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Effects of Natural Filtration Media on Microplastic Reduction and Physicochemical Quality of Artisanal Sea Salt
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Researchers in Indonesia tested three natural materials, sugar palm fiber, sea sand and coconut shell charcoal, for filtering brine before making artisanal sea salt. Coconut shell charcoal filtration performed best, raising salt purity, cutting magnesium impurities, and reducing microplastic particle counts by about 42%, with the biggest drops seen in fiber-shaped and very small particles.
ABSTRACT Marine‐derived microplastic contamination has emerged as a growing food safety concern in artisanal sea salt production, where pollutants may become concentrated during solar evaporation and crystallization. In East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia, traditional cooking salt often fails to meet edible‐grade standards because of elevated divalent mineral impurities and microplastic contamination. However, cost effective practical mitigation strategies for small scale producers remain very limited. This Study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of three local natural filtration media, namely: Sugar palm fiber ( Arenga pinnata ), sea sand, and coconut shell charcoal used to filter brine prior to crystallization via boiling. A completely randomized design (CRD) framework was adopted, evaluating four distinct treatment conditions: a non‐filtered control (P0), sugar palm fiber filtration (P1), sea sand filtration (P2), and coconut shell charcoal filtration (P3). Physicochemical measurements and FTIR spectroscopy showed a significant difference in (p<0.05) the particle count and salt properties between the experiments. In terms of NaCl recovery and polymer reduction effectiveness, coconut shell charcoal filter (P3) gave the most satisfactory results. Using the SNI 4435:2017 Class 1 edible salt standard, P3 achieved an increase of NaCl purity from 84.14% to 94.62 % in addition to achieving the 41.78 % reduction of microplastics and the removal of 80.6% magnesium impurities and decreased the number of particles from 35 500 particles kg‐1 to 20 666 particles kg‐1. Fiber shaped particles and smaller than 100 µm particles were the most reduced particles after filtration. FTIR results revealed lower values of several polymer peaks in the filtered salt samples in comparison with the controlled ones. Under the experimental conditions evaluated, coconut shell charcoal filtration improved the physicochemical quality of artisanal salt and reduced microplastic contamination prior to crystallization.
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