The salt extracted from this operation may have had a direct correlation to the rapid growth of this society's population soon after its initial production began. Evidence indicates that Neolithic people of the Precucuteni Culture were boiling the salt-laden spring water through the process of briquetage to extract the salt as far back as 6050 BC. A very ancient salt-works operation has been discovered at the Poiana Slatinei archaeological site next to a salt spring in Lunca, Neamț County, Romania. While people have used canning and artificial refrigeration to preserve food for the last hundred years or so, salt has been the best-known food preservative, especially for meat, for many thousands of years. Even the name Solnitsata means "salt works". What is now thought to have been the first city in Europe is Solnitsata, in Bulgaria, which was a salt mine, providing the area now known as the Balkans with salt since 5400 BC. Main article: History of salt Salt production in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt (1670)Īll through history, the availability of salt has been pivotal to civilization. The World Health Organization recommends that adults consume less than 2,000 mg of sodium, equivalent to 5 grams of salt, per day. Accordingly, numerous world health associations and experts in developed countries recommend reducing consumption of popular salty foods. Such health effects of salt have long been studied. However, excessive salt consumption may increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases, such as hypertension, in children and adults. Sodium is an essential nutrient for human health via its role as an electrolyte and osmotic solute. As well as its use in cooking and at the table, salt is present in many processed foods. Edible salt is sold in forms such as sea salt and table salt, which latter usually contains an anti-caking agent and may be iodised to prevent iodine deficiency. Other uses include water conditioning processes, de-icing highways, and agricultural use. Of the annual global production of around three hundred million tonnes of salt, only a small percentage is used for human consumption. It is used to produce caustic soda and chlorine it is also used in the manufacturing processes of polyvinyl chloride, plastics, paper pulp and many other products. The greatest single use for salt (sodium chloride) is as a feedstock for the production of chemicals. Salt is processed from salt mines, and by the evaporation of seawater ( sea salt) and mineral-rich spring water in shallow pools. Salt is used in religious ceremonies and has other cultural and traditional significance. The scarcity and universal need for salt have led nations to go to war over it and use it to raise tax revenues. Salt became an important article of trade and was transported by boat across the Mediterranean Sea, along specially built salt roads, and across the Sahara on camel caravans. Salt was also prized by the ancient Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Hittites, Egyptians, and Indians. Some of the earliest evidence of salt processing dates to around 6000 BC, when people living in the area of present-day Romania boiled spring water to extract salts a salt works in China dates to approximately the same period. Salting, brining, and pickling are also ancient and important methods of food preservation. Salt is one of the oldest and most ubiquitous food seasonings, and is known to uniformly improve the taste perception of food, including otherwise unpalatable food. Salt is essential for life in general, and saltiness is one of the basic human tastes. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as rock salt or halite. When used in food, especially at table in ground form in dispensers, it is more formally called table salt. In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). For other uses, see Salt (disambiguation). For table salt used in chemistry, see Sodium chloride. For salts in chemistry, see Salt (chemistry).
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