Xcambo Salts

•  Xcambo salts are liquid salt sprays from Mexico. This product is hand harvested in the Chicxulub Crater of the Yucatán Peninsula.
• Its ingredients include saturated unrefined salt solution and trace minerals. It claims to have low sodium content and without artificial additives.
• Xcambo salt sprays also come in different flavors, such as vanilla, turmeric, tequila, rosemary, citrus, garlic, cacao, hibiscus, mezcal, habanero, and black.
• The spray bottle packaging enables the salt to be dispensed uniformly reducing excess salt application.
• Xcambo recommends 3-6 sprays to reduce 90% sodium consumption compared to a pinch of regular salt.

PhytoSalt

•  Phyto Corporation, a South Korean food technology company, developed plant-based salt, which they call PhytoSalt.
• It comes from Salicornia, which is a salt-accumulating plant that grows on saline land near seasides.
• It claims to be the only plant-based organic salt on the market and the world's only "naturally low-sodium salt" that prevents salt stress from excessive salt intake.
• The company claims PhytoSalt reduces sodium intake by 20%.

TasteStick

• TasteStick is a salt packaging dispenser that gives the "perfect pinch of salt" with each use. It gives the user control on the amount of salt dispensed and spread area, thus managing salt intake.
• It guarantees 30mg salt, or 1/160th of a teaspoon, for every use so users will not worry about overindulging.
• TasteStick already comes with 200g salt from the Austrian Alps, and can be refilled with the users choice of salt later on.
• It is available for pre-order in Kickstarter.

Packaging makes it simple to choose

• "Nearly 60% of product decisions are made at the shelf," according to Nielsen research. In an CPG environment, saturated with products, they stress the importance of constant visibility on shelf and to remember "convenience as a mindset." Choosing your new go-to product can be overwhelming, in the face of so much choice.
•  Chef recommendations or creating products with wannabe chefs in mind is a prominent tactic in this category. One-third of U.S. consumers say they are actively looking for new products to try so novelty or all-in-one/all-purpose ranges are also used, particularly around occasions such as the holidays.
• Richard Taylor of Brandon Associates is 'an evangelist' for simplicity in packaging and advises brands to follow the design semiotics of their food category but also use "emotive designs that drive a human connection and give shoppers a trigger to buy."
• However, "it's not just about having a unique structure but also about ensuring you have the right format to meet the needs of your audience, whether that's a smaller pack size, or, thinking laterally, packaging that taps into other areas, such as Wrigley's tubs of gum for car drinks holders."
• No matter how clever packaging is, it should be memorable and advance a brand's story. The distinctive cork top used by Le Saunier de Camargue is both a functional and a design asset used to communicate their origin story. Equally, the blue Baleine whale and Maldon Salt's diamond logo adds authenticity and communicates heritage.
• Clarity of health messaging and suggested usage for food products is an area where salt products could innovate. Well-designed logos and labels make it simple to identify brands on shelf and highlight important information about health, ingredients or usage. Given the many dietary restrictions, medical conditions and government advisories related to food consumption, salt brands could integrate 'simplicity' messaging into their product design.

Using Simplicity in the design

• Communicating product benefits or dramatizing information up front makes it easier for customers to integrate daily salt allowances into their diet.
• In fact, brands are increasingly offering minimalist kitchen-related items and appliances. Items and spaces prioritize consumers living in dense populations which created a desire for small-space solutions.

• The design was inspired by recipe instructions to add a pinch of salt or pepper. Featuring a larger base and a slimmer top, the 'Pinch' shakers are intended to be held as if they were adding a pinch of seasoning to a recipe.
• The 'Pinch' pepper and salt shakers are the design work of Luke Mastrangelo and feature a decidedly simple yet modern aesthetic, "the design of the shakers...is a holistic expression of the very action behind a recipe instruction."

• Adding seasoning to meals can be a bit of a risk sometimes but Straw Salt and Pepper Shakers ensures that is never the case. Their slim design forces people to be more conservative when it comes to dosing their food with salt and pepper.
• Modeled after classic bendy straws. Designed by DesignK, they can easily take up the role of utensils and the shakers add to the decor of the dining table.

Using Innovation in packaging

• It is a set of four vessels by Peleg Design, capable of holding all sorts of flavorful recipe enhancers that can create different culinary landscapes.
• The container focuses on the physicality of the Himalayas to highlight the origin of the salt (and a novel addition to the kitchen landscape).
• Salt and pepper are basic ingredients that will give the mountainous jars white or black hues. Removing the snow-capped lids of the Himalaya Spice Containers exposes the covered shakers' openings.

• The shaker is a condiment dispenser designed to acclimatize the spice to be usable in any setting. The design provides the comforts of home without compromising on functionality while traveling through the great outdoors.

