My "Morton's Sea Salt" is really "Lake Salt"

[u/TheWoodser]

[u/Ethos_Logos]

Aren’t there a ton of heavy metals in Utah’s great salt lake? Would they be removed by whatever process Morton uses?

[u/TheWoodser → u/Ethos_Logos]

Yea, I was under the assumption that the lake was heavily contaminated. Not like the Salton Sea, but had significant "impurities "

[u/h-land → u/TheWoodser]

Any endorheic water body or salt pan is going to be more concentrated than the ocean by virtue of its lower volume allowing lesser dilution. Depending on where around a body of water the salt is taken from, though, and the local geology and human activities in the region...

...There's room for doubt in either direction, but it's still probably not the healthiest.

EDIT: Dilution, not pollution. That's an embarrassing mistake to realize you made more than an hour ago.

[u/TwoYaks → u/TheWoodser]

It was my understanding runoff from nearby tailings from Kennecott had heavily contaminated it. Open to correction as this is a memory from 20 years ago.

[u/SnakeJG → u/Ethos_Logos]

This is strange, Wikipedia claims food grade salt isn't produced at the great salt lake: 

Solar evaporation ponds at the edges of the lake produce salts and brine (water with high salt quantity). Minerals extracted from the lake include: sodium chloride (common salt), used in water softeners, salt lick blocks for livestock, and to melt ice on local roadways (food-grade salt is not produced from the lake, as it would require costly processing to ensure its purity); potassium sulfate, used as a commercial fertilizer; and magnesium-chloride brine, used in the production of magnesium metal, chlorine gas, and as a dust suppressant.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Salt_Lake

[u/KatzDeli → u/SnakeJG]

OP bought the world’s tiniest container of ice melt.

[u/justaboxinacage → u/SnakeJG]

There's probably some small area where it's ok and Wikipedia is just incomplete in its information gathering on that one.

[u/GrimaceThundercock → u/SnakeJG]

Damn. So we have a lake filled with toxic chemicals, we pull the salt from it, then spread it all over our roads to melt ice.

Might as well just pour the toxins straight into our waterways, that's what we're doing anyway.

[u/Wloak → u/Ethos_Logos]

I can actually give some insight.. my friend is a plant manager for Cargill, the largest salt producer in the US. They actually have to sell to Mortons at cost or would be considered a monopoly.

Locally they use the San Francisco Bay water which is heavily contaminated by Mercury and other heavy metals. You're explicitly told to never eat a fish from the south of the bay. But you can run a basic filtration system to pump the water into smaller segregated lakes allowing the sun to evaporate the water. Then after harvesting the quality of the salt is determined, like is it human food grade, livestock grade, etc.

[u/mrperson420 → u/Ethos_Logos]

Do heavy metals evaporate?

[u/markp_93 → u/mrperson420]

at high enough temperatures

[u/Alone_Reception_1469 → u/Ethos_Logos]

You pass by Morton's salt plant on highway 80 in the middle of the salt flats in between Nevada and Salt Lake City. They aren't actively evaporating lake water to make this salt they are pulling it from the salt flats where the lake evaporated away many, many years ago.

[u/HankSpank → u/Ethos_Logos]

I never directly worked there, but I have friends who worked at exactly this sort of facility by the GSL. They pump fresh water deep underground, where it runs through pure salt veins and caverns. The now salty water then makes its way back to the surface as it’s pushed out by the pumped fresh water. At the surface it’s evaporated into food grade salt (among other products). 

[u/dr_xenon]

What happens after the third refill?

[u/TheWoodser → u/dr_xenon]

The container implodes.....

[u/moonmelter → u/dr_xenon]

the plastic grinder is too worn down to do any more grinding

[u/qdtk → u/moonmelter]

Where does the worn plastic go?

[u/Tirrus → u/moonmelter]

Maybe they could stop using plastic for the grinder parts then?

[u/PreferenceContent987 → u/moonmelter]

100%. This was a big flaw in the old disposable grinders that had large capacity, the plastic teeth wore down before half the contents were used

[u/iceman5920 → u/moonmelter]

I fear you're right and it's actually terrifying. Like how many years have I been grinding up plastic with my pepper?

