A talk by Arne Jakobsen

The History of Salt Salt or Sodium Chloride has always existed under the ground and in our oceans. Salt was found to preserve food only around 6000 BCE, and consequently salt became a sought after commodity. At this time hunter gatherer humans start to build primitive huts. They also began to domesticate the first animals, which in fact were dogs. Salt was traded first by the Phoenicians around the Mediterranean, and also here in Algarve at Alcoutim. The first locations where salt was used were in North East China and also in Romania. The largest present day producer of salt is Pakistan, We perhaps know salt best from cooking our dinners, or making a Piña Colada, but only 6% of the 210 million of metric tons salt produced worldwide is used in the kitchen. Salt was transported over the Sahara on camel trains, and also over the oceans. The British MP for Derby, Samuel Plimsoll, made the transport of salt on the oceans much safer, reducing the number of shipwrecks and so saved many lives. How did he do that? Do we really need salt? Is it a health risk?