Guimaras Tultul: Heritage Salt, Food-Grade Labels and the Iodine Question

Tultul is a Guimaras salt tablet shaped by a distinctive craft. An ethnological study of Jordan describes gathering coastal material, burning it, preparing and filtering the resulting brine, then cooking and moulding the salt into a bar. That account documents traditional knowledge; it does not establish the composition or food safety of every tablet offered for sale. Source 1

Buy for the kitchen

Choose a product sold for human consumption by a traceable maker or food retailer. Look for the producer, ingredients, storage instructions and any explicit iodine information. Ask for clarification if a souvenir tablet has no food-use information. Packaging, colour and a high price cannot establish purity, sodium content or iodine content.

Tultul is also distinct from Bohol’s asin tibuok, another traditional salt with its own materials and production process. Use the producer’s actual place and product name when serving or describing a purchase.

Use a small amount

1. Keep the tablet dry in a closed food container. Use a clean dry grater or another food-safe tool that produces small shavings without splinters or debris.
2. Set aside a small portion of plain cooked rice, unsalted vegetables or broth. Add a few fine shavings, let them dissolve where appropriate and taste before seasoning the whole dish.
3. Add another small amount only if needed. If comparing batches, use a scale sensitive enough for the quantity; a coarse pinch from one tablet cannot be assumed to weigh the same as a pinch from another.
4. When a dish also contains patis, bagoong or soy sauce, taste those ingredients in the finished reduction before adding salt.
5. Return only dry, unused shavings to storage. Keep wet serving spoons and food crumbs away from the tablet and follow the maker’s storage directions.

The guide to balancing salt and umami is useful when several salty ingredients share the same pot. Tultul replaces part of the seasoning; adding it on top of an already seasoned recipe can make the finished dish excessively salty.

What the iodine rule actually says

Section 24 of Republic Act 11985 makes iodization optional for artisanal salt, non-food-grade salt and salt intended for export. It permits food manufacturers and establishments to use artisanal salt, while also stating that salt from farmers is not automatically food grade. The exemption is therefore not evidence that an unidentified tablet is edible, and it is not a guarantee that a particular product supplies iodine. Source 2

Read an explicit iodine declaration instead of inferring one from a coastal origin or grey colour. Keep routine household iodized salt separately labelled so the two products are not confused. Neither the heritage study nor a flavour comparison provides a basis for calling a tablet low in sodium, mineral-rich or medically beneficial.

Respect the craft without improvising production

Use a purchased edible product for this tasting. The documented burning and ash-filtration stages belong to a skilled production process, not a kitchen shortcut with beach debris. Recording the maker and the amount used gives a useful flavour reference without making claims that would require laboratory analysis.