Collected near the Essex town that gives it its name, Maldon Salt has earned a devoted following among celebrity chefs and food influencers.
However, the company’s claim that its flakes are made from “100 per cent sea salt” may be less straightforward than many customers have assumed.
A newspaper investigation found that imported rock salt, mined in Germany, is used during production. Maldon Salt says the material acts as a filtration agent and helps “enrich the seawater” with minerals.
Known as the “salt-on-salt” process, the traditional technique adds extra salt to increase the water’s salinity. This reduces the energy needed to evaporate the water and form the salt crystals.
The Observer spent three days monitoring Maldon Salt’s Longwick Farm facility on the northern bank of the Blackwater Estuary, outside Maldon. It observed four lorries delivering bags and unloading approximately 12 tons of salt each. The bags carried the branding of K+S, the German mining company and one of the world’s biggest salt producers.
After being contacted by the newspaper, Maldon Salt updated its website last Wednesday to explain the “salt-on-salt” method publicly for the first time.
The company’s website now says: “The water is settled and filtered, then prepared as brine using our long-established salt-on-salt process, in which natural, ancient sea salt forms part of the brine-making, to enrich the seawater with natural minerals.”
Andrea Sella, a professor of chemistry at University College London, said that once salt from two different sources had been combined, the materials could not be separated.
Maldon Salt is harvested from seawater drawn from the Blackwater Estuary, pictured here at Maldon, when the tides and salinity are optimal
TV chef Shivi Ramoutar said Maldon Sea Salt was the one item she would always take abroad
Andrew Fielding, co-author of The Salt Industry, said the salt-on-salt technique was traditional but should be disclosed when used in contemporary food production.
The family-owned brand is known for its distinctive pyramid-shaped flakes, created through the “careful control of temperature, time and movement” as seawater brine is heated and evaporated in open pans.
In April, television chef Shivi Ramoutar told The Mail on Sunday’s You magazine that Maldon Sea Salt was the one item she always packed when travelling abroad.
Maldon Salt’s accounts for the year ending in March 2025 showed revenue rising 16.5 per cent to £39.2 million. Operating profit increased 1.7 per cent from the previous year to almost £12 million.
Earlier this year, the company, founded in 1882, announced plans to expand its Longwick Farm operation amid rising demand, particularly from overseas markets.
Maldon Sea Salt is famed for its pyramid-shaped salt flakes
Essex Trading Standards, with support from the Food Standards Agency, investigated the site in 2019 and 2020. It concluded that no regulatory breaches had occurred, noting there was no legal definition distinguishing one grade of salt from another.
Canadian labelling rules, however, prohibit mined salt from being sold as “sea salt”. As a result, some Maldon Sea Salt packaging in Canada has been amended to read Maldon Salt.
Maldon Salt rejected the suggestion that customers had been misled.
A spokesman said: “Maldon is a heritage brand and the custodians of the ancient craft of salt making for 144 years.
“Our method and techniques are part of that heritage. Rock salt is ancient sea salt that is added to seawater, which makes Maldon 100% sea salt flakes.
“It is this long-established method that gives Maldon its distinctive flakes, along with the same taste and unique texture that cooks, chefs and fans have enjoyed for generations.
“Maldon Salt’s products and labelling comply with all applicable food-safety and labelling legislation.
“At its core, Maldon Salt is a story of place, craft and legacy — and that is why it is loved by chefs and consumers around the world.”
An Essex Trading Standards spokesman said: “Essex Trading Standards fully investigated allegations provided to it by the FSA in 2019 and concluded at that time that no further action was required.”
K+S said it supplied salt to the UK from sites across Europe but declined to comment on deliveries to individual customers.