Werners flingsalt and food wastage

Banana chocolate brownie with caramelized coconut topping

Food Diary (October 23, 2011)

Breakfast: Sourdough toast

Lunch: Beans in tomato sauce with polenta

Dinner: Pickled apple and carrot salad, sourdough toast

Baking/sweets: Coconut drop cookies, banana chocolate brownie with caramelized coconut topping

Recently I received a box of Werners flingsalt (flake salt) to review. The salt is extracted from ancient underground salt beds in Australia, where the flavor has been concentrated and purified for many years. 

I was excited when I received by box of salt. The only other time I was excited about salt was when I bought a box of Italian sea salt. Salt is salt, how can it be so exciting? There is more to salt, and I am saying this not because of this complimentary box that I received. I always thought salt just added saltiness to food until I tried the Italian sea salt. It adds flavor, and lots of it too. Salt is one of the most important flavor components in a dish. Pasta sauce without garlic is still delicious, chili con carne without meat is still delicious, cookies without butter is still delicious but food without salt can almost be inedible.


Werners flingsalt is a great finishing salt. It has a salty taste, obviously, but without the bitterness. Try comparing the taste of regular salt with Werners flingsalt and you will notice the difference. Werners flingsalt flakes are thin and brittle, they crumble and dissolve easily. Some of the flakes are shaped like pyramids. So Werners flingsalt brings additional characteristics to the party - good looks and crunch. I have tried Werners flingsalt in a number of ways such as on salads, on buttered bread and on  flaxseed oatmeal crackers.  


While the salt is quite expensive, it does not replace table salt. It would be a waste to use Werners flingsalt in cooking unless you really feel like. Its best used as a finishing salt and a little goes a long way.


Here is what they look like:

However I didn’t finish off the banana chocolate brownie with caramelized coconut topping with Werners flingsalt. The brownies were great, though the caramelized coconut topping was a bit too crunchy. The recipe is available here.

Today's Favourite Photo

Source: Camemberu

Sashimi: Omakase Taster

Today’s Favourite Blog

Source: NY Times

When I was small, if I didn’t finish my meals my parents would remind me that there are so many people in the world who don’t have enough to eat. And I was lucky to have food. This trick worked sometimes. All my friends heard the same from their parents when they didn’t finish their meals. A friend of mine would respond “so send this leftover food to the hungry people”. This innocent statement by a child (now an adult!) demonstrates the problem that we face today, excess food being wasted and lack of food at the same time. The most obvious solution to send excess food to where it is needed is easier said than done.

Last year more than 925 million people, nearly 1 in 7 people in the world, were undernourished. The problem is not that the world grows too little food; there is plenty of food overall but it is wasted. Each year, 1.3 billion tons of food is lost worldwide. One-third of all the food bought in Britain is thrown away. Americans discarded 33 million tons of food in 2009, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Food is the single largest component of solid waste in U.S. municipal landfills and incinerators. The countries of South and Southeast Asia produce less food per capita than industrialized countries in the West, but they waste roughly the same proportion, 30 to 35 percent.

In industrialized countries, wastage occurs at the consumer level, after the food has reached supermarkets and stores. Food is too cheap, it is thrown away without second thoughts. On the other hand, in developing countries, 35 to 45 percent of the food produced is lost before it reaches buyers. Most waste occurs during and just after harvesting and at the distribution stage. India, the world’s second-largest producer of fruits and vegetables, loses about 40 percent of that production because of mismanagement, inadequate infrastructure and storage, poor transportation, shoddy supply-chain logistics, and underdeveloped markets. 

So there you go, there is enough food in the world but it is wasted. And this is not easy to fix otherwise it would have been fixed long time ago. Wastage or inefficiency is part of life. In some countries up to a third, or even more, of the electricity produced is wasted due to poor infrastructure and other issues. The development (aid) industry has far too much money and at the same time more money is needed to improve infrastructure in developing countries. Connecting excess with shortage is so tricky. One of the sectors that does this quite efficiently is the banking sector. Someone’s $100 savings is combined with savings from other depositors and lent to clients in other parts of the country, and the bank makes a few percent profit only. But now even the banks are getting into trouble and they used to be one of the best examples. We are in trouble!

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