Am I the only one worried about the safety of sea salt?
Below are some facts I found through the Smithsonian on the health of oceans after news of Fukushima radiation leaks into the Pacific had me putting my sea salt back in the cupboard and reaching for the Morton's. Am I being ridiculous in thinking that the sea salt craze may need to be reconsidered? I did a quick Google search on the safety of sea salt and came up empty handed. Is there a scientist out there with some input?
Oil spills account for only about five percent of the oil entering the oceans.
Waters sewage treatment plants discharge twice as much oil each year as tanker spills.
Each year industrial, household cleaning, gardening, and automotive products pollute water.
It is estimated that medical waste that washed up onto Long Island and New Jersey beaches in the summer of 1988 cost as much as $3 billion in lost revenue from tourism and recreation.
The most frequently found item in beach cleanups is pieces of plastic. The next four items are plastic foam, plastic utensils, pieces of glass and cigarette butts.
Air pollution is responsible for almost one-third of the toxic contaminants and nutrients that enter coastal areas and oceans.
In 1993, United States beaches were closed or swimmers advised not to get in the water over 2,400 times because of sewage contamination.
There are 109 countries with coral reefs. Reefs in 90 of them are being damaged by cruise ship anchors and sewage.
**I should add that I understand the impossibility of reducing chemical interference in one's life to zero. I'm just saying that recently sea salt's been giving me the heebie-jeebies.
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LIke any food products you consume, if you're that worried, make an effort to know where your food is coming from. I use Hawaiian salt that is made the old fashion way.
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re: small h
No, this Hawaiian salt is white flakes but can be made red by adding alaea. Here's an article about the salt I get from the island of Kauai's Salt Pond. I love the lore involved too!
http://www.hanahou.com/pages/magazine...
Note that any other "Hawaiian Salt" that is bought from the stores are not authentic. It is manufactured salt. Authentic Hawaiian Salt that is hand harvested cannot be sold...EVER.
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re: ORtastytravels
Here's a video showing how it's harvested...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gawS3s... -
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re: small h
Sorry gang, but there is no difference between these salt pans and others around the world. It is just how the salt is processed. They are identicle to the ones in the Bahamas, only there they use bulldozers. And people and boats are banned from the initial lagoons, thus being a great nursery for fish and flamingos. As well as greatly decreasing human and petroleum contaniments.
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There is certainly no danger of contamination of sea salt from the radiation leak, but I don't understand the attraction of sea salt anyway. I use Morton Coarse Kosher Salt for cooking. Salt is all the same, except for impurities. If I want something extra, I'd rather add it explicitly.
All salt may originate in the sea, but there are different processes. If salt is separated from brine by crystalization, impurities will be left behind in the brine. I don't think salt goes directly from a mine to the kitchen. Rock salt for roads, perhaps.
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re: GH1618
sunshine842
Jan 28, 2012 04:57 AM
it's ground to size, of course -- but yes, there are plenty of salt mines around the world that mine it, grind it, and send it out. You can still visit the salt mines in Austria (and it's a blast to put on the goofy suits and slide down the wooden slides instead of taking the stairs) -- you ride into the mine on the small-gauge railroad used to haul the salt out of the mine. A couple of these are still commercially active.
It all depends on the purity of the deposit itself.
There are also the salt mines along the shores of the Mediterranean -- huge production - and while not IN a major population area, certainly not far away.
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re: sunshine842
Perhaps so, but I don't get my salt from "around the world." This is how it is produced in the US:
"Virtually all food grade salt sold or used in the United States is produced by vacuum evaporation of brine."
http://www.saltinstitute.org/content/download/9074/49173
Here's a link to an interesting article on salt refining:
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re: GH1618
sunshine842
Jan 28, 2012 02:27 PM
but you didn't say anything at all restricting it to the US in your first post -- and while we're in the minority, there are a lot of us on this forum who buy our salt from around the world because we live around the world.
and "virtually all" means that there's some produced by other methods.
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re: sunshine842
Your point about the international nature of this forum is well taken, but of course food standards and practices vary widely across national boundaries.
I took "virtually all" to exclude sea salt, which I don't use. I expect Morton Coarse Kosher Salt, which is what I use, and Morton table salt, to account for virtually all salt used in homes in the US. That's just a guess — I can't document it.
