Body & Beauty / Compounds / Sodium chloride

Sodium chloride on your skin: a safety profile

Low risk

(People-specific data is limited; this page draws from human adult context.) Table salt; zero safety concern in non-dietary consumer products (used as thickener/filler); dietary intake is the real health concern (hypertension at >2300mg/day)

What is sodium chloride?

Also known as: Table salt, Common salt, Sodium chloric, NaCl.

CAS number
7647-14-5
Molecular formula
ClNa
Molecular weight
58.44 g/mol
SMILES
[Na+].[Cl-]
PubChem CID
5234

Risk for people

Low risk

Table salt; zero safety concern in non-dietary consumer products (used as thickener/filler); dietary intake is the real health concern (hypertension at >2300mg/day)

Regulatory consensus

1 regulatory bodyhas classified Sodium chloride.

AgencyYearClassificationNotes
Regulatory Framework—Regulated under food safety frameworks (FDA GRAS, EU food additive regulations)

Regulators apply different standards of evidence — animal-data weighting, exposure-pattern assumptions, epidemiological power thresholds — which is why two scientific bodies can review the same data and reach different conclusions. The disagreement is the data.

Where you encounter sodium chloride

  • Food — all food, all beverages
  • Personal Care — shampoo (thickener), nasal spray, contact lens solution, toothpaste
  • Consumer Products — cleaning products
  • Fragrance — perfume, cologne, scented personal care products, household fragrance products, candles
    Identified in Fragrance Ingredient Safety Priority Research database (2,325 ingredients)

Safer alternatives

Lower-risk approaches that achieve a similar outcome to Sodium chloride:

  • Natural preservatives; Clean-label ingredients; Minimally processed food
    Trade-offs: Consumer label appeal ('clean label'); variable efficacy depending on food matrix and target pathogen; may alter flavor/color; regulatory status varies by jurisdiction; often more expensive per unit of preservation effect.
    Relative cost: 2-5× conventional

Frequently asked questions

What products contain sodium chloride?

Sodium chloride appears in: all food (Food); all beverages (Food); shampoo (thickener) (Personal care); nasal spray (Personal care); cleaning products (Consumer products).

See Sodium chloride in the body app

Look up products containing sodium chloride, compare to alternatives, and explore the full data record.

Open in body View raw API data

Sources (1)
  1. PubChem Compound Database (2026) — database

Reference data, not professional advice. Aggregates publicly available regulatory and scientific data; not a substitute for veterinary, medical, legal, or regulatory advice. Why we built ALETHEIA →