| Salt |
Fleur De Sel |
Traditional Sea Salt
Hand Harvested |
Ordinary Sea Salt |
Salt Pan Type  |
Traditional salt pans, with technologies older than the Roman Empire. Small areas, normally less than 10 hectares. Crystallization areas are larger than in industrial salt ponds, with small crystallization ponds (30-35 sq meters), in order
to be worked by hand. The water goes to the crystallization area at 15-17º. |
Industrial salt marshes. Very large salt pans with huge evaporators. Crystallization ponds are 1000 sq. meters. The brine goes into the crystallisers around 24º in order to maximize the NaCl crystallization. |
| Composition |
Amongst all sea salts, it is the one whose composition is closest to seawater. It contains high levels of magnesium and potassium. Almost all of the micronutrients contained in the seawater are present. |
The composition is very close to Flor de Sal. The place were the salt pan is located must be far from polluting heavy industries as well as intensive agriculture and big cities. Salt pans located at protected areas are preferred. |
It is near 100% sodium chloride. The washing processes, as well as the forced drying, eliminate the essential micronutrients. The water typically goes to crystallisers at bigger brine concentration, where several compounds precipitate in evaporators and are not present in the final product. |
Crystallization
Process |
The crystallization process takes place at the brine surface. |
The crystallization process takes place at the brine surface and in the bottom of the pan. |
The crystallization process takes place at the pan bottom. |
| Crystal Shape |
The crystals are plate shaped, being very thin. It crumbles easily between the fingers. |
The crystals are plate and cubic shaped, being larger than those in Flor de Sal but smaller than in industrial pans. |
The crystals are very big and are limited to cube shaped crystals. |
| Harvesting |
Harvested every day, by hand with appropriate tools. |
Harvest by hand every 2-3 weeks. The harvesting is done with extreme care, avoiding contact with the pan bottom to ensure that the salt does not become dirty (grey). |
The harvest is made once at the end of the season. It can be done with "bulldozers" or with specialized scratching machines; in either case there is normally a pre- wash process after the harvest. |
Processing
|
No processing whatsoever. It is packed after harvesting.
 |
Stays in the salt pan for 5 days drying in the sun and fixing the magnesium salts.The product is then directly packed —without any kind of processing. The product keeps some marine blended moisture.
|
After harvesting and pre washing, the salt is stored in big salt mountains. In the salt factory it is washed again, dried and milled; if organic matter is present, an oxidation process is necessary.Bleaching agents can be added during the wash process. Ferrocyanide, yellow prussiate of soda, tricalcium phosphate, alumine-calcium silicate and sodium aluminosilicate are anti-caking agents commonly used in ordinary salt products.
 |
