Salt is life – and without salt, food tastes bland. In order to bring taste to the food, you don’t have to resort to overpriced precious salt. After all, what gives it taste is just plain sodium chloride. And that is also available for little money, as Warentest finds out.
For humans, salt is vital for controlling the water balance, it needs about three to six grams per day. However, too much salt in the diet can be harmful to the body. The German Society for Nutrition recommends 6 grams of salt as a daily maximum.
Apart from that, salt, like so many things nowadays, was anything but a matter of course not so long ago. Weighted with gold in the Middle Ages, the mineral is very inexpensive today and can be found in every household. Otherwise the food doesn’t taste good. But salt tastes – salty. It doesn’t matter whether a pound costs 25 euros or 0.25 euros.
Stiftung Warentest examined 41 table salts. From normal table salt without any additives to products with iodine or reduced sodium content to expensive fleur de sel. At prices between 0.06 and 6.95 euros per 100 grams. With good to sufficient results.
The main subject of the test was the sensory system: five trained people tested the salts for appearance, smell, taste, mouthfeel and more. Here they noticed errors in two-thirds: some salts had a dull or sticky smell, some tasted slightly of herbs. The Salt Range Himalayan crystal salt from Natur Hurtig was the least convincing (1.15 euros per 100 g) – with the judgment “sufficient” (grade 3.7) it is at the bottom of the test.
The chemical quality of the salts was also examined. Here, the levels of nutrients such as sodium, fluoride and iodine were determined. Fortunately, it was good or even very good for all products. Whereby Warentest advises the use of iodized salt. According to the Robert Koch Institute, 30 percent of adults and 44 percent of minors have an increased risk of iodine deficiency. Possible consequences: concentration problems, increased blood lipid levels, the formation of a goiter or even depression.
According to the testers, salts with extra fluoride and folic acid are also good. Some salts also contain significantly less sodium than regular salts. Those who use these can easily lower their blood pressure.
In the study, a brand classic and a discounter salt secured first place with a grade of 1.6: the “Bad Reichenhaller AlpenJod-Salz Fluorid Folsäure” (0.18 euros per 100 g) and the “Carat Jodsalz mit Fluoride fine grain” from Netto (0.06 euros per 100 g). Among the sodium-reduced products, the “Disal light salt iodized” is the best with a grade of 2.4 (088 euros per 100 g). When it comes to salt without added iodine, the “Bad Reichenhall salt blossoms” (5 euros per 100 g) took first place with a grade of 2.0.
Fleur de sel, the “blossom of salt”, which is skimmed off by hand from sea bays, runs a little out of the competition. As a fine table salt, it provides that extra crunch. Of the seven products tested, Stiftung Warentest finds the “Flor de Sal d’Es Trenc Natural” (5.55 euros per 100 g) the best (1.7).