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gingershelley
Jan 27, 2012 01:34 PM
I suggest for some reasonable authority on this topic of Sea Salt, mined salt, etc. we turn to someone who is versed in it.
Really people; that is a lot of freaking out over issues in the ocean that you only have a tiny, eensy bit of info about. Sure fish poop in the ocean - comparing it to an aquarium is so lame; an aquarium is a closed, finite system without all the washing/exchange/ organic processess that has made it a miracle of life on earth for millenia. We poor humans HAVE to clean aquariums because we are dealing with a tiny miniscule version of the real thing....
I doubt any decent sea salt farm is near a large city's polution - either by air or by sea, and most of the salt UNDER the earth has been there far longer than since when human's started really messing with our environment and so those deposits are not contaminated.Mark Bittermans 'Salted - A Manifesto on the world's most essential mineral, with recipes" is a great book with alot of solid, researched information about sea salt, and mined salts, and evaporation methods of harvesting salt.
Check out this link to his shop in PDX, and the book. http://www.atthemeadow.com/shop/index...
I checked it out of my local library, and learned alot. Won't ever be using the ol' Morton's again.
Let's get some informed information going in this thread, and then we can really discuss salts.
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re: gingershelley
drongo
Jan 28, 2012 04:48 AM
gingershelley, I don't think you're right to "doubt any decent sea salt farm is near a large city's polution" ... Cargill produces salt in the San Francisco Bay -- in the middle of one of the country's largest metropolitan areas. But the salt intended for human consumption does go through a refining process.
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re: drongo
gingershelley
Jan 28, 2012 09:54 AM
Any Salt made by Cargill is NOT the kind of 'salt farm' that people should be consuming. A tiny percentage of that might get turned into iodized people salt, but most of that industrial salt is for commercial and industrial use - salting roads, chemical manufacture, etc.
I was reffering to salt farming of the kind done in Hawaii, Britanny sea salt (fleur de sel), etc. those are decidedly NOT industrial in nature, nor done near a large city.
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re: drongo
gingershelley
Jan 28, 2012 12:01 PM
Glad I don't use Diamond salt! I am down on Cargill in general.
Confess I do use Morton kosher salt for any larger applications of salt, like brining, salt-roasting oysters, salmon or beef roast. I think I better look into where THAT is being procured!
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re: ashleighDC
gingershelley
Jan 28, 2012 10:59 AM
Thank you Ashleigh, I really enjoyed the book, and feel far more informed about salts!
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re: gingershelley
Frankly, a course in general chemistry is needed.
If you actually believe that human beings are responsible for all harmful acts, consider the fact that the nuclear explosions were going on before recorded history. Nature-made fires and volcanic eruptions cause plenty of pollution.
As for the whole thing that started this... If you're that concerned about radiation, you need to stop eating bananas and will have to get your teeth pulled out. Don't even get me started on the glow-in-the-dark edible nuts.
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ipsedixit
Jan 27, 2012 11:15 AM
I worry about people who worry about the safety of sea salt.
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iL Divo
Jan 27, 2012 11:05 AM
watching Roger Mookie from Everyday Exotic contaminate his bowl of salt by flipping pork after pounding it out. he salts then lifts with his hands the raw pork flips it over goes back to salt bowl then flips again and back to salt bowl again.
can't find the thread that talks about contaminating salt, please forgive me if this is wrong place/thread and direct me (if you please) to correct thread. I'd doi it myself but I'm late for Dr. appointment.›2 Replies-
re: iL Divo
I think the cooking is going to take care of the bacteria if the salt doesn't first. People have used salt to cure foods for thousands of years and it is probably a reason why seafood doesn't taste like fish poop. The salt in the sea, I'm sure, is a natural deterrent to bacteria growth in the sea.
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re: stevenbshelton
sunshine842
Jan 28, 2012 04:51 AM
last time I had some, freshwater fish doesn't taste like fish poop, either. Dilution, gravity, etc., etc., etc.
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DonShirer
Apr 18, 2011 07:13 PM
My wife was reading an article about sea salt (in the NYTimes I think) and suddenly asked, "Isn't all salt sea salt?" She has a point. Isn't mined salt deposited from prehistoric seas?
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Quine
Apr 18, 2011 05:15 PM
"I never drink water because of the disgusting things that fish do in it.
W. C. Fields"Then there is what the birds do over it, that falls in and what little boys and in fact all humans do in it, so what me worry?
