selling handmade sea salt?

[Bubblingbrooks]

I have been hunting around, and can't find anything on it.
If I were to make sea salt in the winter, I would love to package up 1 ounce bags, and sell them at our local community farmers market just up the road.
Could I legally do this, do you think?

ETA
I could make a killing income off the tourists this way

 

[Wifezilla]

If your water is clean, I say go for it. Now, how to test the water...

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

If your water is clean, I say go for it. Now, how to test the water...

I have a family friend that is in the water industry. They test well water all the time, so I am sure he can test the sea water.
Going to do a test run when we go to Whittier this weekend.
I am having visions of cute little bags of salt at $4 an ounce

 

[k15n1]

Could you just boil each batch for long enough that you can be sure that no bacteria could survive? You could sterilized the brine several times during the process. Eventually, it will be too salty for much of anything to grow in it.

The method used for testing the water matters a lot here. If they are detecting bacterial DNA (using a PCR method) you may get a false positive. The DNA hangs around for a long time after you kill the bacteria, but it's harmless, so it will make the salt look contaminated even if it's been sterilized.

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

Could you just boil each batch for long enough that you can be sure that no bacteria could survive? You could sterilized the brine several times during the process. Eventually, it will be too salty for much of anything to grow in it.

The method used for testing the water matters a lot here. If they are detecting bacterial DNA (using a PCR method) you may get a false positive. The DNA hangs around for a long time after you kill the bacteria, but it's harmless, so it will make the salt look contaminated even if it's been sterilized.

I want it tested for other contaminants, like boat fuel.
Not worried about anything else up here. Water is still considered the cleanest in the world.

 

[k15n1]

Testing for hydrocarbons will be easy for the right lab.

Where you collect the water might matter. My first thought is that farther from shore would be better, but I don't really know much about it.

 

[miss_thenorth]

Isn't there a risk of heavy metals in the water? I would have it tested for that. I know oil spills, nuclear reactors, pulp and paper mill, sewage treatment plants etc pollute the water. I realize the boiling time to evaproate all the water would get rid of alot of things, but I would want at thorough test before even considering selling it. Personal use, maybe not, but to sell it,I would want to be sure.

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

Isn't there a risk of heavy metals in the water? I would have it tested for that. I know oil spills, nuclear reactors, pulp and paper mill, sewage treatment plants etc pollute the water. I realize the boiling time to evaproate all the water would get rid of alot of things, but I would want at thorough test before even considering selling it. Personal use, maybe not, but to sell it,I would want to be sure.

We will have it properly tested, but all the highlighted stuff is not an issue here.
We will also be gathering the water from very low use areas

 

[Sunny]

Or you could put a disclaimer on the salt you sell. Saying Use at your own risk. Or taken from mother nature, saltyness and minerals may vary from batch to batch. Maybe other people could come up with a better disclaimer. But I gave it a try. If it is mainly geared to vacationers. They may have no intention of using it, but keeping it as a keepsake. If keepsakes are to be sold, how about try some sand from the beach with some shells, small driftwood pieces,and nice looking rocks. So vacationers can take home a piece of alaska. You can put it in a baby food jar with a decorated lid or some thing, and label the location. Just an idea that came to my head. Ive seen others do it. And make a bit of extra money with it for barely any money put out.

 

[MorelCabin]

When you pull water from any lake or body of water it should be taken from AT LEAST a 15 foot depth. Deeper is even better. So in order for you to do that you would have to put a submersable pump in and drop it 15 ft on a tripod of some kind. We used pVC piping and filled it with sand to make the tripod we used to get our lake water.
Also, no matter how pristine the waters, the animals that hang out around the shoreline do leave behind contaminants like ecoli. We had ecoli in ours after rainfalls etc, in spring runoff...from the deer and ducks and geese that populated the area.
Just some things to think about....