GB2279943A

GB2279943A - Flaky salt composition

Info

Publication number: GB2279943A
Application number: GB9413078A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Tsutomu Inamori; Hiroshi Suefuji; Eishiro Nishi
Original assignee: SAKITO SALT MANUFACTURING CO L; SUN PLANNING CO Ltd
Current assignee: SAKITO SALT MANUFACTURING CO L; SUN PLANNING CO Ltd
Priority date: 1993-07-15
Filing date: 1994-06-29
Publication date: 1995-01-18
Also published as: GB9413078D0; CN1105204A; JPH0731409A

Abstract

A flaky salt composition comprising 80 to 98% by weight of a flaky salt (NaCl) and/or its debris and 2 to 20% by weight of calcium lactate. The composition may also contain a thickening agent, eg SiO2, carrageenan and xanthan gum; and another inorganic salt, eg MgSO4, Na2SO4, CaSO4, and Ca or Mg bicarbonates.

Description

FLAKY SALT COMPOSITION The present invention relates to a flaky salt composition preferably used for massage or used as an edible product, and particularly to a flaky salt composition which has an improved touch to the skin when used for massage and which is a calcium-rich food when used as an edible product.

Salts include rock salt and solar salt, and a salt produced by an ion-exchange membrane method adopted in Japan when classified by sources. As specialty salts, marketed are a salt product obtained by incorporating bittern into the salt produced by the ion exchange membrane method and a salt produced by dissolving the solar salt and by recrystallization.

Salts have long been used to enhance our health and well-being (as used, for example, in gargling, tooth brushing, bathing and the like) and in a beauty treatment (treatment of pimples and skin eruption). So-called "salt application therapy" in which a massage is given while applying the salt to the face or the body has been performed as health/beauty treatment because of the effect of sodium chloride which is dissolved and stimulates the skin whereby promoting the blood flow.

These days, this salt-application therapy attracts much attention, and the salt produced by the ion-exchange membrane method and the salt produced by dissolving solar salt and by recrystallization, both of which are commercially available, are now employed as the massage salts. However, these commercially available salts are produced primarily as foods, and exhibit various disadvantages when employed in massage. Conventional salts have particles which are coarse and exhibit poor touch to the skin, or which are hardly dissolved and adhered because of cubic or almost cubic shapes. Thus, there are no salts which are suitable for use in massage.

On the other hand, the National Nutrition Survey Japan, Which is published every year, revealed that calcium is the only nutritional substance which is ingested in less than the required amounts, and that as a result of the aging of the Japanese society an increasing number of the patients are suffering from osteo-porosis. As a result, an increasing number of calcium-rich foods can be found on the market.

Although salts incorporated with calcium salts have been marketed, the calcium salts are calcium carbonate or phosphate etc. added as free-flowing agent in an amount of about 0.5 %, and not intended to serve as calcium supplements.

As mentioned above, general salts now commercially available have such disadvantages as poor touch to the skin, low solubility and adhesive capability. A salt suitable for use in massage has been desired.

Food product salts contain calcium in only a small amount which is not enough for current Japanese, and a salt supplemented with readily absorbable calcium is also expected in Japan and other countries.

The present invention aims to provide a salt which has satisfactory touch to the skin, has a preferred level of solubility and adhesive capability and is suitable for massage while serving also for foods as a healthy seasoning salt supplemented with readily absorbable calcium.

A flaky salt composition according to the present invention contains 80 to 98% by weight of a flaky salt and/or its debris and 2 to 20% by weight of calcium lactate.

A salt having a more satisfactory touch to the skin, excellent solubility and adhesive capability and which is suitable for use in massage and also in foods as a calcium-supplemented food salt can be obtained by incorporating calcium lactate in a particular ratio to the flaky salt and/or its debris which has a preferred level of solubility and adhesive capability when compared with a salt in the form of a cube.

The following examinations were conducted in view of the characteristics of the flaky salt and/or its debris which has a preferred level of solubility and adhesive capability when compared with a salt in the form of a cube.

Touch to the skin is particularly important for a massage salt. Although the flaky salt and/or its debris is softer and has excellent touch to the skin when compared with a commercially available salt, a salt with even more softness is required. We examined various methods to improve the touch to the skin, and then found that the incorporation of calcium lactate in a particular ratio into the flaky salt and/or its debris can porvide the needed improvement.

The present invention will now be described in further detail by way of example only.

A flaky salt composition according to the present invention contains 80 to 98% by weight of a flaky salt and/ or its debris and 2 to 20% by weight of calcium lactate. The composition preferably contains 90 to 97% by weight of the flaky salt and/or its debris and 3 to 10% by weight of the calcium lactate. As described below, the calcium lactate serves to effectively improve the touch to the skin. When the content of the calcium lactate is higher than that mentioned above, the composition is soft but becomes less easy to use because of the less improvement in the touch.

When the content of the calcium lactate is lower than that mentioned above, the characteristics of the composition become closer to those of a simple salt and are less soft.

