It may seem like salt would be the last ingredient to go bad. After all, it's been used for centuries to help preserve food via pickling produce or salting meat, due to the fact that salt is pretty toxic to any microbe out there. And in fact, the answer to the question "Does salt go bad?" is generally no. If you're talking about regular salt (the kind without flavors, minerals, or iodine added), salt will stay good pretty much forever.
But you'll need to pay attention to what type of salt you're using when you decide whether to use some old salt you find in the back of your pantry. Here's the scoop on when and how salt can go bad, and how to store it to keep it in tip-top shape for your next recipe.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/does-salt-expire-GettyImages-1478475170-6ce3516215ac41c18d37a05333f8c0ca.jpg "Does Salt Go Bad? (1)")
What Happens When Salt Goes Bad?
When salt goes bad, it generally means that moisture has gotten into the salt and caused clumping, or other ingredients and minerals within the salt (think fancy garlic salt or the iodine in iodized salt) have lost their flavor or their impact. But even then, they can still last in your cupboard for quite a while. Morton Salt says that flavored salts or salts with other ingredients added into it can last for three years.
Still, unless some pantry pest has taken up residence in your box of salt, or a liquid stored nearby (think a leaky jar of honey or soy sauce) has soaked into the box and onto the salt, it'll still be fine to use it well past its "best by" date.
How Long Is Salt Good For?
Expect that pure salt can be in peak condition for five years, and adulterated salts (including pink Himalayan salts, which have minerals in them that create that signature pink hue) will last for three, according to Morton. But beyond that, salt is still safe to use, even if the quality may not be as good as it was when the salt was fresh.
How to Store Salt
Salt is one of those ingredients that doesn't necessarily need a fancy, air-tight container, as it's not attractive to microbes or other pests, and unless the air is humid, it won't impact the quality of the salt. You may want to use a wooden salt cellar or something a step up from your cardboard box, just to help reduce the risk of other ingredients contaminating your salt—or if you live in a humid area.
Should You Invest in a Lot of Different Types of Salt?
Salt has become a culinary focus lately, with a lot of different treatments or ingredients added in (think smoked salts, truffle salts, or other flavored salts). But there are only two types of salt you really need in your pantry—a good kosher salt for using in your recipes, and a finishing salt like a French fleur de sel, a sea salt, or a pink Himalayan salt. (You can always add the garlic or truffle flavorings another way!) That way, you can be sure your salt won't languish long enough in your pantry to go bad.
