Hand vs Machine Harvesting
Hand Harvesting:
Harvesting by hand in the traditional manner must be done on a regular basis which can vary from daily to weekly, depending on weather conditions. The salt harvested in this manner is normally soft and not bitter.
Hand-harvested sun-dried sea salt is not ‘refined’ in any way and contains a great variety of minerals. Some of these, such as magnesium, calcium and iron, are particularly good for health and occur in relatively high concentrations in natural sea salt.
Khoisan’s hand harvested sea-salts remain pure and unprocessed containing all the natural minerals and trace elements and does not contain artificial additives nor anti-caking agents.
Khoisan also offers salt from larger pans which have been harvested using tractor and loaders. Any impurities are washed out using brine water.
This salt is then dried, sorted , sieved and packed for clients wanting a cheaper salt and who take big volumes.
Machine Harvesting:
Before the start of the Industrial Revolution most salt was hand-harvested and used for human consumption and food preservation. When salt was required in mass quantities by the chemical Industries, harvesting by hand was no longer feasible and the mechanical harvester was developed. The high technological methods inherited from the era of the Industrial Revolution were never designed to produce mineral rich food grade salt.
As mechanically harvested sea salt must be washed and over-refined to rid it of potential contaminants, including those introduced by machinery, as many as 82 trace minerals and essential micronutrients are forcibly removed, leaving only a single compound of sodium chloride which the chemical industry uses as a primary ingredient for glass, paints, batteries, explosives and glass.
This same salt is processed further with additives such as iodine and fluoride which are allowed in table salt, as well as with potassium cyanide and aluminium silicate (anti-caking agents) that prevent the refined salt from solidifying, and is then packaged and sold nationally as ‘table salt’.
If these 82 nutritive substances were left as they occur in clean natural sea salt, then salt would again be whole and fulfill its vital role to enhance life and maintain optimum health.
