[ELI5] How does salt preserve food?

Question

[ELI5] How does salt preserve food?

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

salt dries things out, and bacteria generally requires moisture to survive. It draws moisture out of the thing through osmosis (or more elaborately trying to ‘balance’ the moisture between the thing and the salt, but salt has an unnatural property of absorbing liquid in a sponge-like fashion)