In Alton Brown and The Food Lab Play With Chicken, Alton Brown (jokingly?) chides J. Kenji Lopez-Alt for touching raw chicken right before pinching salt from a tub.
AB: So it's okay to put your hands on the chicken and then stick em back in the salt. Okay, also noted. Good sanitation procedures.
JKLA: What's going to live in the salt?
AB: Nothing's going to live in the salt at all. I'm just giving you crap.
Is it true that nothing is going to live in the salt? Practically, how likely is it for salt to become unsafe for consumption through unsafe sanitation procedures?
As far as I know, there are organisms which can thrive in saline environments, but extreme halophiles are found in solutions of 20 to 25% salinity, not crystalline NaCl. Would mold be a concern? Perhaps the amount of time between contamination and use would make a difference? Does it matter if the salt is granular or in a solid block?