SaltWorks® CEO Mark Zoske warns that an increase in poorly processed and lower cost Himalayan pink salt now available to suppliers will damage the salt industry's reputation and put consumer safety and satisfaction at risk.
Woodinville, WA, April 25, 2017 — SaltWorks®, Inc., the global leader of the Gourmet Salt industry, warns retail buyers that a recent influx of low-quality pink Himalayan mineral salt is putting retailers at risk. Responding to increased consumer demand for Himalayan pink salt, new commodity importers unfamiliar with the salt industry have introduced poorly processed mineral salt that may contain undesirable and potentially harmful insoluble materials.
"Himalayan salt is loved for its flavor, versatility and beautiful color. It's an incredible everyday salt. These lesser quality salts are jeopardizing consumers' perceptions. Lower quality and poorly processed pink salt will disappoint customers because it doesn't taste as good and doesn't work as well in their salt shakers and grinders," said Mark Zoske, CEO of SaltWorks. "Ultimately, we're concerned this lower quality salt will actually trigger a recall or make retailers more susceptible to lawsuits."
Himalayan salt is the result of an ancient body of water that evaporated, leaving behind a mineral-rich salt bed that fused with the seabed materials, such as clay and stone. These materials are excavated with the raw salt during the mining process. Removing the salt rom the mine can expose the salt to other contaminants that require several levels of careful processing to remove before packaging the salt for consumer purchase.
Commodity importers have introduced salt to market that is crudely processed overseas, and cannot ensure that these natural but inedible and undesirable materials have been removed.
"We have a strong relationship with our supplier, which allows us full control of the salt once it's removed from the mine. It's securely sealed in our own super bags and transported directly to our facility in the USA where we then process it," said Zoske. "We have multiple steps and QA checks along the way to ensure this is the highest quality, safest all-natural salt available, consistently."
Supplying gourmet and specialty sea salts sourced from around the world since 2001, SaltWorks has designed, engineered, implemented and perfected a Salt Processing System with built-in redundancies to ensure that the salts they sell to suppliers, retailers, and food manufacturers are the cleanest and the highest quality available.
This proprietary processing system includes sifters, aspirators, the strongest magnets in the industry, metal detection, and the company's own Optically Clean® Technology, which uses high-definition cameras to photograph every grain of salt and compare them to SaltWorks' specifications. Unlike older technology commonly used in the industry, SaltWorks' advanced Optically Clean equipment analyzes salt crystals in free fall using the full color spectrum, detects and the removes materials that blend in with the salt but are actually small rocks or clay particles, as well as crystals that don't meet color and quality requirements. Anything that doesn't meet SaltWorks' strict guidelines is removed with a burst of air.
"It's really difficult to detect, especially without this extremely advanced color sorter, the difference between a darker piece of Himalayan salt and a dark piece of clay. When the salt crystal and piece of clay or stone are the same size and density, these pieces can't just be sifted or aspirated out," said Zoske. "At SaltWorks, we have been asked by a few of our customers, who supply retailers with salt products to sell to consumers, to skip some of our processes to lower costs. We always refuse out of an abundance of caution and concern for the safety of any salt product that is brought to market. We never cut corners on our supply chain, equipment, processes or packaging. We want everyone to have safe, high quality, food-grade salt. This cheap, under-processed Himalayan salt does not meet any of those standards."
SaltWorks encourages commercial buyers to ask suppliers about their quality benchmarks, facilities, where and how the salt is processed, and to put the salt through simple visual and taste tests. Correctly processed Himalayan pink salt will range in color from a light white to pink to red, and every crystal should be translucent. Grains that are opaque white, red, dark brown or even black are inedible clay, stone or other material. The flavor should be salt-forward with a slight but distinct minerality. Gritty textures and a clay-like flavor indicate a lower-quality salt that includes impurities. The lowest quality salt may contain fine dust, dirt, plastic or other foreign particles.
"We've spent the last decade perfecting Himalayan salt by building these modern technological solutions to improve salt quality and increase Food Safety ," said Zoske. "We see products get recalled every day because they contain foreign matter. We're fighting for this business not just because we're passionate about salt, but because we've dedicated our lives to bringing the best tasting, cleanest salt to consumers and we won't let a few untrustworthy importers ruin this industry's stellar reputation," concluded Zoske.
For more information about SaltWorks' Himalayan salt processing solutions, and to access the quality guidelines and checklists, please visit Best Himalayan Salt Processing.
About SaltWorks®, Inc.
The most trusted name in the salt business, SaltWorks has been satisfying salt enthusiasts around the world since 2001. Serving wholesale, distributor, and bulk customers as well as individual consumers, SaltWorks offers a superior selection of the highest quality all-natural sea and mineral salts in a range of exact grain sizes and quantities to suit any application. The first and largest specialty salt company in the world, SaltWorks truly pioneered the gourmet salt business and produces the finest brands including Artisan® Salt Company, Fusion® naturally flavored salts, Ancient Ocean® Himalayan Pink Salt, Pure Ocean® Atlantic Sea Salt, Pacific Blue® Kosher Flake Sea Salt, Ultra Epsom® and Bokek® Premium Dead Sea Salt. SaltWorks continues to revolutionize the natural salt industry with their steadfast dedication to innovation, product integrity and world-class customer service. Proudly certified SQF level 2 with an Excellent rating, SaltWorks is also fully HAACP and GMP accredited by NSF International®. All SaltWorks products are all natural, kosher certified and guaranteed for purity and quality.
Discover the SaltWorks Difference and shop the best sea salts in the world at www.seasalt.com.