• It has a sleek rectangular shape and a specially engineered plastic exterior that resists humidity and temperature changes.

• The plastic is formatted to be durable and weather-proof to keep the elements out and reduce clumping in both the salt and pepper that would otherwise make sprinkling a challenge. The casing is also engineered to remain tightly sealed so that no spills will occur while traveling.

Smart Salt Shaker

• A smart salt shaker is an innovative product format that promotes creative ways to use edible salt playfully.
• The product that brought this innovative concept to market is named SMALT, which is "the world's first interactive centerpiece and smart salt dispenser designed to enhance your dining experience."
•  This link is to a YouTube video that explains how the smart salt shaker works, in detail.
• Salt can be dispensed in a number of innovative ways. First, since there's an app for the product, a person (who has the app) can shake their smartphone or pinch the screen of their smartphone, which will then dispense salt. When a person does so, if the smart shaker is being held in a position to dispense salt directly onto food, that will occur, whereas if the shaker is standing upright, the salt will dispense into a removable tray at the bottom of the product, which a person can easily slide out, shake the salt onto their food, and then reinsert into the shaker.
• The second, innovative way that salt can be dispensed is through voice command. SMALT works in conjunction with Alexa, so all a person needs to say is "Alexa, dispense (specified amount) of salt" and it will do so.
• The third way that the product dispenses salt is the traditional method of holding the shaker and actually shaking it directly onto food, without any smart controls.
• This smart salt shaker does more than just dispense salt in innovative ways. It also has a speaker that's Bluetooth-enabled and offers different lighting options that shine from a ring around the top of the shaker to create the desired ambiance in a room. Furthermore, sodium intake can even be monitored through the product's app.
• The innovative, smart salt shaker product format promotes creative ways to use salt playfully by reimagining the entire of concept of what a smart speaker can do in becoming the centerpiece of a table and featuring a speaker, custom lighting, voice control, and its own app.
• Screenshots of this smart salt shaker are included on page one of this Google Doc.

Squeeze Grinder

• An innovative, salt product format that promotes creative ways to use edible salt playfully is the squeeze grinder.
• Unlike other types of salt grinders, the squeeze grinder has two handles affixed to the top of the shaker, which resemble the shape of ears. When the handles are squeezed together, the salt inside is ground and dispensed.
• The handles on the squeeze grinder are easily maneuverable, so one hand is all that's need to squeeze them together and thus grind/dispense the salt.
• The innovative, squeeze grinder, salt product format promotes creative ways to use salt playfully by providing a new, interactive, and entertaining way for people to grind salt that marks a stark departure from the routine concept of either just twisting the lid or spinning a handle to grind/dispense salt.
• Screenshots of this squeeze salt grinder are included on page two of this Google Doc.

Light Switch Shaker

• Another innovative, salt product format that promotes creative ways to use edible salt playfully is the light switch salt shaker.
• As its name implies, the light switch shaker both resembles a light switch and functions like one through its quasi on-and-off capabilities.
• The actual, functioning switch on the salt shaker has the letters "S" for salt and "P" for pepper on its two endpoints, which mirror the on and off endpoints on a traditional light switch.
• The switch on the salt shaker is fully operable and when flipped to either "S" or "P" dispenses such seasoning.
• There are two, separate compartments on the back of the shaker for filling salt and pepper.
• The innovative, light switch salt shaker product format promotes creative ways to use edible salt playfully by providing people with a very interesting way to dispense salt onto their food through combining the concepts of an everyday object (a light switch) with a common kitchen product (a salt shaker) into one product.
• Screenshots of this light switch salt shaker are included on page three of this Google Doc.

Research Strategy

The Salt Box

• The Salt Box is an Australian salt company.
• The Salt Box's packaging features a ceramic box that carries an array of distinctive premium salts, not only for cooking but for wellness. The product design is used for the company's wellness and food salt products.
• Its unique box design reflects authenticity, purity, and the gourmet nature of salt. It aims to inflict a sense of refined taste and culture to the salts offered.
• For consumers, the packaging design is an aesthetically pleasing tool that can be used as a beautiful centerpiece and to add class to parties.
• The design is fully functional and used to keep salts fresh and moist, unlike traditional grinders that do not maintain the integrity of the salt.

Dorset Sea Salt Co.

• Dorset Sea Salt Co.'s (a UK-based brand) salt holder design consists of a softer approach to the traditional salt carrier aesthetic which usually has blue hue packaging.
• The design is simple but stands out from other brands as the packaging features an array of pastel colors used to communicate excitement and uniqueness for salt flavors.
• The colorful pastel palette also represents the salt as fresh, premium, and unique.
• Its former plastic design was overhauled for a recyclable glass jar which represents luxury and sustainability.
• Also, the gold foil finish of the lettering reflects the importance of sea salt throughout history. At one point sea salt was worth more than gold. This reinforces the prestige that sea salt is associated with.

