Sodium content in water used as an ingredient
Hello all,
I work in a company based in Europe.
In our company, tap water is used as an ingredient in certain recipes.
The tap water is potable on delivery, however it has a high hardness. Therefore we treat the water with a softener.
This causes calcium/magnesium ions to be exchanged with sodium ions, resulting in a higher sodium content in the water.
Analyses show that after the softener sodium content is now 210 à 220mg/L.
However, legislation states that the standard for sodium in potable water should be <200mg/L.
The water softener has already been adjusted, earlier analysis on the sodium content showed a concentration of 270 à 290mg/L. Further adjustment of the softener would mean inefficient operation of the softener.
Now we are wondering if it is justifiable that the sodium content here is slightly above the norm and that this does not entail any additional risks.
This because it is only used as an ingredient in our recipes and we are taking into account the contribution of the water to the total salt content in the final end products.
What would your opinion be on this?
Thanks in advance!
Kind regards
You should check your local legislation (Besluit van de Vlaamse regering houdende reglementering inzake de kwaliteit en levering van water, bestemd voor menselijke consumptie).
Usually these levels are legal upper limits however your Belgium legislation states that ''Opmerking 10 : De waterleverancier moet ernaar streven om de waarde van 200 |gmg/l bij de uitgang van de waterbehandelingsinstallatie niet te overschrijden.'' (e.g. water suppliers should aim to have a valua of 200 mg/l or less).
Which doesn't sound like a hard legal limit to me.
Can you check with your supplier of hardening salts if issues are expected?
Are you able to use PottasiumChloride (KCL) instead of SodiumChloride (NaCL) so that you don't have to worry about this al together?
Hi Marloes
I agree that it looks like no hard legal limit. That's what the supplier of the water softener also explained; he told me it's a commonly known problem in the food processing sector.
As I see it, the standard is mainly to protect the consumer from unconscious excess salt intake when consuming potable (tap) water. So in our context, it's not relevant.
PS: I think the legislation states for Sodium: "Opmerking 3 : de waterleverancier moet ernaar streven om de waarde van 150 mg/l niet te overschrijden aan de grens tussen het waterdistributienetwerk en het huishoudelijke leidingnet." (= water suppliers should aim to have a value of 150mg/l).
I can't see that this is a problem. You are not supplying the water for public or other direct consumption.
I don't know what your product is but if, for example, your product was a soup which needed a significant level of salt for achieve the desired flavour, you could quite legitimately as part of your process dissolve some salt in tap water (or even distilled water if you were so inclined) bringing the sodium level to many times the 200 limit and then add it to your mixer.
Providing that your finished product was below any defined limits for that product, nobody could challenge you.
Thanks everyone for the input.
The FAVV (= local authority regarding food safety in Belgium) states in another document a Sodium limit of maximum 200mg/L in water used during the production process.
Sources (in Dutch):
https://www.favv-afs..._v06_3.4_NL.pdf
https://www.favv-afs..._v06_3.4_NL.pdf
However, I have confidence to successfully defend and motivate this matter when necessary.