‘Potassium ferrocyanide’ in Indian-branded salt is poisonous, according to a rumored American study!
Claim
Warning: Salt is poisonous! An American company that has examined Tata, Annapurna, and many other branded salts sold in India under the name of iodized salts has given a shocking report. Potassium ferrocyanide
Rating
Explanation
A newspaper cutting in English has gone viral on social media claiming that an American company has published a shocking report on iodized salts sold in India.
In reports, it’s said that “the use of branded packet salts containing the deadly poison Potassium Ferrocyanide can lead to life-threatening diseases such as hyperthyroidism, cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, infertility, obesity, loss of kidney function. So buy only normal sea salt. It has mentioned that, use even less and save your health.”
Shocker..Alarming to know..
Premium salt in India contains deadly cyanide,:US report
Report reveals salt sold in India contain alarming levels of carcinogenic and harmful components like potassium ferrocyanide
Nowhere in the world potassium ferrocyanide is permitted for use.. pic.twitter.com/6Usq3uonqN— gopika (@krishnasdwar) October 16, 2019
While analysing the viral claim post we also got more claims from the year 2019 that can be viewed here and here.
What’s the truth?
After analyzing the news that is circulating, we found that this is old rumour from 2019.
Generally, potassium ferrocyanide is used worldwide as an anti-caking agent. Its chemical formula is K4.3H20.
This involves a strong bond between the iron and cyanide ions. Meanwhile, potassium cyanide with the chemical name KCN has been identified as a potentially life-threatening toxin. Thus, potassium ferrocyanide is being mistaken for potassium cyanide by people.
The Hindu newspaper published an article about this in 2019. In general, LD50, also referred to as the “Lethal Dose 50%,” is the amount of chemical given to an animal to determine how much lethal the chemical that can cause that animal’s death, according to Dr. Sayam Sen Gupta, the inorganic chemist at IISER Kolkata.
Consequently, adding sodium chloride at a rate of 3 g per kg of the rat’s body weight resulted in mortality. Therefore, 3 gm is the sodium chloride LD50 value. A similar study involving potassium ferrocyanide shows that the compound’s LD50 value was 3.6 gm. It was observed that this demonstrates unequivocally that potassium ferrocyanide’s LD50 value is comparable to ordinary salt.
Similarly, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has recommended levels of potassium ferrocyanide. Accordingly, the permissible level of potassium ferrocyanide in salt is 10 mg/kg. It is around 1.90 mg/kg in Tata salt and around 4.71 mg/kg in Sambhar salt. Dr Arvind Kumar, Principal Scientist, CSIR’s Central Saline and Marine Chemical Research Institute clarified that both these are permissible levels.
The World Health Organisation also just published a report titled “Global Report on Reducing Sodium Intake.” As a result, it has been stressed that everyone on the planet should cut back on their sodium consumption by 30% by the year 2025. Additionally, the report stated that Indians generally consume more than twice as much salt as the daily recommended allowance of 5 grams. There is also no mention of using potassium ferrocyanide in this report.
West American Analytical Laboratories published the initial report with this information. However, West American Analytical Laboratories’ director, Kyle F. Gross, denied in an email to Alt News in 2019 that he had examined or written about potassium ferrocyanide (PFC).
The widely shared post is critical of Indian-sold iodized salt. That being said, 167 million Indians are iodine deficient.
Conclusion:
Our investigation revealed that the claims made by an American research institute regarding the potentially fatal illnesses caused by potassium ferrocyanide combined with salt that is sold in India are untrue.
Links
https://www.fssai.gov.in/upload/media/FSSAI_News_False_Alt_23_07_2019.pdf
https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.2903/j.efsa.2018.5374