True Salt Co.

• True Salt Co.'s (a Phoenix-based company) packaging features a paper boxed salt with a small window to showcase the grain.
• The recyclable packaging showcases the company's dedication to cleaner better salt and a more sustainable happy earth.
• Its packaging design relates salt to all-natural properties as it has been processed without chemicals or additives.
• The salt is meant to elevate the customers' taste, mind, body, and soul, rather than solely being used to enhance food.

Smoked Sea Salt

• One innovative trend regarding the use of edible salt is smoked sea salt, which, according to Jennifer Dennis, inside sales manager at SaltWorks, "has been emerging as a flavor trend amongst several different categories—from snack foods, confections, and seasoning blends—to add a robust smoky taste."
• Smoked salts are becoming associated with a premium product, which makes consumers feel that they have gotten "something a bit special or exclusive."
• Besmoke, a company located in the UK, uses traditional smoke flavors such as oak, hickory, beech, and apple to smoke its salts, but it has also recently seen a rise in the demand for provenance flavors such as pine cone-smoked salt.
• Besmoke allows consumers to create their own smoked salt flavors, but also supplies companies like Maldon Sea Salt and McCormick with smoked salts with provenance flavors, such as "pine cones or cuttings from a specific vineyard in France."
• This is a trend because it is mentioned in multiple industry publications and by experts in the industry as a trend.

Truffle Salt

• Truffle salt is a "relatively new concoction," meaning it is innovative, and is created by "mixing traditional salts with pieces of white or black truffle.
• Forbes indicates that truffle salt is "a good example of a popular flavor trend."
• Truffle salt typically tastes like salty truffles, but there are "different species of truffle which can give slightly different flavors."
• Since truffle salt is difficult time-consuming to make, it is considered a luxury item that consumers typically have to purchase rather than create on their own. Additionally, it is expensive as well.
• One reason it is becoming a trend, though is that for home cooks, it can be a "good substitute for fresh truffles," which are often much more expensive than the salt to purchase.
• Urbani is a company that is at the forefront of the truffle salt trend, with its white and black truffle salts.

#1: Morton Salt

• Morton Salt was established in Chicago in 1848. With more than 20 production facilities located in the US, Canada, and the Bahamas, Morton Salt's iconic blue fiber-wound package has been a standard item in most American homes for over 70 years.
• The company features several culinary salts in 20 different packages, including fine and coarse Himalayan pink salts, table salt, kosher salts, sea salts, and seasoned salts, among others.

The Innovative Product Packaging Used and Why It Is Considered Innovative

• After over a decade, Morton Salt, with the help of Berlin Packaging's Studio One Eleven, unveiled its first significant packaging redesign for its Coarse Kosher, Coarse Sea Salt, and Fine Sea Salt culinary products to give the brand a fresh, premium appearance that would make the brand stand out on grocery store shelves.
• While retaining its iconic blue color, the redesign features refreshed graphics for a bold, premium look, with emphasis on functionality. It includes an ergonomic shape for single-handed use and a cover that can be flicked open with a finger. It also features a see-through window that allows home cooks to gauge the amount of salt remaining in the bottle.
• Excluding its removable shrink-wrap label, the bottle is 100% recyclable, making it suitable for the eco-conscious consumer.
• In April 2019, one month after the launch of the redesigned packaging, the new bottle design received the National Association of Container Distributors' prestigious Gold Innovation Award.

#2: Ankur Chemfood Ltd

• Founded in 1994, Ankur Chemfood Ltd is an Indian company that manufactures, markets, and exports "triple refined free flow iodized and pure industrial salt."
• Its range of edible refined free flow iodized salt products include Ankur Salt, Ankur Gold, Ankur Classic, Dr. Salt (15% low sodium), Ankur Salt Plus (double-fortified salt), Ankur Rock Salt (natural Himalayan pink salt), and Crystal Salt (for edible and industrial use).

The Innovative Product Packaging Used and Why It Is Considered Innovative

• With the help of the Indian company, Pentaflex Films LLP, Ankur Chemfood Ltd developed a sustainable and recyclable solution for the packaging of its Ankur Salt brand.
• Gravure printing on PE (polyethylene) usually has its limitations. As such, packaging salt in a PET+PE structure has been the tradition because of the ease of printability and quality of gravure printing on PET (polyethylene terephthalate).
• However, Pentaflex Films successfully developed a 100%-recyclable PE+PE flexo printed structure without any changes in shelf appeal, as it is nearly indistinguishable from the original gravure product. In this structure, the two layers of PE sandwich the print layer.
• Pentaflex Films' innovation earned it a silver award with the highest honors at Kodak's Global Flexo Innovation Awards in 2019 for "conversion from other print processes and commitment to sustainable print."