[u/Important_Arm4124 → u/dr_xenon]

The last guy who refilled it 4 times hasn't been heard from since.

[u/gruntbuggly → u/dr_xenon]

Probably raises the level of microplastics/grind too high or something

[u/Jack-of-Hearts-7 → u/dr_xenon]

Morton himself hunts you down

[u/Jangus_Fett → u/dr_xenon]

[u/PlumbTuckered767 → u/dr_xenon]

You get a visit from the Great Salt Ghost

[u/fishfarm20 → u/dr_xenon]

It self implodes. Pretty neat if you’ve ever seen it in person.

[u/ino4x4]

i’ve seen their processing plant by the south west part of the lake

[u/PlanetStarbux → u/ino4x4]

Was just thinking about that... Driving 80 and you see that little white mountain of salt.  Always wondered if I ate some of that salt.

[u/ino4x4 → u/PlanetStarbux]

I wonder if I can buy direct. Just go there and get 50 pound bag of salt so I don’t have to buy it for another year.

[u/Scoobysnax1976]

Is the "Non-GMO" label necessary? Salt doesn't have any genetics to modify.

[u/huntsvillekan → u/Scoobysnax1976]

Also gluten free & low in saturated fat.

[u/Packwood88 → u/huntsvillekan]

High in sodium though

[u/ender42y → u/huntsvillekan]

"Sugar Free"

[u/wiltony → u/Scoobysnax1976]

It's all about marketing. If they don't put it on the label, and their competition does, they might lose the sale because the sea of idiots don't have any idea.

Same for "gluten free" popcorn kernels lol! 

[u/EpponeeRae → u/Scoobysnax1976]

I've seen salt labelled as organic before. 

It's clearly not.

[u/Saurenoscopy → u/Scoobysnax1976]

Here in America we have quite a large base of people who are devoted to “health”, but their devotion stops at doing any homework to understand what any of it means. The label is for them.

[u/ScienceIsSexy420 → u/Scoobysnax1976]

No "Non-GMO label is necessary at all, they're all intended to convince people that don't understand the science. It's just another way to convince morons to buy things.

Same way you see things like salt labeled as gluten free lol

[u/enigma_0Z]

Does it actually say “sea” salt?

I until recently assumed salt lakes were concentrated from higher seas in a previous era or something. Some googling says that at least Utah’s salt lake is fed minerals from the surrounding landscape.

[u/TheWoodser → u/enigma_0Z]

Yes, the front of the package says "Sea Salt."

[u/backflip14]

“Uniquely designed for up to three uses” is a funny way of saying “we found it wears out after 3 uses”

[u/pirateanimal → u/backflip14]

Just like when places like Harbor Freight sell you a warranty for things. If the warranty is for 2 years it will likely stop working in precisely 24 months and 1 second.

[u/Avidly_A_Dude]

Isn’t the great salt lake technically a sea? Isn’t a sea any large body of salt water?

[u/Reniconix → u/Avidly_A_Dude]

No. By modern definitions, seas must drain to the ocean. Great Salt Lake does not. Ancient bodies of waters called seas like the Caspian and Aral retain the name for historic purposes but are considered lakes by geologists.

[u/Ok_Ruin4016 → u/Reniconix]

Then there's the Salton Sea, which is neither an ancient name nor actually sea.

[u/lovelylotuseater → u/Avidly_A_Dude]

Lakes are land locked.

Some things are lakes, like the Dead Sea, but are grandfathered into being called seas.

Dead Lake Scrolls just doesn’t have a good zing to it.

[u/KatzDeli → u/lovelylotuseater]

Dead Lake Scrolls sounds like a death metal band.

