•  The origins of salt
•  Iodised and fluorinated salt
•  Salt and health
•  Salt and flavour
•  Food safety
•  Bibliography
•  Photo gallery

Salt is the common name given to sodium chloride (NaCI), a chemical compound.

Salt is extracted from underground deposits or sea water.

Salins is the only European group which implements the three existing production techniques.

  The agricultural method for sea salt

The concentrating of brine (normally from the sea) via evaporation in salt marshes under the effect of the sun and wind  

Water pumped from the sea circulates either by simple gravity or using pumps and flows through successive man-made ponds. The water flows a long way before it arrives at the salt beds where it has now taken the form of saturated brine produced by natural evaporation (the sun and wind). The salt then crystallises in the salt beds and forms deposits.  [   See animation ]

  The mining technique for rock salt

> Conventional Mining

Solid blocks of salt are extracted from salt mines. The underground deposits were formed many thousands of years ago, when oceans evaporated, creating salt layers which can be several meters thick. [  See animation ]


  The Thermal Process for Vacuum Salt

> The combination of solution mining and vacuum evaporation

The underground salt deposits, formed by the deposits of ancient seas, are dissolved by injecting fresh water. The brine (highly concentrated salt water) thus obtained is brought to the surface where it is evaporated in large evaporators – at the bottom of which the salt crystallises. [  See animation ]