; it contains an average of 2.7% (by weight) NaCl, or 78 million metric tons per cubic kilometre, an inexhaustible supply. Underground salt deposits are found in both bedded sedimentary layers and domal deposits. Deposits have been found to have encapsulated ancient micro organisms including bacteria. Salt even arrives on earth from outer space in meteors and its presence on the planet Mars makes scientists think life may exist there (in fact, scientists speculate that salt-loving bacteria live in underground water on Mars. Conversely, surface salt depositions and man-made saltworks can be seen from space. In ocean coastal areas, saltwater can "intrude" on underground freshwater supplies, complicating the lives of those who provide our drinking water supplies. Sodium chloride crystals are cubic in form. Table salt consists of tiny cubes tightly bound together through ionic bonding of the sodium and chloride ions. The salt crystal is often used as an example of crystalline structure. It varies in colour from colourless, when pure, to white, grey or brownish, typical of rock salt (halite). Chemically, it is 60.663% elemental chlorine (Cl) and 39.337% sodium (Na).