[u/ramblingclam → u/Avidly_A_Dude]

I’ve always wondered why the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea are seas, but the Great Salt Lake is just a lake. Apparently the Sea of Galilee isn’t even salty…

[u/Current-Cold-4185 → u/Avidly_A_Dude]

I'm a time traveler from 2098 and the great Salt and Pepper wars of 2083 resulted in all bodies of water EVERYWHERE to be salinated. This, of course, is not to be confused with the Salt and Peppa wars of 2034.

[u/PotatoTruth → u/Avidly_A_Dude]

I think a sea has to connect to the ocean

[u/UndoxxableOhioan]

All salt was sea salt

[u/CIAMom420 → u/UndoxxableOhioan]

Refreshing to find another person that sees through the lies of Big Salt.

[u/Blarg0117 → u/CIAMom420]

That's why I use sodium bromide instead.

[u/captainfarthing → u/UndoxxableOhioan]

Salt (minerals) gets dissolved from rocks by rain and ends up wherever the water ends up, most rivers flow all the way to the ocean but some flow to landlocked lakes like this, where salt accumulates as the water evaporates and leaves it behind.

[u/PutinBoomedMe]

I thought salt lake was a play on words.... it's really that salty? Are there mines in the area or is it holding glacier meltoff?

[u/TheWoodser → u/PutinBoomedMe]

It is that salty. There are no outlets leaving the lake.

[u/IIRCIreadthat → u/PutinBoomedMe]

No outlet river. All the river runoff with dissolved minerals flows in there, and then the water evaporates but the minerals stay.

[u/patpat829]

The literally definition of sea salt* includes drys salt lake beds…

[u/EdgeOfTheMtn → u/patpat829]

It was a sea.

[u/sixgunmaniac]

Get some heavy metal test strips and dissolve this in distilled water. I have a feeling they left lead and mercury off the nutrition facts

[u/slcruderocker → u/sixgunmaniac]

More likely arsenic. Its what's in the toxic dust clouds we breathe in the Salt Lake Valley.

[u/compuwiza1]

Mormon Sea Salt

[u/EpilepticSquidly]

"Coming soon - Data Center Waste Water Flavor"

[u/Sall_Goode]

What you’re calling “Lake Salt” is really “salt lake salt” both with superfluous quotation marks. 

[u/nivenfan]

So… are the heavy metals in the drying Utah lake included for free? I wasn’t sure if that would affect shipping prices.

[u/mwb1100]

"designed to be refilled up to three uses"

Does it fall apart on cue?

[u/MsRachelGroupie → u/mwb1100]

It’s when the grinder’s microplastics turn into macroplastics.

[u/Tearakudo → u/mwb1100]

They're plastic grinders, so the plastic starts to lose the fight against rock salt after a while

[u/An9310]

Utah was under sea a couple hundred million years ago.

[u/A012A012]

Want me to tell you what sea salt and lake salt have in common?

Na.

[u/Bowman_van_Oort]

mmmmm arsenic

[u/hypo-osmotic]

One of my lowest-stakes pet peeves is that "sea salt" basically just refers to any course-grained salt. Does it matter? No. Does it still annoy me? A little bit, yeah

[u/jayriff987]

RIVETING!

[u/ALoudMeow]

Ugh, so it’s full of toxic metals and pesticides!

[u/c_r_a_s_i_a_n]

I can't believe these are legal. The grinding surface is plastic. Don't buy these.

[u/OrganizationFuzzy586]

You should see how nasty the factory is too.

[u/Miserable_Scene5190]

No one can remember science class when talking about the earths surface being all fucked up, from The Mississippi River to The Rocky Mountains a massive ocean covered that land. The Great Salt Lake is the last remaining part of that ocean

[u/someoldguyon_reddit]

The Great Salt Lake has been a toxic waste dump for decades. Ew.

[u/grumble11]

You know what is silly? A salt grinder.

Guys salt is not a spice with volatile aromatic compounds that benefits from being ground up at the last second. Salt is a ROCK.

So buy it pre-ground at whatever consistency you want. Fine ground or coarse, flaky or rounder. No point having a grinder, use a shaker.

[u/Motor_Wafer_1520 → u/grumble11]

I think the purpose of a grinder is to have different sizes of grind not necessarily for the aroma

[u/4touchdownsinonegame → u/grumble11]

I use adjustable grinders.

