Salt: Why It Is Essential and How to Store It Right

Salt should be a basic staple in every prepper’s pantry. Today salt is inexpensive and easy to obtain. Tomorrow this valuable resource may become a rare commodity and you may be very glad you had the wisdom to stock up on salt when it was cheap and readily available.

Why Should I Store Salt? The ideal food storage will contain all of the basic dietary ingredients necessary to maintain health. Salt is an essential element for your very survival. Take a moment and imagine what your diet would be like without any salt. Have you included salt in your basic food storage?

In this video, we are going to discuss why it is important to include salt in your food storage, how long salt will store, which varieties of salt are good candidates for long term storage, and the best practices for long term storage of salt.

Be sure to visit the post this video was based on to learn more about storing salt for emergencies.

Salt: Why It Is Essential and How to Store It Right

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Check out our personal recommendations for quality long term food storage shelving and suppliers at:

Some great posts on building your food storage can be found at The Provident Prepper:

Long Term Food Storage: Creative Solutions to Build a Critical Asset

3 Months Supply of Food: Great Peace of Mind

Ingenious Places to Store Your Emergency Food Supply

Other articles by The Provident Prepper on food storage that might interest you include:

How to Know When Food Storage is Too Old

8 Food Storage Enemies and How to Slay Them

Thanks for being part of the solution!

[lamoon]

here we are a year and a half later...and this is more important than ever. Thanks for sharing. Btw, I use rice for de-clumping my salt.

[rosemariemartinez]

Living in the high desert, hydration is often neglected by new residents from states having more rain. Recently my kidneys were aching, having leg cramps, and frequent trips to bathroom. Adding a dash of lemon and a pinch of salt to the 32 oz bottle balanced the electrolytes so hydration became effective.

[perrybutler]

Another option, go to your Farmer's Co-op or feed store, co-op brand is "Mix and Fine", it is all salt and comes in 50# plastic bags for $8 to $10. Tastes like any other salt. I try to keep 50 to 200 pounds on hand. Besides table fare, you can trade it, melt the snow, kill weeds in areas you do not want chemicals. One use is, when I soak my deer after washing all blood off and cutting away any damaged tissue, I put it in a cooler with 1/2 cup 3% hydrogen peroxide, 1/2 cup vinagar, 1 cup salt and the cover the meat with ice and water. After 24 hours I drain the bloody water, wash the meat with fresh water and cover wth ice and water only and after 24 hours repeat. Yor meat is now ready to process. It will be more tender and will not have as strong wild taste. Cutting off as much of the fat and connective tissue also helps remove the gammy taste. Hope this helps. PB

[sarahmanning]

Also good to rinse with warm water for gum dental problems

[Squarehead]

I bought some Himalayan salt, , which is Approx tens of THOUSANDS of yrs old, , and wouldn't you know it, It will expire ONE YR after I buy it..Yup, it has an Expiration date...Amazing. Just MY LUCK

[djssquibbs]

Yes salt is super important, and great tips. I have a friend and he completely eliminated salt from his diet, after some time he ended up in the hospital and paid 5k+ PER DAY out of pocket for 3 days plus additional stuff. Salt is absolutely necessary.

[patriotpop]

My wife was hospitalized, 2 years ago, due to low sodium balance. I had been totally unaware of the bodies need for salt.

[janmclain]

New subscriber here. My favorite salt by far is pink Himalayan. I find it to taste saltier than other salts, so you use much less. I found it hilarious that my endocrinologist told me I need to eat more salt bc I have very low blood sodium levels, while my cardiologist told me to eat less salt bc of high blood pressure. So I try to eat more or less salt, lol

[wernerfoerster]

It might be important to point out that the salt in iodine salt does not actually go bad after 5 years. The iodine may lose its effectiveness only.

[joetrzcinski]

Thank you and God Bless everyone. Once again a superior video. Roman soldiers were paid in salt. In Egypt gold and salt went for a one to one ratio. Salt, sugar, flour, baking soda, and powdered milk white gold when disaster strikes. You cannot eat gold or silver. Water, food, vitamins, nutrients, herbs, and medical supplies they truly count.

[xSakixHarukax]

Salt is part of my preps but I had no idea that some salt had a shelf life, nor did I realize that it attracted moisture. Thank you so much for this information!

[tubularfrog]

FYI: Table salt is sodium chloride. Another salt that is necessary for good health is potassium chloride. This can be found in most salt substitutes, such as Nu-Salt. The bucket storage method is good. I've also used vacuum bags to seal up salt containers.

[nancygould]

I had salt in a cabin but didn't use it for about 20 years. When I tried to use it, it had lost all flavor. I threw it out. The Bible knew what it meant when it said, if the salt has lost its savor where is the saltiness. It's only good to be thrown out. It was always an amazing reminder. You are the salt of the earth.

[tylerandmaren]

New sub! It's refreshing to not hear the doom and gloom all the time. I love your sign off "Thanks for being a part of the solution"! Keep the videos coming! It's obvious you have done a ton of research and practice what you preach.

[momomimi]

For iodine store dried seaweed. Kombu has the highest amount of Iodine of any seaweed, so you don't need to eat very much to get the nutrients you need in the form of iodine. (from Japanese: 昆布, romanized: konbu) is edible kelp mostly from the family Laminariaceae and is widely eaten in East Asia.It may also be referred to as dasima (Korean: 다시마) or haidai (simplified Chinese: 海带; traditional Chinese: 海帶; pinyin: Hǎidài).

[bugoutbubba]

We simply vacuum seal our granulated salts in mason jars with standard lids. Those lid are coated. No metal comes in contact with the salt.
We also store standard white livestock blocks in plastic buckets. Just $5 for a 50 pound block. Contrary to popular misconception, they are perfectly fit for human consumption. We use the square buckets for a perfect fit. They will draw moisture around the lid so I use model glue to seal the lids.
Salt will be a super barter item. Throughout time it has often traded equally by weight with gold. Sadly though, few people today will realize how crucial salt is. Many will die from salt deficiency and not even realize why.

[jennystarnes]

My grandmother put a teaspoonful of white rice in her salt shakers to soak up the moisture it worked don't know how long it will work though but her salt was never clumpy I am storing mine in half gallon ball jars with a little white rice it will have to be sifted but so far it has worked been doing this for 6 years my self no problem so far this was with just iodized salt I haven't tried it with sea salt or canning salt but its worth it if it works🤔

[The-Cute-One]

Another year later and its still so vital..Been storing various salts this week. 10 pounds per person per year, and many pounds for food preservation. Great video. 👍

[stevenmerlock]

Totally agree with the video. Cost is a big deal for me, bulk is also a factor unless I’m going for barter. Packing meat is a 1 time use until reconstituted. I used salts for water softeners 1.47 for 10 lbs in a plastic bag. I tried pool salt and it worked well 50lb bag for $6. I use ice chests filled with meat catch/harvest cleaned then packed. After curing I don’t reuse but ♻️.

[LostCylon]

If you intend to hunt as part of your prep, storing a few salt licks could be a great cheap help. The same for any stock such as horses, cattle etc, they may need salt as much as you. It's a cheap thing to store, and as quoted here, could be a great trade item for those without as it's often missed when prepping. Another good item is ''Lite-salt'', a 50/50 mix of salt (Sodium Chloride) and Potassium Chloride, often a good addition to your diet if your not eating enough plant based foods.