Potassium Pro® Potassium Chloride

Consumers are looking to manufacturers to deliver sodium reduction solutions. The World Health Organization’s voluntary guidelines instruct healthy adults (ages 16 years and over) to consume less than 2,000 mg of sodium and at least 3,510 mg of potassium each day. (1) Advocacy groups and influencers have been recommending reductions in sodium in the food industry for decades.  And just in the past 5 years, there’s already been a 32% increase in total food product launches with “reduced” or “low sodium” claims. (2, 3) What isn’t well known by consumers, however, are the key functional roles salt performs in our food, such as microbial management, modification of protein, fermentation control, and of course, flavor enhancement. (4)

In response to customer and industry demands, Cargill invested in a simple, low cost and highly valued, reduced sodium solution – potassium chloride. Potassium Pro® Potassium Chloride is a granular, food grade, odorless, white crystalline salt with a typical saline-like taste. It was developed to meet the needs of food manufacturers for replacement of sodium chloride, or to provide potassium enrichment in a wide range of food processing applications. (5)

Simple Supply Chain Integration

It’s really this simple. You’re able to seamlessly integrate Potassium Pro® Potassium Chloride into your supply chain because it can be used as a 1:1 replacement for sodium chloride in product formulations making it easy to incorporate into existing product lines. Additionally, since this product offers similar functionality to salt, manufacturers can count on maintaining the same great taste, texture, and shelf life of their foods, all while still reducing the sodium content up to 50%. And compared to other salt combinations, potassium chloride will always give you a better functional result as it’s ionically the closest salt molecule to sodium chloride. (6)

Health Focused Approach

Beyond the practical gains of switching to Potassium Pro® Potassium Chloride, its role in human nutrition also makes it an extremely compelling sodium reduction solution. Currently, adults in the U.S. and Canada are consuming only about half of the recommended dietary intake of potassium, according to the Institute of Medicine (IOM).(7) Regulatory authorities and scientific bodies agree that in general, Americans need to increase their intake of foods that provide potassium, indicating potassium chloride could potentially be a long-term, beneficial solution to help combat overconsumption of sodium. (8) This may also give food processors the freedom to market their products with claims such as “good source” or “excellent source” of potassium if they contain higher levels of potassium that meet FDA definitions. (3)

Consumer Acceptance (Buzz?)

Along with manufacturers and regulators seeing potassium chloride as an ideal salt substitute, consumers are also starting to take notice. Many companies fear that consumers will shy away from “potassium chloride” listed on their ingredients labels due to lack of familiarity, but research shows that most consumers do not express any concern about it. (9) Power influencers are also playing a key role in potassium chloride’s growing familiarity, as they did with increased consciousness of high sodium consumption in the United States. One notable food critic, Hans Lienesch (also widely known as the “Ramen Rater”) built his career around reviewing instant noodles. After doing a blind taste test with noodles made with potassium chloride, he explained “the food made with the salt substitute tasted virtually identical to that made with the regular salt. Not only is it knocking out a whole bunch of sodium, and replacing it with potassium… it’s making the food more savory. That just sold me right there.” (10)

Why Cargill

Though salt companies are picking up on the potassium chloride trend, Cargill remains a highly recognized leader in the food processing industry. To provide innovative concepts and unsurpassed technical support in creating sodium-reduced products, we partner with customers to develop solutions that go well beyond standards for high-purity salt. For example, our Potassium Pro® Potassium Chloride meets USDA, FDA, and Food Chemicals CODEX for food use (verified food-grade). It’s also certified Kosher for Passover (OU-P) by the Orthodox Union, and contains no animal products or byproducts.

Cargill’s nationwide distribution capabilities, combined with the best logistics and customer service specialists in the food industry, ensure that you get the right products at the right time. To demonstrate our commitment to continuous supply chain improvement, we recently invested in a new Potassium Chloride facility in Watkins Glen, NY, enabling customers with an assured supply of Potassium Pro® Potassium Chloride. (11)

Furthermore, within the past year we also developed CargillSaltStore.com. This platform was created because customers deserve to have a simple, dependable, and flexible experience with us every time, and this tool does just that. The Salt Store is available 24/7 so you can order when you want, and offers access to in-depth information, such as technical data sheets, order details, status updates, order history, quality certificates, and much more. What’s more, orders will load automatically into the Cargill Salt order system, which will minimize order inaccuracies. To become a member of CargillSaltStore.com, please contact your sales representative or customer service contact.

1.    WHO. Guideline: Potassium intake for adults and children. Geneva, World Health Organization (WHO), 2012.
2. Cargill Proprietary Research: International Food Information Council (IFIC) Food and Health Survey 2014
3. Innova Market Insights 2017: Reduced and Low Sodium Claims
4. Cargill: Reduce Sodium Content, Not Taste
a. https://cargillsaltinperspective.com/reduce-sodium-content-not-taste/
5. Cargill: Potassium Pro® Sell Sheet
a. https://www.cargill.com/doc/1432094249375/potassium-pro-sell-sheet.pdf
6. Food Processing: Potassium Chloride Improves its Aftertaste
a. http://www.foodprocessing.com/articles/2012/potassium-chloride-improves-aftertaste/
7. IOM.  2005.  Chapter 7 – Potassium.  In:  Dietary Reference Intakes for Water, Potassium, Sodium, Chloride, and Sulfate.  Panel on Dietary Reference Intakes for Electrolytes and Water, Standing Committee on the Scientific Evaluation of Dietary Reference Intakes, Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicine (IOM).  National Academy of Sciences (NAS), pp. 186-268.  Available from:  https://www.nap.edu/read/10925/chapter/7
8. Cargill: Potassium Chloride 301 – Role in Human Nutrition
a. https://cargillsaltinperspective.com/potassium-chloride-301-role-in-human-nutrition/
9. Cargill: Consumer Insights About Foods Containing Potassium Chloride
a. https://cargillsaltinperspective.com/consumer-insights-about-foods-containing-potassium-chloride/
10. NPR: When Food Firms Cut the Salt, What Do They Put in Instead?
a. http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/08/04/486960237/when-food-firms-cut-the-salt-what-do-they-put-in-instead
11. Cargill News: Cargill investing in potassium chloride facility to meet customer demand
a. https://www.cargill.com/2017/cargill-investing-in-potassium-chloride-facility