Italian salt between sea salt and rock salt

Salt is an essential resource for human nutrition, food preservation, and numerous industrial processes. In Italy, production is divided along two distinct supply chains based on geological origin and method of obtaining: sea salt sea salt, obtained from the evaporation of seawater along the coasts of four regions — Apulia, Sicily, Sardinia, and Emilia-Romagna — and rock salt rock salt, extracted from the Sicilian mines of Racalmuto and Realmonte, where deposits formed millions of years ago are mined underground.

The Italian salt sector, while still marginal in the global context, features a diversified supply chain, a single PGI recognition — the Trapani Sea Salt — and an ongoing European regulatory framework regarding the regulation of organic salt. Recently, an additional institutional discussion front has been added concerning the recognition of marine salt farming as an agricultural activity.

Salt production and market in Italy

According to data released by the USGS, the Italian production total of Salt — marine and rock salt combined — was 3 million tons in 2024, with an estimate of 1.9 million tons for 2025; Italy contributes about 0,7% to the world production, dominated by China, the United States, and India (U.S. Geological Survey, 2026). The two supply chains remain highly concentrated:

• the Margherita di Savoia saltworks, in Puglia, managed by Atisale, is the largest production site in Europe with 4,500 hectares;
• the Sicilian mines of Racalmuto and Realmonte, managed by Italkali, cover almost the entire national extraction of rock salt (Atisale, 2024; Italkali, 2022).

An updated figure on marine salt farming comes from an initiative promoted in 2024 by Confagricoltura along with the main companies managing Italian salt pans — Atisale, Sosalt, Isola Longa, Saline Ingegner Luigi Conti Vecchi and the Cervia Salt Park — for its regulatory recognition as an agricultural practice.

The presented document indicates a marine production of 1.2 million tons per year, equal to about 30% of the national production of salt, a sector value of 60 million euros and over 10 thousand hectares of cultivated salt pans among Puglia, Sardinia, Sicily and Emilia-Romagna; Margherita di Savoia alone employs about a hundred full-time workers, rising to around 400 including indirect jobs (Confagricoltura, 2024).

History and origins of salt production in Italy

The salt pans of Cervia, in Emilia-Romagna, are among the oldest production complexes in Europe: already in Roman times the area, known as Ficocle, rose on the edge of a large lagoon area where salt was extracted. Until 1959, the Cervia saltworks was operated using the multiple daily harvest system on 144 separate basins; that year the State Monopolies converted the plant to the unitary method, with an annual mechanical harvest of French design. Only the Camillone Saltworks retained the traditional method, now managed by the Cultural Association Salinara Civilization, established in 1989: the ‘sweet salt of Cervia‘ which results, free of bitter notes, is today a Slow Food presidium (Slow Food Foundation, n.d.; Po Delta Park, 2020).

For the Sicilian rock salt, the deposits of Racalmuto and Realmonte formed about 5-6 million years ago during the Messinian salinity crisis, when the isolation of the Mediterranean from the Atlantic caused its almost complete evaporation, resulting in the sedimentation of thick evaporite layers in the Sicilian subsoil (Krijgsman et al., 2024). The salt extracted from these mines is packaged directly in the galleries, without further exposure to the external environment until the package is opened by the consumer (Italkali, 2022).

Production areas and processing methods

sea salt

The production of sea salt Italian focuses on four areas:

• Puglia: Margherita di Savoia saltworks, the largest in Italy and Europe;
• Sicily: saltworks of Trapani and Paceco;
• Sardinia: saltworks of Cagliari (former Eni Contivecchi) and Sant’Antioco;
• Emilia-Romagna: Cervia saltworks.

The process follows the natural cycle of solar evaporation: seawater is introduced into shallow basins, called ‘lomari’ or ‘cavallini’ in Cervia, where the sun and wind progressively raise its salinity concentration until crystallization (Atisale, 2024). Today, the mechanized unitary harvesting system prevails everywhere, except for the aforementioned Camillone Saltworks.

rock salt

The extraction of rock salt takes place in Sicily, in the mining sites of Racalmuto and Realmonte (province of Agrigento), managed by Italkali. The method involves gallery excavation, followed by crushing, grinding, and possible refining (Italkali, 2022). The product appears in compact crystals, with adjustable granularity and a lower content of minor elements compared to integral sea salt, which instead retains magnesium, potassium and other minerals naturally present in seawater (Chudy et al., 2025).