Particle size is also an important factor when selecting a salt for use in massage. The touch to the skin varies greatly depending on the particle size. Most of the commercially available salts employed in massage are course and have a mean particle size of from 350 to 550 . Such salts have poor touch to the skin when used in massage, providing problems such as potent stimulation and smart.

Thus, it was examined what particle size would be suitable for the present invention employing the flaky salt and/or its debris for the purpose of massage, and it was found that a mean particle size of 70 to 300 > , preferably, 100 to 250 > , provides particularly excellent touch to the skin.

Therefore, it is preferable in the present invention to use a flaky salt and/or its debris having a particle size in the range given above.

Particularly, the most preferable flaky salt in the present invention is the one having a mean thickness of from 20 to 120 p.

Such flaky salt is produced by heating and slowly evaporating a solution containing salt ( a liquid in which salt is dissolved or concentrated sea water ) in evaporating pan in order to form the crystals of the salt on the surface of the solution.

Such flaky salt and/or its debris is soft and can be dissolved in water quite readily. By incorporating calcium lactate in a particular amount, further softness for improved touch can be obtained.

Such improvement in touch is considered to be mainly due to the thickening effect of calcium lactate, and the effects of the flaky salt and/or its debris and the calcium lactate served to enhance the efficacy of so-called "salt application therapy".

A flaky. salt composition according to the present invention may contain an inorganic salt (for example, magnesium sulfate, sodium sulfate, calcium sulfate, calcium bicarbonate, magnesium bicarbonate and the like) having hot spa effects and enhancing the effects of massage and a thickening agent (for example, fine particle silicon dioxide, carrageenan extracted from algae, xanthan gums produced by microorganisms and the like) for the purpose of improvement of handling. In such cases, the inorganic salt is preferably incorporated in an amount of from 0.5 to 5% by weight and the thickening agent is preferably incorporated in an amount of from 0.1 to 2% by weight.

By selecting an appropriate amount of the thickening agent, further excellent handling of the salt can be obtained.

A flaky salt composition of the present invention can serve also as a healthly food-seasoning salt supplemented with readily absorbable calcium by selecting the content of calcium lactate appropriately.

For example, when a flaky salt composition of the present invention containing 93% by weight of a flaky salt and/or its debris and 7% by weight of calcium lactate is ingested in an amount of 5 g/day, then about 50 mg/day of calcium is ingested. The Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare prescribes that the mean amount of calcium required per day per person is 600 mg, while, however, a person typically ingests only up to 90% of that required amount per day. This insufficiency of calcium can be supplemented by using the flaky salt composition of the present invention as a seasoning salt in many countries.

As described above, according to the present invention, a salt composition exhibiting soft touch to the skin and having excellent solubility and adhesive capability which is suitable for use in massage can be obtained. In addition, the flaky salt composition of the present invention serves as a healthy food-seasoning salt supplemented with calcium.

The present invention is further illustrated in the following examples.

Example 1 Samples containing the flaky salt and/or its debris (mean particle size: 170 > , mean thickness: 60 ) and calcium lactate in the amounts shown in Table 1 were subjected to evaluation with regard to touch to the skin in a panel test by 3 male and 5 female panels. The results are shown in Table 1.

As is evident from Table 1, the touch to the skin was improved by incorporating 2 to 20% by weight of calcium lactate to the flaky salt and/or its debris.

Table 1 Results of panel test using calcium lactate at various ratios

Sample Content (% by weight) Evaluation of touch(numbers of persons) Comment by panels Remark number Flaky salt and/or its Calcium Very good Good Intermediate Poor Very poor Mean Touch Handling debris lactate (2 polnt) (1 point) (0 polnt) (-@polnt) (-2 polnt) score 1 100 0 1 2 5 -1.5 Stightly less so@t, no Easy to use Comparative Spreadabl@ity Example 2 99 1 1 2 3 2 -0.8 S@ightly tess soft, no Easy to use Comparative spreadabl@ity Example 3 98 2 1 3 3 1 +0.5 Soft and good Easy to use Example 4 97 3 4 3 1 +1.4 Softand very good Easy to use Examp@e Softand very good satisfactorily 5 95 5 7 1 +1.9 spreadable, and easy Easy to use Example to@pply 6 90 10 5 3 +1.6 Softand very Easy to use Example Slight@y 7 85 15 2 3 2 1 +0.8 Softand good, difficult to Example use Slightly 8 80 20 3 4 1 +0.3 stimulating difficult to Example use Poorly stimuiating, highly viscous, poorly Difficult to Comparative 9 70 30 3 3 2 -0.9 spreadable. use Example readily agglomerating Example 2 Samples containing the flaky salt having a mean thickness of 60cur and/or its debris having various particle sizes and calcium lactate in amounts of 95 and 5% by weight, respectively, were subjected to evaluation with regard to the touch to the skin in a panel test by 3 male and 5 female panels. The results are shown in Table 2.

As is evident from Table 2, the touch to the skin was further improved when the salt having a mean particle size of from 70 to 300 U was used in massage.

