British Salt at the World Salt Symposium
British Salt recently attended the 10th World Salt Symposium, hosted at Utah’s appropriately-named Salt Lake City – home to the Great Salt Lake.
Designed to keep delegates updated on the very latest industry news, views, thought leadership & research, the prestigious global event was attended by more than 500 people from the sector, including British Salt’s Ladan Iravanian, Richard Diggle and Stephen Crabb, who made the 10,000-mile round trip in four days.
The international symposium covered a wide range of topics including some of the key sessions below:
Scientific and medical research on the health and wellbeing benefits of salt
The salt and health debate is constantly leading the news agenda and experts presenting at the symposium suggested that the effects of low sodium intake compared to a moderate sodium intake needed additional research to prove that the benefits outweighed the potential disadvantages.
Other health-related topics included the success of iodised salt across the globe in tackling hyperthyroidism and mental development issues in children.
Salt production methods
Salt is produced in a variety of different ways, including rock salt, solution mining and salt extracted from sea water.
The theme of the World Salt Symposium 2018 was “Salt for a Better Life” and over 200 papers were presented across the various technical sessions. Grouped into three main tracks – Salt Production, Salt and Health, and Salt, Safety and the Environment – there was much of interest to our delegates, ranging from the latest technology in the industry, case studies about brine evaporation plants, a focus on current thinking in solution mining and salt cavern sustainability, through to newly developed anti-caking agents.
Market trends in the world of salt
According to presentations made by IHS & Roskill, human salt consumption at an individual level has remained relatively constant and this has been the case since the 1950s when the introduction of domestic refrigeration meant less salt was required to preserve food.
However, the overall salt market is expected to continue to grow, with greater demand for salt mirroring population increases, resulting in greater consumption of salt-related products in both food and industry.
Stephen Crabb commented:
“It was a great to learn about the latest research in the sector and an invaluable opportunity to rub shoulders with industry experts and health specialists, whilst also catching up with customers and contacts.”