Can someone explain the difference between

[soocool]

sea salt and regular salt? I have been seeing many products touting "now with sea salt". What is so special about sea salt and also is it lower in sodium?

 

[Bleed Burnt Orange]

I do believe that is the main difference. The texture and saltiness. Sea Salt isn't as salty! Same product in the long run though.

 

[elrohwen]

For home use, it does taste slightly different because there are other minerals in there, not just NaCl (though whether you can tell or not once it's added to food is debatable) and the texture is different (chunkier and can add crunch to some dishes).

Many food companies use it because with certain sea salts they are able to add enough to give flavor, but use less sodium overall. I know first hand that Campbell's does this. However, since sea salt usually tastes *less* salty, not more, they are using a different type that actually has a saltier flavor - it's not the same sea salt you see on a menu at a fancy restaurant or buy at the grocery store. It's mostly marketing hype on their part as some of these "salts" aren't actually NaCl, what we usually think of as salt, but salts of other elements. These companies know that sea salt is a buzz word now, so they're finding ways to use it.

 

[manderz]

The ingredients may be slightly different as well. Much of the time, table salt contains iodine, and anti-caking ingredients, and sea salt generally doesn't.

 

[Ninna]

They are produced differently.  
Table salt is minded from deposits then purified and part iodized. It may be 'saltier' due to its fine grain in a single teaspoon.The calcium silicate prevents clumping but unnecessary imho.
Sea salt is harvested from evaporated seawater [almost zero processing ] leaving mineral flavor and color from the water it came from alone

 

[soocool]

I am on a low sodium diet and was hoping that it would be low in sodium, but from I gather it isn't .

 

[perry]

Great question as all the mined salt is in fact sea salt. It just evaporated and was buried and compressed millions of years ago. It may also contain traces of other minerals.

The biggest difference is grain size - and the fact that certain seas may have different trace minerals.

For those worried about iodine - you can buy uniodinized mined salt; and you can also get mined salt without the anti-caking additive (Look for canning salt).

Perry