Table 2 Results of panel test of touch by particle sizes

Evaluation of touch (numbers of persons) Sample Mean number Particle s@ze Very good Good @ntermed@ate Poor Very poor Mean Comment by panels Remark of sample ( ) (2 polnt) (@ point) (0 point) (-1 po@nt) (-2 point) score 10 30 2 6 -1.8 Absolutely no stimulation, difficulttouse because of Comparative creamytexture Example 11 50 2 5 1 -0.9 No stimulation, slightly difficult to use because of Comparative creamy texture Example 12 70 4 3 1 +0.4 Particles slightly too small but soft and good, a little Example more stlmulation desirable 13 110 5 5 1 +1.0 Particles slightly too small but soft and good, best for Example the face 14 175 1 1 +1.9 Soft and very good, spreadable, and easy to use, best Example for the body and the face 15 250 3 3 1 +1.4 Soft, suitably stimulating, and very good; best for Example the body 16 300 4 4 1 1 +0.9 Suitably stimulating and good for the body but slightly Example too rough for the face 17 325 3 3 3 2 +0.1 Slightly too rough, uncomfortably coarse particles, Comparative too Example tough to use for the face 18 415 1 5 2 -1.1 Too rough and strongly stimulating, rather smart, Comparative not Example spreadable Example 3 Based on the results obtained in Examples 1 and 2, 100 parts by weight of the flaky salt and/or its debris (mean particle size: 170 Ur mean thickness: 60 > ) were admixed with 6 parts by weight of calcium lactate in a V-mixer to obtain composition A.

100 parts by weight of the flaky salt and/or its debris (mean particle size: 170 , mean thickness: 60 ) were admixed with 6 parts by weight of calcium lactate together with 1 part by weight of magnesium sulfate and 0.2 parts by weight of fine particle silicon dioxide in a V-mixer to obtain composition B.

The particle size distributions of compositions A and B are shown in Table 3.

Compositions A and B shown in Table 3 were subjected to evaluation with regard to the touch to the skin in a panel test by 4 male and 8 female panels using commercial salts frequently employed in massage as comparison. The results are shown in Table 4.

As is evident from Table 4, the flaky salt compositions of the present invention exhibited a more excellent touch to the skin and were more suitable for use in massage than the commercial salts.

Table 3 Distribution of Particle size

Particle size (11) Composition A Composition B + 600 1.5 1.4 425-600 3.3 2.9 300425 9.8 8.6 212-300 27.9 26.3 Distribution 150-212 33.9 33.1 % by weight 106-150 15.3 15.5 75-106 6.1 8.5 53-75 1.5 2.4 -53 0.7 1.3 Mean particle size (,u) 200 195 Table4 Results of panel test of compositons and commercial products presently available

Mean Evaluation of touch (numbers of persons) Sample name particie size Shape of crystal Very good Good intermediate Poor Very poor Mean Comment by panels Remark of sample ( ) (2 point) (1 point) (0 polnt) (-1 point) (-2 polnt) score Soft and very good, CompositionA 200 Flaky 10 2 +1.8 spreadable, and very easy Example Soft and very good, CompositionB 195 Flaky 11 1 +1.9 spreadable, and very easy Example to use Rough, no spreadabllity, Commercial strongly stimulating, Comparative product C 400 Cubic 2 2 8 -1.5 uncomfortably coarse Example particles Commercial Irregular shape 4 5 4 -0.9 Rough, not spreadable Comparative product D 440 close to cube Example Irregular shape 1 5 4 2 -0.6 Slightly rough, not Commarcial 385 close to cube product E Rough, not spreadable, Commercital Irregular shape 2 3 7 -1.4 strongly stimulating, Comparative product F 425 close to cube uncomfortably coarse Example particies

Claims

1. A flaky salt composition comprising 80 to 98% by weight of a flaky salt and/or its debris and 2 to 20% by weight of calcium lactate.

2. A flaky salt composition according to claim 1 which further comprises 0.1 to 2% by weight of a thickening agent.

3. A flaky salt composition according to claim 1 further comprising 0.1 to 2% by weight of a thickening agent and 0.1 to 10% by weight of an inorganic salt.

4. A flaky salt composition according to Claim 3 wherein the thickening agent is at least one selected from the group consisted of fine-particle silicon dioxide, carrageenan and xanthan gum.

5. A flaky salt composition according to claim 3 wherein the inorganic salt is at least one selected from the group consisted of magnesium sulfate, sodium sulfate, calcium sulfate, calcium bicarbonate and magnesium bicarbonate.

6. A flaky salt composition according to claim 1 wherein the mean particle size is 70 to 300 p.

7. A flaky salt composition according to claim 6 wherein the mean particle size is 100 to 250 p.

8. A flaky salt composition according to claim 6 wherein the mean thickness of a flaky salt is 20 to 120 g

9. A flaky salt composition substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to samples 3 to 8, samples 12 to 16, composition A and composition B.