MALDON Sea Salt could be facing stiff competition from a south Essex family who are developing a new brand.

The Eden family, from Leigh, have started selling their own Leigh-on-Sea Salt after a successful experiment turned into a potential business venture. After using salt from the Leigh marshes for their own cooking, the Edens said they were amazed at how much better they thought it tasted compared with traditional table salt. After researching the benefits of sea salt, the Eden family claim it can improve the immune system and lower blood pressure. Now they have set about turning their hobby into a business, selling the salt through some of Leigh’s food outlets. Founder Mike Eden said: “It actually just started out as something to do with the children, because we have always been interested in healthy food. We are looking to expand in the future.”

As well as Maldon Sea Salt, other popular British brands include Cornish Sea salt and Anglesey Sea Salt, but Mr Eden claims they all have their own distinct characteristics.

He added: “Everyone has their own way of doing it.

“It’s still early days, and we’re still experimenting with ideas, as producing the salt itself is quite time consuming.”

Sea salt was first collected from the Thames Estuary by the Romans, and with the sea water at Leigh now meeting the UK higher water quality directive set by the Environment Agency, it is could be the ideal location for production to start once again. To obtain the salt, the sea water is multi-stage filtered during an entirely organic process which uses no chemicals.

In a bid to be as environmentally friendly as possible, the Eden family also recycle the energy they use to make their salt during the drying out process.

Greens Health Food shop in Rectory Grove, Leigh, started stocking Leigh-on-Sea Salt at the beginning of December, and claim sales are going well because customers are interested in buying and supporting a local product.