Cornish Sea Salt

⁄

The discovery by Tony Fraser - founder and MD of the Cornish Sea Salt Company -  that salt used to be produced on the Lizard Peninsula as far back as the Iron Age, sparked a nugget of a business idea that turned into a three year journey. Cornish Sea Salt is quickly making waves as an essential culinary ingredient - within the first year the company has customers who include Rick Stein, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Mark Hix and won accreditation from the Soil Association and a Guild of Fine Food Great Taste Gold Award.

Cornish Sea Salt Company has developed a very natural process that blends age-old traditions with some innovative and energy-efficient technology which has no effect on the marine ecology or environment. Tony commented, “Our harvesting plant is located just eight metres from the clearest, Grade A classified waters – the highest accreditation to denote water purity – in an area of outstanding natural beauty and a geological SSSI. After multi-filtration and a unique recipe of time, heat and motion, the water is steam evaporated leaving a mountain of pure, brilliantly white, flaky sea salt crystals. The flakes are then hand-harvested from the evaporation pans and gently rinsed and dried.  Simple.”

Whilst salt is a kitchen essential, there are many low-budget options available on the market.  But these are a poor excuse for the intensity of flavour real that a good-quality sea salt offers.  Cornish Sea salt is a pure product, retaining over 60 naturally-occurring trace elements and minerals - that are not found in its commercial counterparts - offering a much nicer, saltier

Ellie Bradshaw, marketing director says, “Various ‘salt reduction’ and ‘salt awareness’ campaigns targeting food producers and consumers respectively have been very effective on raising the profile of salt.  However, this may have left a degree of confusion and an interpretation that ‘salt is bad’ for you.  On the contrary, the body needs a certain amount of salt everyday to maintain a healthy life and assist in our general wellbeing.  But like many foods, it’s about moderation and balancing quantity with quality.  We believe that ‘less is more’ – and we know our customers need to use less of our salt in their food, compared to traditional table salts, because the quality and flavour intensity is so exceptional.”

Celebrated food writer and chef Mark Hix, whose long-standing passion for the best in British produce recently praised Cornish Sea Salt for its superior taste and provenance and said, “Salt is one of nature’s bounties, and yet it’s amazing how many impure, synthetic varieties there are on the market. It’s an absolute joy that Cornish Sea Salt is, quite simply, natural. A simple ingredient that speaks volume in flavour and complements food in a way no other salt has done before.”