Iodine Global Network (IGN)
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South African salt: the journey from mine to meal
The very first bite of pasta al pomodoro generously sprinkled with coarse sea salt is the moment I pinpoint as the end of my salt-sparing life. From just a scattering on buttered bread to rubbing down a pork roast with it, or adding a heavy-handed dash of it to a rich chocolate mousse, salt is like the sun to blossoming taste buds and a vital addition to everything I sauté, roast, boil and bake.
The word itself says as much. The Roman word for salt crystals, sal, is derived from Salus, the goddess of health. The word salary, too, comes from when Roman soldiers were paid their wages in salt, which would be cut if it was decided that he was “not worth his salt”. But human consumption is just one of thousands of uses for salt –sodium chloride – which is found in anything from food to soap and plastic and most in demand for its countless industrial applications.
Iodine addition
Professor Pieter Jooste, now retired from his post as chief specialist scientist and director of the national intervention research unit at the Medical Research Council (MRC), was instrumental in the introduction of the compulsory addition of iodine to table salt, which is now regulated by law for all food grade salt.
He is the regional co-ordinator for Southern African countries of the Iodine Global Network.
The MRC, Jooste says, was crucial in identifying the problem of persistent endemic goitre and iodine deficiency in South Africa, despite earlier regulation calling for producers to put iodine in their salt on a voluntary basis. Following reports in 1927 about endemic goitre, an abnormally enlarged thyroid gland, voluntary salt iodisation at a low concentration of 10 to 20 parts per million was instituted in 1954.
On the back of some external and political expectations, revised regulations about the mandatory iodisation of food grade salt were developed and implemented in 1995 and revised a decade later to increase the iodisation to between 35 and 65 parts per million.
There are many iodine deficiency disorders, including child mortality, reproductive failure and cretinism. The introduction of iodine into salt has virtually eradicated cretinism, which was pervasive in many nations. One hundred and fifty of the 193 World Health Organisation member nations have salt iodisation programmes.
Imported brands, such as the pricey Maldon salt, don’t contain iodine, but “wealthy people who can afford that probably don’t have an iodine deficiency”, Jooste says.
The word itself says as much. The Roman word for salt crystals, sal, is derived from Salus, the goddess of health. The word salary, too, comes from when Roman soldiers were paid their wages in salt, which would be cut if it was decided that he was “not worth his salt”. But human consumption is just one of thousands of uses for salt –sodium chloride – which is found in anything from food to soap and plastic and most in demand for its countless industrial applications.
Iodine addition
Professor Pieter Jooste, now retired from his post as chief specialist scientist and director of the national intervention research unit at the Medical Research Council (MRC), was instrumental in the introduction of the compulsory addition of iodine to table salt, which is now regulated by law for all food grade salt.
He is the regional co-ordinator for Southern African countries of the Iodine Global Network.
The MRC, Jooste says, was crucial in identifying the problem of persistent endemic goitre and iodine deficiency in South Africa, despite earlier regulation calling for producers to put iodine in their salt on a voluntary basis. Following reports in 1927 about endemic goitre, an abnormally enlarged thyroid gland, voluntary salt iodisation at a low concentration of 10 to 20 parts per million was instituted in 1954.
On the back of some external and political expectations, revised regulations about the mandatory iodisation of food grade salt were developed and implemented in 1995 and revised a decade later to increase the iodisation to between 35 and 65 parts per million.
There are many iodine deficiency disorders, including child mortality, reproductive failure and cretinism. The introduction of iodine into salt has virtually eradicated cretinism, which was pervasive in many nations. One hundred and fifty of the 193 World Health Organisation member nations have salt iodisation programmes.
Imported brands, such as the pricey Maldon salt, don’t contain iodine, but “wealthy people who can afford that probably don’t have an iodine deficiency”, Jooste says.
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