SALT : The salt shaker survives 10 years of health-related criticism as sales and perceptions of the vital mineral improve

CHULA VISTA —  A shimmering mosaic of rectangular ponds, each reflecting the noonday sun, anchor San Diego Bay’s southernmost shore.

The unseasonal heat of early spring is hastening the anticipated evaporation in these man-made configurations, each sharply outlined by levees of hardened earth and rock.

In only a few months, weather permitting, some of the world’s finest salt, 99.8% pure, will be scraped from the bottom of these massive pools.

Inconspicuous to nearby street traffic, the water surface being manipulated here spans a vast 1,300 acres. While the system of ponds and embankments may be generally out of view, there is no mistaking this area as the location of the Western Salt Co. Towering above the bay, like a crystal pyramid, is the firm’s glittering salt stockpile.

The stack stands as a monument to the ease with which the sun’s energy can transform seawater into a vital raw mineral. The process, under way at this site since 1916, is the most environmentally sensitive of three methods used to produce salt.

But few in the increasingly urban neighborhood surrounding Western notice much about this century-old technique. What little attention the facility attracts comes from the water fowl that claim the brine ponds as a refuge.

As such, there’s a certain serenity to be found watching a hot sun evaporate water. And the sense of inactivity at Western is understandable considering the primary product here, sodium chloride, has been on health officials’ hit list for a decade.

Salt consumption, as the major source of sodium, has been vilified since the late 1970s as a cause of hypertension. The disorder, typified by high blood pressure, is a condition that can lead to heart disease and stroke.

Over the past decade, the federal government has spent millions of dollars in a highly publicized campaign to encourage reductions in dietary sodium as a way of lowering the nation’s collective blood pressure. In response, many of the major food companies introduced reduced-sodium or no-salt versions of their traditional product lines. But even these developments have been called inadequate by some consumer groups, who continue to press for still further reductions in foods’ sodium content.

The cumulative effect of this barrage of information, and the eating changes made in its wake, should translate into tough times for the salt business.

Well, not quite.

The decline and dreariness that typify failing companies is difficult to discern here. Western, in fact, is expanding its production facilities in order to meet food processors’ increasing demand for sodium chloride.

Even though the higher-grade salt required for food-industry use will not be available from Western until May, there are already firms who have made purchase commitments.

More curious is that Western has never before produced salt for food processors, having been content to sell solely to heavy industry.

Strange, too, that a product so associated with illness should be extracted at such a picturesque location, a site that plays host to hundreds of different bird species and a wealth of marine life.

The expansion at Western, the smallest of the nation’s 12 manufacturers, is one of several positive developments for this besieged industry.

No one has yet heralded a new era for salt in food. Nor is anyone giving the ingredient a clean bill of health. Nevertheless, this “edible rock” may deserve another look in light of stubbornly stable sales levels and evolving medical research.

For instance, production of food-grade salt was 961,000 tons in 1987, a 5.4% increase over the previous year. Prior to the most recent jump, though, sales had remained fairly steady for the past five years. Producers suffered their most serious losses from 1978 through 1983, or at the height of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s effort against sodium consumption. But even then the category declined only about 15% from its previous high of one million tons, an average of 3% a year.

In terms of dollars, food-grade salt sales generated $120.6 million last year, actually up from 1977’s $98.3 million total, according to statistics compiled by the Salt Institute, an Alexandria, Va.,-based trade group. The increase is attributed to inflation and price hikes, but is still impressive considering the attention given to the health-related problems associated with diets high in sodium.

What’s more, medical researchers have repeatedly confirmed earlier studies, originally conducted in the 1950s, indicating that only 10% of the U.S. population is salt-sensitive. It is this sub-group that is most likely to experience any beneficial change in blood pressure levels by reducing dietary sodium.

Reducing Salt Intake Could Be Harmful

And sharp, arbitrary reductions of salt intake, without a physician’s supervision, may actually prove harmful, according to several health professionals familiar with the issue.

Yet another thesis revelant to the salt controversy singles out calcium deficiencies as a probable factor in the development of hypertension.

Beyond the science and sales is the fact that consumers are a long way from abandoning this most basic seasoning. Salt plays an important role in food preservation, controlling microbiological organisms and mold in a number of foods, including processed meats and canned goods.

“People like salt,” said Richard Hanneman, institute president. “Even though the government was successful (in causing) the decline (in sales), there is a limit to how far we can fall. That’s simply because the public prefers foods that contain (natural or added) salt: bread, cereal, dairy products, seafood, meats, most soups.”

People involved in the production or sale of salt tend to be defensive about the subject; and most seem self-conscious even talking about an ingredient that has received so much negative attention.

One way of placing some distance between themselves and the health issues is to frequently refer to the operation as agricultural in nature rather than as something from a smoke-belching factory. This tactic has particular validity in California where there’s an absence of salt mines and brine wells.