The international and European regulatory framework

The standard Codex Alimentarius for salt intended for human consumption

The international reference for food salt is Codex Standard for Food-Grade Salt (CXS 150-1985), adopted in 1985 and revised several times — in 1997 and 2012 — and lastly amended in November 2025, during the forty-eighth session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex Alimentarius Commission, 1985/2025). The standard:

• sets a minimum sodium chloride content not less than 97% on dry basis, excluding additives;
• allows as raw materials sea salt, rock salt, and natural brines;
• regulates the iodization of salt in iodine-deficient areas, leaving to national health authorities the setting of minimum and maximum iodine levels.

Organic salt in Regulation (EU) 2018/848: an open dossier

Regulation (EU) 2018/848 has included ‘sea salt and other salts for food and feed‘ among the products admitted to organic certification, effective from 1 January 2022 (European Union, 2018). Detailed production rules, however, remain undefined at the European level:

• The European Commission had adopted, on 2 May 2023, a delegated regulation that banned recrystallization, imposed a minimum conversion period of six months also for rock salt, and prohibited, after a two-year transitional period, the use of non-renewable energy sources in evaporation and drying (European Commission, 2023);
• the European Parliament however rejected this delegated act with a resolution on 11 July 2023, approved by 468 votes in favor following the negative opinion of the Agriculture Committee on 28 June.

The Strasbourg assembly deduced the following objections:

• salt is not considered an agricultural product;
• the restrictions proposed by the Commission on modern mining technologies for organic rock salt appear disproportionate;
• The six-month conversion period for rock salt appears unjustified, as a fossil mineral cannot improve its quality through conversion alone;
• The requirements for absence of contamination for sea salt are considered unrealistic, given the spread of microplastics in marine waters (European Parliament, 2023).

In the absence of a new European delegated act, to date the organic salt remains without rules of production harmonized at the European Union level, which is limited to the general principles of Regulation (EU) 2018/848.

National regulations on organic salt

The France has filled the European gap with its own discipline, approving with arrêté of 15 July 2024 a specifications national standard for organic salt. The text largely reprises the contents of the previously rejected delegated regulation (ban on recrystallization, minimum conversion period of six months, ban on plastic coatings in contact with evaporation and crystallization tanks) and makes them applicable only to French operators (République Française, 2024).

In Spain the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has submitted for public consultation, between November and December 2025, a draft real decreto on the production standards of sea salt and other organic salts for food and feed. The project prohibits, among other things, the extraction of rock salt with explosives, recrystallization and plastic linings of the tanks, and sets a conversion period of at least eighteen months. It received the favorable opinion of the Spanish Competition Authority in June 2026, but to date it has not yet been adopted (Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación, 2025; Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia, 2026).

Italian geographical indications: Trapani PGI and Cervia salt

the Trapani Sea Salt is the only Italian salt denomination to benefit from PGI, Protected Geographical Indication, registered with Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1175/2012 of 7 December 2012 (European Union, 2012). The production specification sets the following parameters:

• theproduction area includes the municipal territories of Trapani, Paceco, and Marsala, along the so-called ‘Salt Route’;
• color white, crystals compact, absence of additives, bleaching agents, preservatives, and anti-caking agents;
• maximum contents copper < 1 mg/kg, chromium and cadmium < 0.15 mg/kg, mercury < 0.05 mg/kg, arsenic < 0.1 mg/kg;
• minimum content of iodine > 0.70 mg/kg;
• the product is marketed in packages sealed from 100 g to 1,000 kg, with the obligation to label the packaging with ‘PGI — Sea Salt of Trapani’ (European Union, 2012).

