While salt can be mined in many places throughout the world, in some places the mineral is scarce. So how did the residents of those places obtain one of the world’s most common seasonings? They evaporated plain sea water. The remains of that was the sea salt. Sea salt was used long before salt mines were developed. Many chefs believe that sea salt even tastes better than mined salt. Those who consume sea salt compared to mined salt say that the taste and texture differ greatly.

Despite consumers saying that the taste may be different between sea salt and mined salt, science and studies show that there are miniscule differences in how the salts affect the human body. It has been discovered that sea salt contains more trace amounts of silver, copper, and lead than mined sea salts. The amount of those trace amounts, however, are so small that they have little to no affect on human health. With that fact in light, professionals believe that either salt consumed is of equal effects on the human body.

There are salt evaporation farms throughout the world. In many places, those salt farms are present where there are no natural salt mines for mineral salt. Such farms exist in Senegal, Indian, Thailand, and Jordan. Those farms are located near either the ocean or inland lakes with large deposits of salt. Jordan’s Dead Sea possesses the highest salt content ratio than any other body of water in the world. Bodies of water with high salt concentrations are best used for salt evaporation. The farms are divided up into grids, much like a rice farm. The evaporated salt is collected by workers and either stored within salt houses or immediately brought to refineries to ship throughout the world. Either way, many claim that sea salt farming is much more efficient and safer than salt mines.