“This is basic farming,” said Mark McCortney, Western’s operations manager, as he surveyed the firm’s extensive system of ponds and the abundance of bird life that coexist here. “One thing about this business is that we can make salt and supply a needed commodity and, at the same time, maintain a natural habitat for the birds . . . It’s a nice place to work. You’re out in the open a lot and it’s quite beautiful at times.”

California’s only other salt producer is located in a similar spot along the San Francisco Bay.

Leslie Salt Co., of Newark, Calif., also uses the seawater and solar evaporation method. The technique requires special conditions: low annual rainfall, an abundance of salt water, non-porous soils and extended sunshine. In this country, the process is economically feasible only in the two California locations and along the shores of Utah’s Great Salt Lake.

Sale Remain Stable

Leslie, which has produced food-grade salt since 1901, also reports that sales to processors and retailers are stable.

“Our sales of table salt are constant,” said Greg Morris, a Leslie vice president. “Sales to food canneries are also about the same . . . All the attention given to reducing sodium levels was just another dietary phase. Table salt had its turn as the food villain and then it was white sugar’s turn. But I’ve been seeing a number of research articles on salt lately (that indicate) maybe we weren’t so bad.”

Morton’s Salt, which buys a portion of its raw materials from the Leslie facility, has experienced a loss in food-grade sales comparable to those declines identified in the industry-wide statistics. But a company representative is not alarmed.

“People paid attention (to the FDA’s message) for awhile and then went back to old habits,” said Raymond Pierobon, marketing vice president for the Morton Salt Division of Morton Thiokol Inc. in Chicago. “The public will continue to season to taste at the dinner table unless advised to stop by their personal physician.”

Pierobon says that certain foods--popcorn, corn on the cob, fresh garden tomatoes--are just not the same without salt.

“The thing that’s special about salt is that when the moisture in your mouth is exposed to this chemical there is the satisfaction,” he said.

That same pleasure is not as readily found with the seasoning alternatives that Morton’s has offered consumers in the past.

“We introduced Morton’s Salt Substitute 15 years ago. How’s it doing? Very poorly,” he said.

The salt substitute, made from potassium chloride, doesn’t taste very good, according to Pierobon, who added, “There is no substitute for sodium chloride.”

Morton’s Lite Salt, on the other hand, is doing “moderately well,” he said, without enthusiasm.

The final arbiters of salt’s future role, far from the California brine ponds, will be the scientists and health researchers who have worked with the product.

“Five years ago there was a clear cut indication between sodium chloride and hypertension levels,” said Richard A. Greenberg Ph.D., scientific public affairs director for the Institute of Food Technologists in Chicago. “But people at the Oregon Health Sciences University and elsewhere have done research that has turned that around a bit. What it means is that science is not set in concrete.”

Greenberg, who acknowledges that the current data about salt is confusing, does take issue with food companies who market reduced sodium foods and beverages to the general public.

‘Should Everyone Reduce Salt (Intake)?’

“It bothers me that people are spending money on something that they may not really need,” he said. “Why eat a special diet and spend money, time and effort to control a portion of that diet without a medical reason to do so? People need to have their physician tell them to cut down on salt (not the food companies).”

The issue of whether the entire population or just those predisposed to hypertension should reduce sodium in the diet is, indeed, a controversial one, said John Erdman Ph.D., a mineral nutrition specialist with the University of Illinois’ department of food science.

“Should everyone reduce salt? Well, if everyone reduces sodium intake then there is bound to be less hypertension. But the other side of the debate is to find out those that are hypertensive and get them to lower their intake,” Erdman said. “And from the food companies’ viewpoint it’s very difficult to lower salt in food products without having people reject the item. Salt is a flavor enhancer of other flavors. If you lower salt a little bit, then the overall flavor goes down.”

Norman Kaplan, MD, who chairs a policy committee for the American Society of Hypentension, conceeds that the campaign to reduce sodium in the diet may have been “over enthusiastic.”

Even so, there is little harm in reducing salt consumption in this country, he said. The average American consumes four to six grams of sodium a day, according to current estimates--a level that is far above the recommended daily intake of one to three grams.

“Yes, the evidence is that not everyone responds to changes in salt consumption,” said Kaplan, a professor of medicine at University of Texas’ Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. “But I don’t think any harm can be done in (reducing sodium) as a public health measure. It deserves to be considered by most everyone.”

Salt’s Special Role in Sustaining Life

Invariably, any such discussion turns to salt’s special role in sustaining life by regulating water and naturally occurring chemical levels in the body.

Much is also made of salt’s rich history. Valued highly in ancient times, it was used in place of coins as a currency. From this legacy are derived some lasting expressions; “Salt of the earth,” “worth his salt” and “above the salt” are all phrases that indicate this basic mineral is more than just a seasoning.

That is certainly the case for Western Salt’s McCortney, who has occupied himself of late monitoring the company’s brine ponds. The seawater has now turned a pink-orange tint as it enters the later stages of evaporation. When he begins this year’s harvest of the drained ponds, it will be with an eye toward sending a portion of the crop to Southern California food companies for the first time.

“Salt,” he said with a smile, “can be quite lucrative.”