Emergency in Solar Salt Supply... Growing Interest in Australian 'Namgeukhaeyeom'

[▲Chitam Salt Antarctic Sea Salt Production Site]

Domestic consumers who use a lot of salt in foods such as kimchi, fermented sauces, and salted seafood inevitably have a high interest in clean and safe solar salt. However, recently, complex factors such as unstable climate, quality issues with Chinese solar salt, and Japan’s plan to discharge contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean have caused difficulties in the supply of domestic solar salt.

Jensen Lee, the exclusive distributor in Korea of Australian solar salt manufacturer Cheetham Salt, has introduced ‘Antarctic Sea Salt’ produced by receiving the Antarctic current in the southernmost region of Australia. Cheetham Salt, with about 130 years of tradition, owns numerous salt fields in Australia and New Zealand, enabling the production of solar salt in uncontaminated environments.

The difficulty in producing solar salt is largely influenced by climate. Areas with low temperatures delay salt crystallization, and regions with irregular rainfall cause salt to repeatedly get wet and dry, resulting in impurity formation and quality degradation.

Cheetham Salt’s ‘Antarctic Sea Salt’ is produced in the Price region of Australia, where the population density is close to zero, making it a product free of impurities such as microplastics. It undergoes a total of 256 toxic substance tests. This product is a matured solar salt aged for about two years using only sunlight and wind, with a high diurnal temperature range that makes the salt crystallization hard and low rainfall that minimizes impurity contamination.

A representative of Jensen Lee, Cheetham Salt’s domestic agency, said, “Antarctic Sea Salt can be used in various categories such as fermented sauces, kimchi, meat, sauces, salted seafood, and snacks in the food sector. It has the advantage of producing deep flavor even when used at about two-thirds the amount of conventional salt due to its hard crystallization and high purity of over 99.4%.”

Meanwhile, many functional cosmetics developers are paying attention to the anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and waste removal effects of solar salt and are entering the production of products that can be used on skin and hair. Various products using salt, such as body scrubs, salt creams, and hair scalps, are increasing.