Salt is an indispensable ingredient in the preparation of most dishes. This substance acts as an excellent preservative due to its wonderful properties. However, why is it generally considered a preservative?

What is a preservative?

First you need to figure out what, in principle, is considered a preservative. This term refers to substances that prevent harmful organisms from multiplying within products. Once in food, preservatives literally kill bacteria in various ways. Also to this type of substances are those that interfere with the interaction of products with air and prevent their oxidation.

In the modern world, preservatives have their own classification and are used in certain areas. They are added not only to food, but also to medicines, cosmetics, wood and other materials that have the ability to deteriorate when interacting with oxygen and harmful bacteria.

Interesting fact: for cosmetics, manufacturers try to use artificial preservatives, which they make on their own. However, care must be taken to ensure that substances do not harm human skin.

Natural preservatives have been used since antiquity. People processed food with salt, honey, vinegar, alcohol and other substances. At the end of the XIX century, mankind discovered artificial preservatives, which began to be used in various fields of production.

Inedible salt

There are many types of salts that are not intended for food. As a rule, they appear during the mixing of acid anions and metal cations. The process is accompanied by the release of fluid. In its structure, the product is fragile and well soluble in water. Most naturally occurring minerals also occur in salts: fluorite, halite, sylvin, etc.

You can get the salt artificially in the following ways: mixing acids and metals, oxides and alkalis, bases and halogens. However, it must be understood that due to its composition these substances cannot be used as food.

Salt

The salt used in food is sodium chloride. Outwardly, it resembles transparent white crystals, but manufacturers can artificially change the color of the product by adding impurities of minerals suitable for food.

Salt is produced in the following ways:

• Water is pumped into the borehole where the salt deposits are located and is there until they dissolve. Then the liquid is pumped out and evaporated, after which only the mineral is left ready for use.
• Salt is extracted from mines where minerals are formed. They are manually chipped and delivered to production for processing.

Since there are many salt deposits on the planet, and there are many methods for its synthesis, a preservative is readily available and inexpensive.

Why is salt a preservative?

Salt is a preservative due to its unusual properties. Getting on food, the substance begins to draw liquid from it, including from the harmful microorganisms that live in it. Through the membrane, the fluid is drawn towards a more saturated saline solution.From dehydration, the bacterium becomes inactive, ceases to multiply, the metabolism of its cells with the environment becomes impossible, because of which it dies. Thus, salt in a short period of time makes food harmless.

It is actively used in the manufacture of pickles. Once in water, it displaces oxygen from it and interferes with the further penetration of air into the liquid. Thus, the bacteria that live inside begin to choke and die. Also, the lack of oxygen slows down the oxidation process, which extends the shelf life.

If the product contains at least 10% salt, most harmful bacteria stop multiplying. At 15%, the spread of microbes that cause rotting ceases; at 20%, staphylococci cease to show signs of life.

Thanks to these properties, salt is considered a preservative, and one of the cheapest and most readily available.

Salt is a preservative because it impedes the functioning of bacteria developing in food. After getting on food, it draws water from microorganisms, actually killing them. Also, salt does not allow the liquid to be saturated with oxygen, which is why the products placed in it are stored longer, because the bacteria in this solution have nothing to breathe.