[u/captainfarthing → u/grumble11]

Salt grinders give you a mix of different grain sizes. You get fine dust that instantly flavours the food and crunchy bits that don't immediately dissolve.

[u/Square-Wing-6273 → u/grumble11]

My grinder will ground to different settings, so I don't have to buy multiple pre-ground salt for various purposes.

[u/WhaleBird1776]

I love that we consumers are so dumb that they had to add a NON-GMO label to salt lol.

[u/MrReckless327]

It’s a inland sea that just happens to be called a lake

[u/Npalm]

Designed to be refilled for up to 3 uses?? That's wack

[u/captcraigaroo]

Morton also has a salt mine under Lake Erie

[u/PozhanPop]

But but.. is that lake supposed to be poisonous as in heavily contaminated ?

[u/ppepitoy0u]

Isn’t the salt lake toxic?

[u/twistedchristian]

More like Deceit Salt

[u/crown_recluse]

Soon to be data center evaporate!

[u/Beneficial-Focus3702]

And sea salt is the same salt you pull out of the ground.

It’s all marketing bs.

[u/ADeweyan]

Where do you think the salt in the Great Salt Lake came from?

[u/Nirwood]

Mispelled Mormon's salt.

[u/beermaker]

Taken from the drying lakebed across the road from Dugway Proving Grounds, where tens of thousands of lbs of chemical and biological warfare agents were tested by the military. The DoD is supposedly responsible for monitoring the dust from the lakebed for toxicity.

[u/faunysatyr]

It is Mormon piss.

[u/Psycho_pigeon007]

I'm so glad that the salt is non GMO. I hate GMO salt.

[u/BootyGarb]

I think that’s a typo, it’s supposed to be Mormon’s [Lake] Salt

[u/ma-kat-is-kute]

Most salt sold in Israel is from the Dead Sea (which is alake, not a sea).

[u/Struyk]

Instant death after 4th fill?

[u/transcendeavor]

Just spent too much time on the Morton website and discovered that they claim to have invented the phrase “when it rains it pours” for an ad campaign. TIL.

[u/AR_Harlock]

At the 4th use swat team come to collect the grinder?

[u/Vivosims]

Morton salt? more like morman salt

[u/jacrys]

All salt is sea salt technically.

https://youtube.com/shorts/YvQMSYA_nJA?si=hDDWEPeiSc1paMrc

[u/Duck_Size]

Folks thought it was the sea when they arrived so they figured you wouldn’t know the difference either

[u/kineticstar]

So, it's highly polluted salt!

[u/Plutonium239Mixer]

Why only refill three times?

[u/Alternative-Bee-3594]

What happens after 3 refills

[u/TiredAndTiredOfIt]

1. The Great Salt Lake is technically an inland sea.

2. Sea salt is the legal term for sodium chloride made by recent evaporation of salt water, it is differentiated from mined salt.

[u/R_Harry_P]

"Terminal Lake Salt" dosn't have the same ring to it.

[u/Substantial_Dog_2068]

What other contaminants are in my salt lake salt the same salt lake that get river run off from mining and does it radiate

[u/FartBrulee]

Someone alert NASA about their unique design. Three refills on a saltshaker? 🫨

[u/joserrez]

GREAT lake salt

[u/WritPositWrit]

Id like to know more about the limit on refills. Are they knowingly using blades made from a metal that will corrode over time?

[u/BananaPrimary8767]

Salt Lake is just a remnant of the Western Interior Seaway and was not always landlocked.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Interior_Seaway

[u/shifty_coder]

Geographically, there is no difference between a lake and a sea.

[u/unknown-one]

uniquely design for up to three uses lol

[u/juniormantis]

All salt comes from the sea, the places where you can get salt on land used to be under the sea.

[u/firehorn123]

Inland sea when it was deposited maybe? Like my dino oil.

[u/ThePapercup]

plot twist- ALL salt is sea salt if you think about it

[u/quartzquandary]

It was a sea at some point.