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OK, if I understand you, you stopped using sea salt after the radiation leaks in the ocean took place. Why? The sea salt you have is certainly not contaminated with radiation. And, aren't you assuming that your sea salt is obtained from the Pacific Ocean? Mine is obtained in Italy. I suppose I should be worried about the contaminants in the Mediterranean Sea? Maybe I should, since I understand it is quite contaminated.
I would be far more concerned about the recent finding of antibiotic resistant bacteria in our raw meat supply, than about the infinitesimal amounts of radiation you might receive in your salt.
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Also fish have been going potty in the ocean for hundreds ... nay, thousands of years ... I'm sure it has accumulated quite a bit, there are literally TONS of it in the ocean. Yet people eat sushi, raw fish that has been swimming in its own filth, without a care in the world. Think about it, the fish go potty in the ocean, the fish drink the water in the ocean, you eat the fish ... does that make any sense? Have you ever seen an aquarium that hasn't been cleaned in a couple of months? Multiply that by a thousand years ....
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Is there any scientific evidence out there, perhaps that when the water evaporates that most of the toxins and pollution evaporate with it? Otherwise I would think it would be concentrated into the salt.
The ocean may have a cleaning mechanism, but I don't think that mechanism was prepared for the pollution that humans have dumped into it in the last century or two.
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The ocean has a cleaning mechanism in place for just about everything. It's only when it can't clean itself quickly enough that things become an issue. So far, none of the above are big issues.
As for radiation, it really frustrates me that people forgot that we (U.S.) blew up a bunch of bombs in our backyard (New Mexico), releasing a whole lotta radiation that didn't wipe us out or affect anyone distant... Well, there is the whole thing about our teeth being more radioactive, but that's not an issue. As for water and stuff, I recall the French detonating some big ones near Australian waters in the 90s.
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re: ediblover
srsone
Apr 18, 2011 11:48 AM
usa nuclear tests...1054 tests
russia 715 tests
france 210 tests
united kingdom 45 tests
china 45 tests
india 6 tests
pakistan 6 tests
north korea 2 tests...those were a mix of above ground,underground and ocean tests...
if u really want to worry....and yea the french created godzilla with their tests
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re: Chowrin
C. Hamster
Apr 19, 2011 01:00 PM
Morton's has salt mines in Utah. So you'd better put it back in the cupboard and use Accent instead.
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Well salt kills cooties so you don't have to worry about that.
Of all the things to be concerned about this has to rank among the weirdest. Salt has to come from somewhere, if not from the sea then from a salt mine ... you are betting the salt mine is cleaner than sea water? How do you know that? The salt mine could be located next to the local dump.
The ocean is a big place, pollution is diluted to minute amounts, is that true of a salt mine?
I use the generic table salt myself, but whatever the source I use I would not worry about it ... because it is salt.
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Any reason why sea salt would suddenly terrify you, but fish gets a pass? If it does, of course.
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re: small h
goodhealthgourmet
Apr 18, 2011 12:23 PM
i think foodworthy is referring to the rule that if raw/uncooked fish smells overpoweringly "fishy" as opposed to briny or ocean-y, it's most likely not very fresh.
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re: chicgail
MGZ
Apr 19, 2011 08:57 AM
Since I'm too lazy to retype the thought, this is lifted from an earlier post:
"I think the TV chef aphorism about the smell of fish can be misleading. I mean, if the ocean really smelled like the creatures I extract from it, I assure you I would not revel in the surf half the days of the year. I agree with many that not all fish smells the same, but let’s be honest, fish smells like fish.
I acknowledge that fish smells like fish at the time I remove the hook. Fish smells like fish on ice on the trip back to the Inlet. Fish smells like fish while I am cleaning it and so do my hands and knife when I’m done. Fish smells like fish when I cook it. . . ."
Oh, and so as to stay on the main point: I'm not afraid to dive under a wave, get a mouthful of sea water, or consume any of the sea salts I routinely use.
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re: MGZ
Thank you. That was my point, exactly. The word "fishy" has acquired negative connotations, so now people insist that fish that smells "fishy" is bad. Fish that smells spoiled is bad, just like butter that smells spoiled is bad. But you don't hear anyone telling you not to eat butter that smells buttery.
And if the day ever comes when I can't smell the difference between fish and cucumber, I will sadly conclude that I've completely lost my olfactory sense.
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