Report on the use of sodium chloride edible salt obtained from a potassium chloride production by flotation process

The procedures used in Spain for the extraction of salt include a case which uses the purification and crystallization of the salt obtained from the process for the production of potassium chloride by flotation. This process involves an initial stage consisting in the extraction of the raw mineral made up of sodium chloride and potassium chloride and other impurities. After the removal of some of the impurities, the mineral undergoes a flotation process for the separation of potassium 
chloride involving the use of different reactants, including flocculants, foaming agents and collectors. The salt obtained by means of this procedure between the sixties and the nineties was dumped as useless. Neverthless, those dumps are currently being used as raw material for 
obtaining table salt. 
The lack of information regarding the specific substances used in the potassium chloride production process, and its potential harmfulness, has created a safety concern. Therefore it has been considered necessary to assess a wide group of substances which may have been used in the process, with the recommendation of the absence of all these substances at levels above reference values, based on toxicological considerations. 
Therefore, from the point of view of the potential presence of aliphatic amines and amino alcohols the reference value to establish their absence is 0.3 mg N2/kg of salt. 
For the specific case of the sum of potentially present aromatic amines a reference value for determining their absence is recommended as low as the detection limit of the analytical 
technique, at maximum of 30 µg of total aromatic amines/kg of salt. 
The absence of pine oil residues based on the determination of alpha terpineol must be established, at minimum, at a level of 1 µg/kg of salt.