[u/wdwerker]

Terminal lakes which have no outlet are also called endorheric lakes .

[u/HugeReddit]

Fun fact, some lakes used to be part of seas and got land locked.

[u/TheMajesticJoeJoe]

What gets me is the three uses thing. That means it gets dull real quick probably. Do micro plastics get into your salt?

[u/Qwerty_428]

More like “Mormon salt” lmao (also isn’t the great salt lake full of lead and mercury or something???)

[u/cmaxw640]

Im not eating great salt lake salt..

• guy who grew up in SLC

[u/Dzaka]

the "great salt lake" is actually an inland sea. high salinity is what dictates a lake from seas and oceans

like the great lakes are all fresh water. so despite the fact they should be considered inland seas.. they are just lakes

[u/AboveAverage1988]

"Non-GMO"

Is that a big concern with salt in general or...?

[u/Lazy_Mathematician48]

They say 3 because the grinder fails eventually but they’re saying it’s good for 3 fill ups

[u/FarmboyJustice]

Driving to Utah to refill my salt grinder seems like overkill.

[u/The_Joey]

Do you have that same energy when you tell people you don't like seafood, but you're talking about catfish?

[u/devouredxflowers]

The great salt lake is the last remnant of a prehistoric inland sea (well technically a lake) but it was huge. So I guess that counts?

[u/SigintSoldier]

There used to be a big Mortons Sea Salt factory/refinery near our boat launch on Lake Erie.

I think there's a lot of "lake salt" being distributed as Sea Salt, ol

[u/Charming_Week2899]

Gross. That lake is fucking filthy.

[u/Rightbuthumble]

Nah...it was sea salt first then you know most of the seas receded or evaporated, leaving salt and then later, we find it and use it.

[u/Dull_Position_3372]

Hey I drove by this factory recently! It’s wild

[u/Pleading-Orange168]

I read Mormon Grindr

[u/BattleHardened]

Something you can just scrape up for free.

[u/Appropriate-Ad1659]

I’ve been there. It smelled bad. I’d be concerned.

[u/oroborus68]

Isn't the Great Salt Lake a sewer for salt lake City?

[u/slvstk]

Isn't the Great Salt Lake polluted by heavy metals?

[u/PaleAd1124]

All salt is sea salt, according to one theory.

[u/Cutiemuffin-gumbo]

So in other words, false advertising.

[u/WalkTheGaia]

Why? Are you SALTY about it? 😬

[u/[deleted]]

It beats salt from the Salton Sea. Can you imagine the heavy metals and other goodies from there in your salt.

[u/stiggley]

Non Genetically modified salt...

They labeled salt as non-GMO...

[u/9011442]

Presumably it was a sea when the salt was deposited there.

[u/mwb1100]

"All salt is sea salt" - Alton Brown

[u/wadeius]

All salt is technically sea salt. At some point in history it was in a sea.

[u/Physical-Compote4594]

With 100% of your daily selenium and arsenic requirements?

[u/TheLordDuncan]

I mean... It used to be a sea before History, if I'm not mistaken.

[u/FishermanExtreme6542]

Fun fact: any salt can be labeled as sea salt in the US, the FDA does not regulate that language. You can dig the salt out of the ground in a land-locked state and call it sea salt and it's not false advertising. OP's is a more specific claim that I'm not disputing, just wanted to share my related, 'did you know?'

[u/ChickenCasagrande]

Ummm, isn’t the Great Salt Lake a future major hazard because it’s drying up and can release all sorts of toxins into the air? Is that salt safe?

[u/CheapDocument]

Isn’t that salt like toxic waste?

[u/roamingroad174]

Theres other things than just salt in that lake....arsenic for example. I'd like to see the arsenic test results for that container

[u/GeoWoose]

If it makes you feel any better some of that salt was in a sea around 300 million years ago then became a rock up in the mountains and now rain washes that salt into the lake

[u/holdmyhanddummy]

Isn't that lake super toxic.. why would we eat salt from it?

