Sea salt is salt that is produced by the evaporation of seawater. It is used as a seasoning in foods, cooking, cosmetics and for preserving food. It is also called bay salt, solar salt, or simply salt. Like mined rock salt, production of sea salt has been dated to prehistoric times.
Sea salt harvesting in Pak Thale, Phetchaburi, Thailand
A salt evaporation pond in Tamil Nadu, India
High resolution image of a grain of sea salt
Sea salt evaporation pond at Walvis Bay. Halophile organisms giving a red colour.
In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as rock salt or halite. Salt is essential for life in general, and saltiness is one of the basic human tastes. Salt is one of the oldest and most ubiquitous food seasonings, and is known to uniformly improve the taste perception of food, including otherwise unpalatable food. Salting, brining, and pickling are also ancient and important methods of food preservation.
Rock salt (halite)
Salt production in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt (1670)
Ponds near Maras, Peru, fed from a mineral spring and used for salt production since pre-Inca times
SEM image of a grain of table salt
