Difference Between Salt and Iodized Salt

The key difference between salt and iodized salt is that salt does not have any additive whereas iodized salt contains iodine additives. Furthermore, salt can have traces of several other minerals, but iodized salt is pure.

Salt is an essential component in our food. Apart from adding a flavour, it is a nutrient that we need for our body. We can mix various additives with salt to enhance its nutritional value. Iodine is one such additive. In the market, there are both, iodized salt and non-iodized salt. Normally, people don’t consciously look for iodized salt when they buy. However, it is advisable to get iodized salt in order to prevent various health problems.

CONTENTS

1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Salt
3. What is Iodized Salt
4. Side by Side Comparison – Salt vs Iodized Salt in Tabular Form
5. Summary

What is Salt?

We can easily produce salt or sodium chloride, which we use in food, from seawater (brine). People do this on a large scale because people from every corner of the world use salt for their food every day. Seawater contains high concentrations of sodium chloride; therefore, accumulating it on an area and by letting the water evaporate using solar energy, yields sodium chloride crystals.

We should do the water evaporation in several tanks, and in the first tank sand or clay in seawater deposits. Thereafter, the salty water from this tank goes to another one in where; calcium sulfate deposition occurs as the water evaporates. Finally, the final tank allows for the deposition of salt. Along with it, other impurities like magnesium chloride and magnesium sulfate are also settling. After that, we collect this salt into small mountains and allow staying there for a certain period. During this period other impurities may dissolve and somewhat pure salt forms.

Furthermore, we can obtain salt from mining rock salt or halite. The salt in rock salt is somewhat purer than the salt that we get from brine. Rock salt is a NaCl deposit that results from evaporating ancient oceans millions of years ago. Large deposits like this exist in Canada, America, and China, etc.

Later, we can purify the extracted salt in various ways to make it suitable for consumption, and this is known as table salt. Other than using in food, salt has many other applications. For example, it is useful in chemical industries for various purposes and as a source of Chloride. Further, it is useful in cosmetics as an exfoliator.

What is Iodized Salt?

Iodized salt is salt that contains iodine additives. In order to make iodized salt, people add inorganic iodine sources like potassium iodate, potassium iodide, sodium iodate or sodium iodide to the refined salt.

Iodine is a trace element that we need in our body. Thyroid gland act as the iodine storage and for its efficient functioning in making hormones like thyroxin, triiodothyronine and calcitonin, iodine is a requirement. Goitre or swollen thyroid glands are a symptom of iodine deficiency.

Moreover, iodine deficiency can result in hypothyroidism, which comes with fatigue, slow metabolism, etc. We need about 150 μg of iodine daily for a healthy body. We can get some of our iodine from plants, meat, seafood, etc. Iodized salt is given to people with the iodine deficiencies to overcome the problems. Iodized salt is readily available in the market, and there is no distinguishable taste between normal salt and iodized salt.

What is the Difference Between Salt and Iodized Salt?

Salt is primarily a mineral that has the chemical formula NaCl whereas iodized salt is a form of salt that contains iodine additives. Iodized salt is a form of salt. Therefore, the key difference between salt and iodized salt is that salt does not have any additive whereas iodized salt contains iodine additives.

A further difference between salt and iodized salt is in their usage. That is; salt is useful as a food additive, in cosmetics as an exfoliator, in chemical industries as a source of Chloride, etc. while iodized salt is important mainly to overcome iodine deficiency, for the efficient functioning of the thyroid gland in making hormones, etc. As another important difference between salt and iodized salt, we can say that salt can have traces of several other minerals, but iodized salt is pure.

Summary – Salt vs Iodized Salt

Iodized salt is a form of salt. However, there is some difference between salt and iodized salt. Aboveall, the key difference between salt and iodized salt is that salt does not have any additive whereas iodized salt contains iodine additives. However, salt can have traces of several other minerals, but iodized salt is pure.

Reference:

1. “Salt.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 13 Nov. 2018. Available here  
2. “Iodised Salt.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 9 Oct. 2018. Available here

Image Courtesy:

1.”37980063931″ by Dan Lundberg (CC BY-SA 2.0) via Flickr
2.”Iodised salt”By Drtony999 – Own work, (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Commons Wikimedia