Salt is an essential ingredient for the survival of all living creatures, including humans. Salt is needed in regulating the fluid balance or water content of body. Salt cravings may occur as a result of trace mineral deficiencies or due to the deficiency of sodium chloride itself. Salt is important for life, but its overconsumption can cause health problems, such as high blood pressure, in those individuals who are genetically predisposed to hypertension. Main source of salt is rocks and sea. Maximum consumption of salt is in its natural form after being produced from sea or directly from rock.
Salt, also known as sodium chloride, comprises the elements sodium and chlorine. Sodium is a silver-colored metal that is so unstable that it reacts violently in the presence of water, and chlorine is a greenish-colored gas that is dangerous and may be lethal. Yet the combination of these two elements forms sodium chloride that is a white-colored compound essential to life itself. Virtually every person in the world has some direct or indirect contact with salt daily. People routinely add salt to their food as a flavor enhancer or apply rock salt to walkways to remove ice in the winter. Salt is used as feedstock for chlorine and caustic soda manufacture. These two inorganic chemicals are used to make many consumer-related end-use products, such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a plastic made from chlorine and paper-pulping chemicals manufactured from sodium hydroxide (caustic soda).
Iodizing salt for human consumption is a modern trend. Iodine is used in the body for formation of thyroxin an essential hormone. Salt is used as a medium in supply iodine to the body. Iodization of common salts has been recognized all over the world to meet the deficiency of iodine to eradicate goiter.
Few Indian Major Players are as under
• Aditya Birla Chemicals (India) Ltd.
• Ankur Chemfood Ltd.
• Bharat Salt & Chemical Inds. (Mundra-Kutch) Ltd.
• Chowgule & Co. (Salt) Ltd.
• Consumer Protection & Guidance Co. Ltd.
• D C W Ltd.
• G H C L Ltd.
• Gujarat State Civil Supplies Corpn. Ltd.
• Himachal Pradesh State Civil Supplies Corpn. Ltd.
• Hindustan Salts Ltd.
• Indian Products Ltd.
• Kutch Salt & Allied Inds. Ltd.
• N. E. Regional Agri. Mktg. Corp. Ltd.
• Parakh Foods Ltd.
• Positive Biosciences Ltd.
• Priyadarshini Salt Works Pvt. Ltd.
• Saboo Sodium Chloro Ltd.
• Sahayamatha Salt Refinery Ltd.
• Sambhar Salts Ltd.
• Solaris Chemtech Inds. Ltd.
• Sree Maruthi Marine Inds. Ltd.
• Super Salts Pvt. Ltd.
• Tamil Nadu Salt Corpn. Ltd.
• Tata Chemicals Ltd.
• Tuticorin Salt & Marine Chemicals Ltd.