Fleur de Sel is a high-price product, appreciated by consumers for its flaky structure and taste. While salt is salt, having your 32 oz prime steak decorated with flakes of Fleur De Sel makes a difference. Fleur De Sel is salt that forms as a thin, delicate crust on the surface of seawater as it evaporates, and is often harvested manually. It sells for up to 63€ per kilogram, while regular sea salt sells for around 2€ per kg.
One would like to think Fleur de Sel has a superior quality, considering that it comes at 30 times the price of regular sea salt.
The German public television program Markt found, that Fleur De Sel contained up to 1700μg microplastic per kilogram, 30 times as much as regular sea salt which is won from the bottom of a salt basins. And in this case, it is not due to adulteration, but the fact that oceans are contaminated with microplastic and most of it is lighter than water, swims on the surface and therefore is co-harvested with the Fleur De Sel. The types of plastic that were found in Fleur De Sel range from polyethylene and polypropylene to PET, i.e. the typical products of packaging waste.
According to Prof. Maser from the institute of toxicology of the University of Kiel, there is a concern that microplastic serves as a vehicle for the transport of toxic components into the human body, such as DDT, dioxins and heavy metals. Fleur de Sel companies with high levels of microplastic were asked to comment on the findings and stated that one has to put the amount found into context of daily consumption. While that is certainly a fair comment to make, one has to also consider effects of the accumulation of toxic substances that are carried by the microplastic.
