Sea Salt and Tiny Plastic Bits
Contamination of Indian sea salts with microplastics and a potential prevention strategy
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
All eight commercial sea salt brands tested contained microplastics.
Many consumers assume that natural sea salt, especially from large producers, is pure and free of synthetic contaminants. Finding plastic in every sample challenges that assumption.
Practical Takeaways
Support salt producers who use filtration methods like sand filtration to reduce microplastic contamination.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
All eight commercial sea salt brands tested contained microplastics.
Many consumers assume that natural sea salt, especially from large producers, is pure and free of synthetic contaminants. Finding plastic in every sample challenges that assumption.
Practical Takeaways
Support salt producers who use filtration methods like sand filtration to reduce microplastic contamination.
Publication
Journal
Environmental Science and Pollution Research
Year
2018
Authors
Chandan Krishna Seth, Amritanshu Shriwastav
Related Content
Claims (5)
Sea salt from India has about 64 micrograms of tiny plastic bits in every kilogram of salt — that’s like a speck of dust in a bag of sugar, but made of plastic.
Some sea salts from India might have tiny plastic bits in them — like fibers and small pieces — and since India sells a lot of salt worldwide, that could be a problem.
Most of the tiny plastic bits found in sea salt from India are super small—like, smaller than a millimeter—so our bodies might absorb them more easily.
Running dirty seawater through sand might catch most of the tiny plastic bits, so the salt we make from it could end up cleaner.
Sea salt is cleaner than rock salt because it's filtered through nature and factories, and it doesn’t sit in metal-heavy rocks for ages like mined salt does.