Your table salt may have poison, claims activist

Citing a US lab report, an activist on Tuesday said that premium brands of processed iodised salt sold in India allegedly contain alarming levels of poisonous and carcicogenic components like potassium ferrocyanide.

According to Shiv Shankar Gupta, Chairman of Godhum Grains& Farms Products, the test by the American West Analytical Laboratories hasrevealed that potassium ferrocyanide levels are an alarmingly high in SambharRefined Salt at 4.71 mg/kg, at 1.85 mg/kg in Tata Salt and 1.90 mg/kg in TataSalt Lite.

   

Despite repeated attempts and emails, neither the Tata Groupnor their official media teams commented on the matter.

Gupta, who has launched a mission “to rid salt ofharmful substances, expose corrupt practices by the salt industry and helpprovide healthy and safe natural variants of salt to the masses”, saidthat no where in the world is the poisonous potassium ferrocyanide permittedfor use in the edible salt industry or for that matter, in any other food item.

“Leading companies in the edible salt manufacturingindustry simply repackage industrial waste laden with hazardous chemicals likeiodine and cyanide and market it as packaged edible salt, making peoplevulnerable to diseases like cancer, hyperthyroidism, high blood pressure,impotence, obesity, kidney failures etc,” he told media persons here.

He accused the companies of adapting “dangerous andundisclosed processes such as bleaching, adding a plethora of dangerouschemicals like iodine and cyanide to ‘refine’ the salt”.

Gupta alleged that the poisonous cyanide compounds arefreely used by leading salt manufacturers in India, while iodine, which isalready present in natural salt, is artificially added, virtually rendering thesalt a poison.

He said that the country’s natural salt industry – spreadacross Gujarat’s Kutch, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan – has been systematicallydestroyed by successive governments which hailed “iodised salt” as ahealthy alternative.

“Declaring salt from these salt pans, which isnaturally suited for human consumption, as inedible is one of the biggest scamsin post-Independent India. This is one of the worst cases of corporate greedand corruption with the livelihood of workers in the indigenous salt industryat stake,” Gupta claimed.

Alleging a strong nexus between the government andindustrial lobbies to cheat workers of the indigenous salt industry whileselling it at exorbitant prices, leaving the consumers with no choice but tobuy cheaper, chemical-laced variants, he accused the government departmentsentrusted with the task of ensuring quality standards in production of brandedsalt of being “inert”.”RTI applications show that none of the bigsalt manufacturers have applied for testing or licensing with the FSSAI, which– on its part – has been unambiguous on how refined salt is produced. Moreover,food testing labs in the country are not equipped to measure the quantity ofcyanide in salt,” he claimed.

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