I wandered into Sherwyn's Health Food Shop here in Chicago this
Saturday and saw "organic sea salt." Now, this really blew my mind. I
always thought that salt is inherently inorganic. Am I missing
something?

Thanks,
-bwg

" wrote:

> I wandered into Sherwyn's Health Food Shop here in Chicago this
> Saturday and saw "organic sea salt." Now, this really blew my mind. I
> always thought that salt is inherently inorganic. Am I missing
> something?

There were no chemical fertilizers used to grow it :-)

> wrote in message
oups.com...
>I wandered into Sherwyn's Health Food Shop here in Chicago this
> Saturday and saw "organic sea salt." Now, this really blew my mind. I
> always thought that salt is inherently inorganic. Am I missing
> something?
>
> Thanks,
> -bwg
>

It's a stupid thing to call sea salt. If you really wanted to, you could
send the FDA a picture of the label, and the distributor would have to
change it eventually. Sea salt comes from the sea. Are they saying they
didn't use any chemical fertilizers or pesticides in the production of their
salt? :-)

Doug Kanter wrote:
>
> It's a stupid thing to call sea salt. If you really wanted to,
> you could send the FDA a picture of the label, and the distributor
> would have to change it eventually.

Total waste of time. That's not an FDA issue.

It would be a Federal Trade Commission issue,
because it implies that the product is special
in some way that competing products are not.

It would be like making a label claim that the
product is mercury-free. Unless the seller can
show that competing products contain significant
levels of mercury (which are absent in his
product), that would be an unlawful claim.

Mark Thorson wrote:

> Doug Kanter wrote:
> >
> > It's a stupid thing to call sea salt. If you really wanted to,
> > you could send the FDA a picture of the label, and the distributor
> > would have to change it eventually.
>
> Total waste of time. That's not an FDA issue.
>

They are more concerned with food grade propane ?

:-)

Dave Smith wrote:
>
> They are more concerned with food grade propane ?
>
> :-)

No, that's psychiatric issue. People who deny
the existence of food grade propane have issues
that need professional help. ;-)



Steve Wertz wrote:
>
> I think somebody was maybe confusing food grade gases such as CO2
> or N2O and figured there must be a food grade version of
> propane/butane, too...
>
> But instead of simply admitting his mistake, went to unnecessary
> lengths to try and cover it up.

Dave Smith wrote:
>
> WTF ?????
> Where the hell did you come up with this food grade propane stuff?

George wrote:
>
> Don't think there is such a thing. I think both propane
> and nat gas must include an odorant (usually methyl mercaptan).


This belief is refuted by several patents to food chemists
at Cargill, such as U.S. Patent 6,610,343:

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-P...S=PN/6,610,343

"Most preferably, the solvent is a category I solvent
approved by The Council of the European Committees
(Jun. 13, 1988 Council Directive) for use in food
processing. Food grade propanes and butanes generally
meet all of the above stated preferences."

And it is further refuted by a study made by a
scientist at the USDA:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/pub..._NO_115=121505

"A new commercial invention incorporating a supercritical,
low-pressure, liquified gas extraction process using
food-grade butane as the extraction gas is currently
being used to extract chocolate liquor and peanuts and
the oil and residue solids are both edible products."

And just for fun, here's one from the
Propane Education & Research Council (PERC):
http://www.propanecouncil.org/files/
11352_EEA_GoodPractices_Report_Final.PDF

"The requirement to add odorant can be waived in
special-use applications, such as aerosol propellants
and food and drug products where the odorant has a
detrimental effect on the final product."


Here's what PetroCanada said to a guy inquiring
about accumulation of impurities in propane-
powered vehicles. It sounds like pretty nasty
stuff for use directly on food.

Quoting from:
http://cars.rasoenterprises.com/Propane-Residuals.htm

"Most propane as it is produced at a gas plant
(the majority of product in Western Canada) or
refineries is very clean. However, during
distribution it can pick up contaminants such
as traces of gasoline or diesel fuel (if pipelined
through a common products pipe line, or in storage
caverns) or extract some plasticizers from hoses
and gaskets. Some of these contaminants,
particularly diesel fuel and lube oil range
materials, have low volatility - so as propane
is evaporated in a converter (changing from a
liquid to a gas), the contaminants remain behind
at a low point in the system - which can be the
bottom of the converter, or a low-lying loop
in a fuel pipe delivering propane vapours to
the carburetor. So there is no 'conversion' or
'breakdown' of propane into oily residues in
a converter - the residues are contaminants
left behind when the propane evaporates.
Unfortunately, the current propane specification
allows rather a lot of oily residues - up to
500 ppm. I've seen instances of 6 - 12 ppm
oily contaminants (6 - 12 litres of oil from a
million litres of propane used in a high volume
heating situation) being enough to cause problems
with build-up of the oil in the bottom of large
converters."

"While instances of contaminants in propane have
been on-going for decades, and appear in different
forms (oily materials, 'grease-like', 'black
shoe-polish', and waxy deposits), they are usually
sporadic, even seasonal, and we (the industry)
have not been successful in finding the sources
of all the contaminants. It is clear that potential
future uses of propane, such as fuel cells, will
require very clean product, and current
contaminants will be totally unacceptable."

In article >,
Mark Thorson > wrote:


> George wrote:
> >
> > Don't think there is such a thing. I think both propane
> > and nat gas must include an odorant (usually methyl mercaptan).

> "The requirement to add odorant can be waived in
> special-use applications, such as aerosol propellants
> and food and drug products where the odorant has a
> detrimental effect on the final product."

