The product, dubbed WonderSalt, is a combination of sodium chloride, potassium chloride and naturally-derived flavour additives coloured with fruit and vegetable extracts to give it special appeal for children.
“We make all our money out of selling salt, but if you look at world trends, it is to sell less salt, which should be against our policy,” said the company’s export director Avi Freund. However, while the company’s main business is still in salt, it has expanded into lower sodium versions, to adapt to market demand.
“We want to educate the consumer, starting with the kids,” Freund said. “Our goal is that in the future, people will eat more low sodium salt (…) and moving low sodium salt from a product that is only used by people with high blood pressure and other health problems, to a regular product.”
The product contains half the sodium of regular salt, and is coloured with fruit and vegetable extracts, such as radish, carrot, apple and lemon, which the company says provide health benefits as well as natural colouring. The idea is that children would be able to see how much salt is added to foods when adding bright yellow, red, orange or blue salt.
“Consumers in general, and children in particular, could be getting too much sodium in their diet,” said marketing director of Salt of the Earth Inbal Trop Kirsch. “Salt is invisible when added to foods. By coloring WonderSalt with fruit and vegetable essences, it is possible not only to help kids and adults eat low-sodium foods, as a bonus, they can see how much salt to put on their food. This way, they can control their salt intake easily and learn in a fun way.”