Where Does Baking Soda Come From?

If you’ve ever wondered what exactly baking soda is, how it’s made, and where it comes from – look no further.

We’ve always taken great care to ensure that our baking soda is of the highest standard and free of contaminants. Green Goddess Premium Baking Soda comes straight out of the ground in Colorado.

However, not all baking soda is the same, here’s the low down. 

Natural mined sodium bicarbonate is also known as nahcolite.

This excerpt is from Britannica.com

  “Nahcolite (NaHCO₃), colourless to white carbonate mineral, a naturally occurring sodium bicarbonate. (The name nahcolite is formed from the chemical formula, with the suffix -lite replacing the subscript numeral 3.) Its structure consists of planar chains of carbonate groups linked by hydrogen bonds; planes are linked together by sodium in sixfold coordination with oxygen. Nahcolite commonly forms by reaction of carbon dioxide with the mineral trona in evaporated lake basins.

It is found in large quantities in the central salt body of Searles Lake, California, and as concentrations up to 5 feet (1.5 metres) thick in oil shale deposits in the Piceance Basin of the Green River Formation in Colorado, where it is commercially mined. It also has been mined in Botswana and Kenya, and there are sizeable deposits in Uganda, Turkey, and Mexico. Nahcolite can be used in traditional applications of sodium bicarbonate—e.g., in baking soda and toothpaste. In addition, it can be converted to soda ash (sodium carbonate, Na₂CO₃) and used in glassmaking, chemical processes, and soaps and detergents.”

Another way to make baking soda is to mine trona ore which is heated until it turns into sodium carbonate (soda ash) this is then treated with carbon dioxide which creates sodium bicarbonate (baking soda)

The third way to create baking soda is the most common, most baking soda in the world is now made this way. It is manufactured by passing carbon dioxide and ammonia through a very concentrated solution of sodium chloride (table salt).

We don’t recommend using the third type of baking soda in baking or when making body products such as deodorants, exfoliants, scrubs or for taking internally when you have heartburn, or are alkalising, only use pure natural baking soda for these purposes.

When buying natural products containing baking soda ask the manufacturer where the baking soda comes from and if it is man made.

Click here to buy Green Goddess Premium Baking Soda which is food grade.

Read this article for 50+ Terrific Uses of Baking Soda.