Salt originated in China. In ancient times, the Chinese called natural salt "bitrine". Only the solid crystals of salt water after human processing are called "salt". Industrially, seawater and salt lake water are used to boil salt to precipitate salt crystals. The salt produced in this way is called coarse salt. After dissolution, precipitation, filtration and evaporation, refined salt is obtained. China has four major salt lakes, namely Qinghai Chaka Salt Lake, Qinghai Qarhan Salt Lake, Shanxi Yuncheng Salt Lake, and Xinjiang Barkol Salt Lake. Salt production ranks first in the world. Salt is the main source of salty taste in dishes and has the function of enhancing the freshness and original taste. The amount of salt should be appropriate. Excessive salt not only affects the taste of the dishes, but is also detrimental to human health.

The raw material sources of salt can be divided into 4 categories: sea salt, lake salt, well salt and mineral salt. The salt obtained by drying seawater as raw material is called "sea salt"; the salt obtained by mining modern salt lake mines is called "lake salt"; the salt obtained by extracting natural brine from shallow parts of the earth's surface or underground by drilling wells is called "sea salt". It is called "well salt"; the salt obtained by mining ancient rock salt deposits is called "mineral salt". Because rock salt deposits sometimes coexist with natural brine salt deposits, and the advent of water-soluble drilling methods for mining rock salt deposits, there is also a collective name for "well salt" and "mineral salt" - "well salt", or generally known as "well salt". Mineral salt”.

In daily life, sodium chloride is often referred to as "salt". In addition to being used for food (commonly known as table salt), sodium chloride is also widely used as a chemical raw material (called industrial salt). The statistical chronology of the National Bureau of Statistics uses "raw salt" as a general term.

China's salt production has always been dominated by sea salt, followed by lake salt and mine salt. Since the production of sea salt is greatly affected by climate, and sea salt fields are mostly distributed in the eastern coastal areas, in order to balance and coordinate the production of salt, the production of mine salt and lake salt in the mainland has developed rapidly in the past 10 years. Therefore, the role of sea salt in The proportion of salt production has decreased.

Salt is the most commonly used non-metallic mineral raw material in the world and is a necessity for people's survival. With the development of the chemical industry, the development of new application fields and the increase in population year by year, the demand for salt is increasing. Therefore, salt occupies a very important position in the national economy and people's livelihood. Salt consumption is one of the important indicators to measure the level of industrialization of a country. China is a major salt-producing country in the world. Sea salt produced from seawater ranks first in the world. The total output of sea salt, lake salt and mine salt ranks second in the world, second only to the United States.