I see this ingredient in a lot of foods that I buy, and have always wondered just what this actually is and if we should be eating it. Would Campbell’s really put this in their Chicken Noodle Soup if it wasn’t good for us? I won’t pass judgment on it just yet, but let me share with you what I have found out, then you can tell me what you think.

To start, I went to the page about Potassium Chloride on Wikipedia – that was a mistake. Take a look at this excerpt from the page:

The majority of the potassium chloride produced is used for making fertilizer, since the growth of many plants is limited by their potassium intake.

Fertilizer! Why are manufacturers using an ingredient primarily used for fertilizer in our food? Is it listed in the ingredients only because the other ingredients used were fertilized with fertilizer made with Potassium Chloride? Or is it added for some other reason? I kept reading the WikiPedia article:

…and in judicial execution through lethal injection. It is sometimes used in water as a completion fluid in oil and gas operations.

This sure doesn’t make me want to run out and buy food with this additive. And how about this:

Potassium chloride makes up 70% of Ace Hardware’s allegedly pet and vegetarian friendly “Ice Melt”

Well, still nothing about why it is in the food, until you get to this:

Potassium is vital in the human body and oral potassium chloride is the common means to replenish it, although it can also be diluted and given intravenously (of course, in concentrations much lower than those used in executions). It can be used as a salt substitute for food, but due to its weak, bitter, unsalty flavor, it is usually mixed with regular salt, sodium chloride, for this purpose to improve the taste (for example, in Morton Lite Salt.

So now I am lost. It goes on to talk about how in excess it is toxic, but only as toxic as regular salt. So does this mean using it as a food additive is safe? The FDA surely thinks it is, but I just can’t get over the fact that it is used in fertilizers and lethal injections. Now I want to hear from you Whole Food Junkies what you think.