Reinventing salt

Frito-Lay wants to change the shape of the salt they put on their potato chips to increase the surface area exposed to taste buds and therefore decrease the amount of salt needed on each chip.

“Early on in our research, it became apparent that the majority of salt on a snack doesn’t even have time to dissolve in your saliva because you swallow it so rapidly,” explained Mehmood Khan, senior vice president and chief scientific officer and a former Mayo Clinic endocrinologist. A Wall Street Journal story later reported only about 20 percent of the salt on a chip dissolves on the tongue, and the remaining 80 percent is swallowed without contributing to taste.

I’m confused as to why “an understanding of crystal chemistry” is necessary. Why couldn’t they just crush/grind the salt into a fine powder instead? Are the cubic crystals still too big even when crushed?

• chemistry
• food
• salt
• science

Motoi Yamamoto’s salt labyrinths

Artist Motoi Yamamoto creates intricate large scale mazes using salt. I love this one, an installation at the Sumter County Gallery of Art in South Carolina:

His Utsusemi installations are worth checking out as well.

• art
• Motoi Yamamoto
• salt

A salt taste test: “From fleur de

A salt taste test: “From fleur de sel to kosher, which salt is best?”.

• best of
• food
• salt