Nature Chemistry | The Sceptical Chymist

Pure and simple

So, I was in a delicatessan last week that was proudly announcing its range of Himalayan sea salt, making a big deal about how pure it was. They then went on to comment that the bright pink colour of the salt was due to its high iron content. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Not very important in the grand scheme of things, I know, but I’d like to think that our food producers and retailers would be a bit more careful about how they use words like ‘pure’. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest…

Andy

Andrew Mitchinson (Associate Editor, Nature)

Comments

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    Stu said:

    Excuse my geographical naivety, but just how many seas are there in the Himalayas..!?

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    Uncle Al said:

    Reagent NaCl plus a megarad of Co-60 is yellow-brown from F-centers. Give it as an unknown for identification of the colored impurity. KCl in kind is quite pretty. Next best is a small tab of Hastelloy C2000 sent to wet analytical.

    Adding ionic iron as such to food ruins the flavor. NEVER in booze! Iron-fortified breakfast cereals… well, run a small magnet through the freshly glopped gruel.

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    Bronwen said:

    Oddly enough, I have just come home from eating at a french cafe type place near Waterloo station in London, and I felt it necessary to copy out the text from their salt ‘container’:

    “Sel Gris de l’Antlantic

    Unrefined sea salt, hand-harvested in the salt marshes of Guerande."

    It was definitely not white. It was a rather unappetizing shade of green, in fact.

    I was amazed that I have ‘progressed’ from thinking that a Whopper from Burger King or a jam-donut-plus-a-banana were reasonable things to eat for supper, to going to organic, fair-trade cafes that are proud of their unwashed salt.