Company insight
Magnesium Chloride: Healthy salt of the earth
The battle to cut sodium intake has raged for years – but the increasing popularity of magnesium chloride has the potential to transform the sector. Ingredients Insight talks to several figures at Nedmag to learn more, exploring why this salt alternative is so versatile from food to sport.
odium reduction is an increasing priority across the ingredients space. That’s clear enough from the numbers, with Global Markets Insights reporting that it could enjoy CAGR of over 5% through 2032. Yet if potassium chloride has traditionally been the replacement of choice here, it’s increasingly shadowed by magnesium chloride – a compound flexible enough to be integrated across foods and health products, and which offers a range of health and financial benefits.
S Veendammer magnesium-enriched cheese.
Natural magnesium chloride Viewed from one angle, Nedmag can trace its history back 250 million years. Back then, much of the Netherlands was underwater, part of the so-called Zechstein Sea. But as the water dried up, rich deposits of magnesium salt were left behind. Since 1981, those have been mined by the Veendam-based operator, mostly for industrial applications.
Over more recent years, however, Nedmag has targeted its experience in high-purity magnesium elsewhere: towards human consumption. There are plenty of reasons to understand this enthusiasm, starting with well-being. “Health organisations have formulated that magnesium intake should be higher,” says Jetze Wijnia, a food technologist at Nedmag, adding that this equally allows people to cut harmful sodium chloride from their diets. Beyond the health advantages of boosting magnesium intake – studies suggest it can improve everything from digestion to endurance – there are financial reasons for Nedmag’s move. Improving the shelf life of foods, magnesium chloride reduces wastage. Shortening the brining time of cheese, it cuts production costs. Allowing manufacturers to bolster their
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Nutri-Score ratings, it helps them enter a global health food market worth $135bn. More generally, magnesium chloride clearly has advantages over other sodium alternatives. As Annemarie Huisman, a product manager at Nedmag says, substances like potassium chloride have a nasty metallic taste if used to excess. “With magnesium chloride,” Huisman continues, “we can go up to much higher replacement percentages without loss of taste” – even as slashing salt content again improves health. With all this in mind, it’s not surprising that Nedmag has lately invested so heavily in its magnesium chloride capabilities. That’s most clear in a new manufacturing facility. Operational since February, it can produce food-grade magnesium chloride at scale. A particular focus here is Nedmag’s so-called Pure Health & Earth range. Boasting a minimum magnesium chloride hexahydrate quality of 99%, and a particle size of 1-2.5mm, these crystals are versatile enough to be used both as single ingredients and as components in a mineral blend. Other aspects of Nedmag’s new facility are just as impressive. Leveraging its long experience manufacturing food-grade calcium chloride, Huisman says it instituted a rigorous training regimen for all workers, ensuring compliance with HACCP Food Requirements. And if purity is equally guaranteed by robust metal detection capabilities, Nedmag
is now keen to bring its products from the factory floor to supermarket shelves. In practice, this happens through external partnerships. A good example, suggests Anko Vos, is the Dutch bakery organisation. Especially now that local law obliges F&B manufacturers to cut the amount of sodium chloride in their products, the Nedmag business development manager says his firm’s magnesium could soon transform bread around the country. And if similar relationships could yet see Nedmag products revolutionise Dutch cheese and beer, the company is dovetailing sodium reduction in food with magnesium enrichment in health products. In a sense, the long familiarity of sportspeople with the nutrient makes it an easier sell than in regular F&B, though Vos warns you still need to be conscious of particle size and taste.
Another variable is sustainability, and here too Nedmag seems well-placed to thrive. Unlike alternatives on the market – either made artificially or else imported from abroad – the firm relies on the same stock of natural magnesium chloride that’s sat under Dutch feet for aeons. And if that makes Nedmag unique in Europe, Huisman is confident that her company can soar over the years ahead. “We hope,” she says, “that people understand that magnesium chloride is a good alternative to sodium, which enables you to realise higher replacement values – with the benefits of magnesium added to the product.” Considering that global demand for magnesium chloride is due to reach $677bn by 2030, it’s hard to disagree, especially when you recall what Nedmag has achieved so far.
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