: Why is there dextrose in salt?
In: Chemistry
After some research:
Iodine is usually added to table salts in the form of Iodide in many countries, similar to Fluoride being added to water. Iodine is a micronutrient, lack of which causes poor mental development and thyroid issues. You don’t need much, so salt was at the time of that particular health push considered the most convenient way to get it into the populace’s diet.
Anyways, when you combine Iodide and salt together, the Iodide will very slowly start reacting with oxygen (causing a weird taste) and/or evaporating. Normally it would be fine, but since salt is often stored on shelves for long times, shelf life was kinda an issue. So they add a tiny amount of the most harmless stabilizing agent they can, dextrose. The Dextrose is able to bind to the Iodide well enough to stop it from reacting with oxygen or evaporating.
It is used (in extremely small quantities) to chemically stabilize the potassium iodide. Iodine (or iodide) is a necessary part of the human diet, and without it people would get thyroid problems such as goiters.
Apparently, without the dextrose, the iodide would oxidize and then evaporate. According to Morton, a brand of table salt, their salt is 0.04% dextrose. I read that a teaspoon contains about 20,000 granules of sugar. That means a teaspoon of salt would contain the equivalent of 8 granules, if my math is right. Not very much, and a teaspoon is quite a lot of salt.
Latest Answers