Indian salt is exported in three main grades: industrial salt for chemical plants, edible salt for food, and de-icing salt for roads. The same solar salt can become any of them, depending on how it is washed, refined, sized and tested.
The grade is not just a label. It sets the purity, impurity limits, moisture, grain size and packing you can expect, and it decides which rules apply in your market.
Industrial salt
Industrial salt goes mainly to chlor-alkali plants, which make chlorine and caustic soda, and to soda ash plants. It is also used in water softening, textile dyeing and leather processing.
Buyers care most about sodium chloride content and the impurities that damage their process. Calcium, magnesium and sulphate matter a great deal to membrane cell plants. Insoluble matter and moisture affect handling and yield. Most industrial salt ships in bulk vessels. Our article on industrial salt purity covers the numbers to ask for.
Edible salt
Edible salt is washed and often refined further, then dried, sized and sometimes iodised. It is sold as table salt, cooking salt and salt for food processing. Codex Alimentarius, the international food standards body, sets a minimum of 97% sodium chloride on a dry basis for food grade salt, excluding additives.
Food rules in your country usually go further. They may set iodine levels, permitted anti-caking agents, heavy metal limits and labelling. The importer is normally responsible for meeting them, so confirm the rules with your food safety authority before you fix the specification. Edible salt also needs food-safe packing and a plant with food safety controls.
De-icing salt
De-icing or road salt is spread on roads in winter. Purity is less critical than for food or chemicals, but grain size matters a lot. Fine salt cakes and blows away, while coarse salt works slowly. Highway authorities set the grading in their tenders.
In the United States, road salt is bought against state and municipal tender specifications, which set their own grading and purity rules. In Europe, many buyers refer to EN 16811-1. Tenders may also set moisture limits and require an anti-caking agent. Always work from the buyer's tender text, not a general grade name.
Other grades you may see
- Pharmaceutical and dialysis grades are highly refined and need a plant with pharmaceutical controls.
- Water softener salt is often pressed into tablets or sold as clean, coarse crystals.
- Animal feed salt and salt licks have their own feed rules in most markets.
- Unwashed crude salt is the cheapest grade and is often sold for further refining.
Next step
Name the grade, the standard and the test methods in your purchase order, then check them at loading, as set out in checking moisture and purity at loading. We check samples and documents and have lots tested. To discuss your grade, book a free sourcing review.