Where Does Kirkland Signature Sea Salt Come From?

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When most of us taste salt, we taste just that — salt. You use it to season your food at each step of cooking and add some finishing touches, but beyond that, you likely don't give it much of a thought. Not all salts are the same, however — and knowing where your salt comes from can help you begin to recognize the subtle differences in tastes and textures of salts from different regions. If you're one of the many Costco customers who has a bottle or two of Kirkland Signature sea salt (it's worth stocking up on — it's one of the best Costco items under $5 to stock up on) sitting in your spice cabinet or out on your kitchen table, your salt most likely made the journey from the coast of Australia, all the way to your local Costco.

The sea salt container photos on both the Costco Wholesale and Costco Business website show salt that came from Australia. That being said, the latter mentions that its salt is "harvested from the pristine waters off of Brazil's northern coast," but it seems like this is a description of a previous version of the product. Let's take a look at how Costco processes its sea salt, and why, in general, it's a smart idea to keep pure sea salt in your spice cabinet.

According to the Kirkland Signature sea salt bottle, the salt is packaged in the United States and distributed by Costco Wholesale Corporation in Washington state. Costco's website notes that all of the brand's Kirkland Signature sea salt goes through an inspection process to ensure the purity of each bottle. Australia — particularly the Southern and Western portions of the country — are known for salt production. Salt producers in Australia use wind and solar power to fuel the evaporation process, making Australian sea salt an especially sustainable choice.

It doesn't contain any additives or anti-caking agents like those you'd find in table salt, but it does contain the trace minerals that may be removed during the processing of other types of salt (while there's no reason to stress about finding the healthiest salt, the trace minerals in sea salt are often touted for their health benefits). While it's easy to go from one recipe to the next without giving any thought to your salt, it's interesting to think that each tiny grain was once a part of the ocean, just off the coast of the Land Down Under.