Yeah, I don't want stuff in my food. I *always* use food grade propane
at the table. I squirt it on nearly everything, instead of salt and
pepper. Although it is very high in energy, I don't believe it has any
calories (meaning that your body doesn't digest it). It just comes
right out the rear, when an odorant has already been added.

--
Dan Abel

Petaluma, California, USA

"Mark Thorson" > wrote in message
...
> Doug Kanter wrote:
>>
>> It's a stupid thing to call sea salt. If you really wanted to,
>> you could send the FDA a picture of the label, and the distributor
>> would have to change it eventually.
>
> Total waste of time. That's not an FDA issue.
>
> It would be a Federal Trade Commission issue,
> because it implies that the product is special
> in some way that competing products are not.

Right - my fingers confused our government.


>
> It would be like making a label claim that the
> product is mercury-free. Unless the seller can
> show that competing products contain significant
> levels of mercury (which are absent in his
> product), that would be an unlawful claim.

Actually, that's not quite right. Food can be declared free of anything at
all, as long as it's true. There's no requirement to prove that a
competitor's product contains what you say yours does not. So, Tropicana red
grapefruit juice says "naturally fat free" on the front. I like it, because
it means there are morons out there somewhere who think that maybe *other*
grapefruit juice has fat. My son and I think we may have spotted some of
these people. :-)

> wrote in message
oups.com...
>I wandered into Sherwyn's Health Food Shop here in Chicago this
> Saturday and saw "organic sea salt." Now, this really blew my mind. I
> always thought that salt is inherently inorganic. Am I missing
> something?
>
> Thanks,
> -bwg
>

Some salt has anti-caking additives and then it would not be organic.

"Edwin Pawlowski" > wrote in message
om...
>
> > wrote in message
> oups.com...
>>I wandered into Sherwyn's Health Food Shop here in Chicago this
>> Saturday and saw "organic sea salt." Now, this really blew my mind. I
>> always thought that salt is inherently inorganic. Am I missing
>> something?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> -bwg
>>
>
> Some salt has anti-caking additives and then it would not be organic.
>

I have a container which says the salt comes from "the sparkling
Mediterranean". I wonder if some people have ever had a close look at some
harbors in Greece, Italy & Spain. :-)

Doug Kanter wrote:

>
> I have a container which says the salt comes from "the sparkling
> Mediterranean". I wonder if some people have ever had a close look at some
> harbors in Greece, Italy & Spain. :-)

In which case it would likely be full of organics :-)

On Mon, 20 Feb 2006 22:16:24 GMT, "Doug Kanter"
> wrote:

>
>"Edwin Pawlowski" > wrote in message
. com...
>>
>> > wrote in message
>> oups.com...
>>>I wandered into Sherwyn's Health Food Shop here in Chicago this
>>> Saturday and saw "organic sea salt." Now, this really blew my mind. I
>>> always thought that salt is inherently inorganic. Am I missing
>>> something?
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> -bwg
>>>
>>
>> Some salt has anti-caking additives and then it would not be organic.
>>
>
>I have a container which says the salt comes from "the sparkling
>Mediterranean". I wonder if some people have ever had a close look at some
>harbors in Greece, Italy & Spain. :-)
>


Whaaa? You've never seen broken glass or oil slicks sparkle in the
sun?

Boron

> wrote in message
oups.com...
> I wandered into Sherwyn's Health Food Shop here in Chicago this
> Saturday and saw "organic sea salt." Now, this really blew my mind. I
> always thought that salt is inherently inorganic. Am I missing
> something?
>
> Thanks,
> -bwg
>

Of course it's organic, no pesticides were sprayed on to it.

"Organic" is starting to have the same level of meaning as "natural" these
days, that is very little.

Organically grown food may be certified to some defined standard and that
may have some meaning if you know the standard and nobody is cheating.

David

In article .com>,
says...
>
> I wandered into Sherwyn's Health Food Shop here in Chicago this
> Saturday and saw "organic sea salt." Now, this really blew my mind. I
> always thought that salt is inherently inorganic. Am I missing
> something?
>

Yupp. You are trying to correlate facts with marketing BS.
;-) Never give a sucker an even break.

-Peter (without k)

--
=========================================
firstname dot lastname at gmail fullstop com

Dan Abel wrote:
> In article >,
> Mark Thorson > wrote:
>
>>George wrote:
>>
>>>Don't think there is such a thing. I think both propane
>>>and nat gas must include an odorant (usually methyl mercaptan).
>
>>"The requirement to add odorant can be waived in
>>special-use applications, such as aerosol propellants
>>and food and drug products where the odorant has a
>>detrimental effect on the final product."
>
> Yeah, I don't want stuff in my food. I *always* use food grade propane
> at the table. I squirt it on nearly everything, instead of salt and
> pepper. Although it is very high in energy, I don't believe it has any
> calories (meaning that your body doesn't digest it). It just comes
> right out the rear, when an odorant has already been added.

And, properly dealt with, you can use that instead of candles to create
a, um, romantic mood.

No, seriously...

Pastorio

Edwin Pawlowski wrote:
> > wrote in message
> oups.com...
>
>>I wandered into Sherwyn's Health Food Shop here in Chicago this
>>Saturday and saw "organic sea salt." Now, this really blew my mind. I
>>always thought that salt is inherently inorganic. Am I missing
>>something?
>>
>>Thanks,
>>-bwg
>>
>
>
> Some salt has anti-caking additives and then it would not be organic.
>


Ironically, some of the anti-caking agents *are* organic compounds and
the salt is not.

Bob