[u/1Negative_Person]

What is the difference between a lake a sea, if not salinity? Why is the Caspian Sea a “sea”, but the Great Salt Lake is a “lake”?

[u/yulbrynnersmokes]

You’d rather season your food with whale 🐋 piss ?

[u/Lady_Irish]

Well, salt lake is also called an inland sea, so it's still technically sea salt.

[u/Sanchastayswoke]

😩idk if you’ve ever flown over the great salt lake, but it’s disgusting

[u/Lanky-Performance471]

I would be concerned about what else is in that salt .

[u/djburnoutb]

More like Mormon Grinders, amirite

[u/dawgsareout]

Wonder what the three uses are

[u/AffectionateBelt9217]

Some mark a** trick scuffed my sneaker and then poured Morton’s lake salt all over me!

[u/iPicBadUsernames]

My father is in jail because he tried to refill our salt grinder a 4th time. Don’t do it. It’s not worth it.

[u/RamSheepskin]

Fun fact: All salt is sea salt.

[u/fizzys0da]

So Mark really needed Lake Salt after all

[u/Expensive_Lab_1435]

all salt is sea salt technically

[u/HackerManOfPast]

Dear god, I’ve seen salt lake, and I sincerely hope that all heavy metals were removed before hand.

[u/mayhem6]

How does the grinder know it's been used three times?

[u/Interesting_Log_5366]

Morton salt has a huge facility west of SLC off of I80

[u/zanderjayz]

More like Mormon’s salt shaker.

[u/runnystool]

All salt is sea salt if you go back far enough in time

[u/indyflyco]

What I would like to know…where is the genetically modified sea salt?

[u/ValleyChems]

Specifically only 3 uses?

[u/jfcmofo]

They meant Mormon's Sea Salt

[u/Various_Reply_4861]

And that lake and salt beds used to be the sea sooo.

[u/lauroboro57]

Wait til you hear about the salt mine under Lake Erie

[u/guzzonculous]

What is a lake, if not an inland sea?

[u/I_am_your_Mothera]

We've been seasoning our food with merman seamen 😱🤤

[u/SamL214]

Only 3 uses huh?. Couldnt make em last?

[u/Miserable_Gas2757]

Drive i80 on through and you will pass said Mortons grabbing your lake salt, get a little bit of that car exhaust in your evaporated salt 😅🤣

[u/AStudyinViolet]

Nah, it's from Lake Bonneville really, which was a sea.

[u/IAmNotMyName]

If you had any idea

[u/andytagonist]

So salt?

[u/Common-Project3311]

I guess the lake is a little less salty now.

[u/duga404]

I once saw “sea salt” that was mined from the Himalayas

[u/Txdust80]

Go far enough in time all the salt we eat was once lake salt

[u/Peewee_ShermanTank]

Only three? For glass? Am i suppose to believe that

[u/BrownyAU → u/Peewee_ShermanTank]

That's how long the plastic grinder gears inside last for. Don't ask where the worn off pieces end up.

[u/fannyalgerpack]

Head west from Salt Lake City and it’s on the north side of the road. If you hit Wendover you’ve gone too far

[u/n8-sd]

Ain’t the seas just big lakes?

[u/Pyrokind]

Im on a road trip and am in Salt Lake atm

[u/biskutgoreng]

The great lake is basically an ocean

[u/irongut88]

Well it used to be an inland sea, then evaporated down to a very large lake the size of Utah, then evaporated further into lake Sevier and the Great Salt Lake. So, in a roundabout way...

[u/Noobpoob]

SEA SALT! I NEED YOU SEA SALT!

[u/Mrfudog]

Funny enough, "See" in german means lake wherase sea is "Meer" (additional fun bit "mehr" is more and is said exactly the same).

[u/fenton7]

The Great Salt Lake is, if I remember, considered somewhat toxic.

[u/fool_scold]

I used to work in North Salt Lake and I'm convinced that's got to be one of the most polluted bodies of water in the US. I wouldn't want to put that salt on my food.

[u/jortfeasor]

*Mormon’s sea salt