The ‘sweet salt of Cervia‘ does not instead have a European recognition, but is protected by a company regulation within the Emblem of Quality Products of the Po Delta Park — Emilia-Romagna, which commits the producer to package exclusively salt from the Cervia saltworks, following environmentally friendly practices and subject to periodic controls (Po Delta Park, 2020); the product of the Camillone Saltworks, as mentioned, is also a Slow Food presidium.

Sea salt and rock salt compared: composition and uses

The differences between sea salt and rock salt depend on their different geological origin:

• the unrefined sea salt — that is, salt which after harvesting is neither washed nor centrifuged, according to the definition in the Sea Salt of Trapani PGI specification — retains trace elements (magnesium, potassium, calcium, iodine) in variable amounts depending on the saltworks of origin, contributing to the organoleptic profile of the product;
• the rock salt, fossil salt sealed in underground deposits for millions of years, on the contrary shows a chemical purity superior, with a sodium chloride content in the refined form that can exceed 99%, compared to a lower richness of minor elements (Chudy et al., 2025).

From the point of view of food safety, rock salt is not exposed to contaminants present in some marine waters, including microplastics: a study published in Environmental Science & Technology, which analyzed 39 brands of table salt marketed in twenty-one countries, found the presence of microplastics in over 90% of the samples, with the highest concentrations in sea salts from Asian waters (Kim et al., 2018). The European Parliament cites this evidence among the objections to the delegated regulation on organic sea salt (European Parliament, 2023).

The choice between the two types of salt, at industrial and domestic levels, mainly depends on the intended uses:

• the rock salt, because of its adjustable grain size and consistent composition, is preferred in the food industry and in preparations requiring precise dosing, such as salting, brine, and baked goods;
• the unrefined sea salt, unwashed and not centrifuged and therefore richer in minor elements, due to greater mineral complexity and coarser grain, is mainly used in cooking, even raw, where the perception of saltiness and crystal texture matter more than dosing precision.

The recognition of marine salt farming as an agricultural activity

One of the key points at the heart of the European debate on organic salt — the agricultural nature of salt — is the subject in Italy of a parallel initiative aiming at the opposite outcome in terms of economic classification. Confagricoltura, together with the main Italian salt companies, proposed in 2024 a framework law to set the criteria for assimilating marine salt farming, from a regulatory perspective, to agricultural activity, based on the assumption that salt harvesting from evaporation ponds shares with traditional cultivation the direct link with the cycle of the seasons and with the management of the coastal territory (Confagricoltura, 2024). The discussion with the Government, started in the spring of 2024, was still ongoing at the time of the public presentation of the initiative.

Italian salt pans towards UNESCO recognition

On September 9, 2026, the national technical commission for the Man and the Biosphere (MAB) program of theUNESCO, gathered at the Ministry of Environment and Energy Security, gave the green light to the candidacy ‘Salt Pans of Sicily’ as a Biosphere Reserve, along with that of the Colli Berici.

The candidacy, whose dossier is expected to UNESCO by September 30, 2026, includes about 3 thousand hectares of salt pans, two nature reserves — including the Trapani and Paceco Salt Pans Nature Reserve, established in 1995 — and 25 kilometers of coastline between Trapani and Marsala.

This area hosts over 470 plant species and more than 240 bird species. The final recognition, if confirmed by UNESCO, should arrive in 2027 (Ministry of Environment and Energy Security, 2026).

Conclusions

The Italian salt sector combines two supply chains of great landscape, territorial and economic importance. While the Trapani IGP Sea Salt and the sweet salt of Cervia represent the protected excellences of the sector, the regulatory framework remains open on two opposing fronts: the European gap on organic production, which pushed France to legislate independently and Spain to initiate its own regulation process, and the tug-of-war over the agricultural nature of salt farming, rejected in Brussels but strongly claimed in Italy.

