Science is changing how salt will look and taste in the future.

For starters, food scientists are looking at microsizing the essential food ingredient.

“Reduced particle size dissolves faster, leading to a more efficient delivery of taste or transfer of ions to taste buds,” said Dr. Annabelle Briones, director of the Industrial Technology Development Institute (ITDI), Department of Science and Technology. “Perhaps a saltier perception of foods can potentially reduce salt or sodium intake.”

ITDI is also looking at flavored salt to increase the value of table salt. While not exactly new in other countries ( pink or Himalayan salt), flavored salt will go local: shrimp, seaweed, shitake mushrooms, mango, tamarind, guava and smoked salt.

The initiative was started by Dr. Maria Patricia Azanza who brought to ITDI as its former head her culinary interest as a food science and nutrition professor at the College of Home Economics, University of the Philippines.

There’s no costing yet but the target is the mass market and to make flavored salt affordable, said Maricar Carandang, a science research specialist at ITDI.

Before all that, problems persist in traditional salt- making in Pangasinan where salt will have its first makeover.

The province is Luzon’s biggest or source of salt. It’s been that since the Spanish times and even long before it earned the reputation.

Family-owned salt farms operate in Barangay Cato, Infanta town and JM Salt Farm has been chosen by ITDI to pioneer more efficient production technology. The scarcity of rice hull (ipa) that fires the open pans that cook the salt into fine powder, the way North Luzon consumers like it, is driving up production costs.

“It’s been weeks since we last cooked salt,” said Rose Beltran whose family in a good day makes 20 sacks of salt. “We’re near to closing shop.”

A 3-in-1 machine that chops, shreds and pulverizes plant materials into fuel has been provided to JM Salt Farms by Provincial Science and Technology Director Felicidad Gan. “Hopefully other salt makers will see that it works and will adopt the technology.”

ITDI is also changing how salt is made. Its iodizing machine at JM Salt Farms will be a model to enable compliance to the law which requires that salt contains between 30 percent to 70 percent iodine. The portable machine can operate continuously with a capacity of 750 kilograms per hour.

That is good news for those at risk of iodine deficiency. Iodine is an important nutrient in producing thyroid hormones essential for development and metabolism. Nine out of 10 Filipino children aged 6 to 12 have iodine deficiency, according to a Food and Nutrition Research Institute national survey.

Iodine deficiency may affect the mental health of children. During pregnancy, serious deficiency may result in stillbirth and congenital abnormalities.

ITDI has improved cooking equipment made of a “closed” stainless steel that is more hygienic than open vats. And it cooks salt faster.

A cooking furnace made of red bricks is more heat-efficient. Developed by ITDI researchers, it improves the evaporation process for a 300-liter capacity batch that allows processors to produce finer salt – faster and with higher purity.

A spin dryer reduces the salt moisture as required by law. It can process up to 75 kg per batch. Compared to the traditional dripping and sun drying methods, the equipment allows farmers to produce salt even in humid and rainy conditions.

ITDI will now bring the package of new salt-making technologies to San Jose, Occidental Mindoro, which produces about 75,000 metric tons (MT) of salt a year. Pangasinan puts in 56,000 MT a year. They barely scratch the national demand, estimated by ITDI at 600,000 MT a year.

Eighty percent of salt is currently imported from China and the United States. That is an aberration, considering that the Philippines has the world’s sixth longest coastline at 36,289 kilometers – most of it potential salt farms.

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