Dario Dongo

References

International and European normative and institutional sources

Codex Alimentarius Commission. (1985, emend. 2025). Standard for Food-Grade Salt (CXS 150-1985). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations & World Health Organization. https://openknowledge.fao.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/fa48b5df-8de7-442b-a0ce-5a4f730d02c2/content

Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia. (2026). IPN/CNMC/024/26. Draft Royal Decree approving detailed production rules for organic sea salt and other organic salts and brines for food and feed. Council Report, 19/06/2026. https://www.cnmc.es/expedientes/ipncnmc02426

European Commission. (2023). Commission Delegated Regulation (EU)/… amending Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards detailed production rules for organic sea salt and other organic salts for food and feed. C/2023/2781 final. Not adopted. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=intcom:C%282023%292781

European Parliament. (2023). Objection to a delegated act: detailed production rules for organic sea salt and other organic salts for food and feed. European Parliament resolution of 11 July 2023, P9_TA(2023)0258. http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2024/4023/oj

European Union. (2018). Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 on organic production and labelling of organic products. Consolidated text: 25/03/2025, data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2018/848/2025-03-25

European Union. (2012). Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1175/2012 of 7 December 2012 entering a name in the register of protected designations of origin and protected geographical indications [Sale Marino di Trapani (PGI)]. Official Journal of the European Union, L 337, 11.12.2012. data.europa.eu/eli/reg_impl/2012/1175/oj

Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. (2025). Draft Royal Decree approving detailed production rules for organic sea salt and other organic salts for food and feed. Hearing and public information procedure, 27/11/2025-18/12/2025. https://www.mapa.gob.es/es/alimentacion/participacion-publica/detalle/ta-rd-sal-marina-ecologica

French Republic. (2024). Order of July 15, 2024, approving the specifications concerning the organic production method of salt supplementing the provisions of Regulation (EU) 2018/848 and its secondary acts. Official Journal of the French Republic. legifrance.gouv.fr

U.S. Geological Survey. (2026). Salt. In Mineral commodity summaries 2026 (pp. 152–153). U.S. Department of the Interior. https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2026/mcs2026-salt.pdf

Peer-reviewed scientific sources

Chudy, S., Makowska, A., & Kowalski, R. (2025). Sodium chloride in food. Foods, 14(15), 2741. doi.org/10.3390/foods14152741

Kim, J.-S., Lee, H.-J., Kim, S.-K., & Kim, H.-J. (2018). Global pattern of microplastics (MPs) in commercial food-grade salts: Sea salt as an indicator of seawater MP pollution. Environmental Science & Technology, 52(21), 12819-12828. doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.8b04180

Krijgsman, W., Rohling, E. J., Palcu, D. V., Raad, F., Amarathunga, U., Flecker, R., Florindo, F., Roberts, A. P., Sierro, F. J., & Aloisi, G. (2024). Causes and consequences of the Messinian salinity crisis. Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, 5(5), 335-350. doi.org/10.1038/s43017-024-00533-1

Italian sector and institutional sources

Atisale S.p.A. (2024). The salt pans of Margherita di Savoia. atisale.eu

Confagricoltura. (2024). Agriculture cultivates salt: presentation of the project to enhance salt farming by Confagricoltura and Italian sea salt pans. https://www.confagricoltura.it/ita/area-stampa/comunicati/salicoltura-presentato-ad-assemini-il-progetto-di-valorizzazione-ideato-da-confagricoltura-e-saline-marine-italiane

Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity. (n.d.). Cervia artisanal sea salt — Slow Food Presidium. https://www.fondazioneslowfood.com/it/presidi-slow-food/sale-marino-artigianale-di-cervia/

Italkali — Italian Alkali Salts Company S.p.A. (2022). Where we produce: Racalmuto and Realmonte. italkali.com

Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security. (2026). From the UNESCO MaB-IGG Committee, approval of two new Biosphere Reserve nominations: Salt pans of Sicily and Berici Hills. From the MAB IGG UNESCO Committee: OK to two new candidacies for biosphere reserves Saline di Sicilia and Colli Berici

Management plan SIC IT4070007 – Salina di Cervia (PDF, 2018):  https://ambiente.regione.emilia-romagna.it/it/parchi-natura2000/rete-natura-2000/strumenti-di-gestione/misure-specifiche-di-conservazione-piani-di-gestione/piani-di-gestione/PG707.pdf/