Garlic salt helped prevent slipping and sliding on the snow and ice-covered streets of Ankeny, Iowa (a suburb of Des Moines) this past week.

It’s normal to use salt on roads and highways to melt snow. But garlic salt? That’s a new option! Apparently the garlic salt (18,000 pounds of it!) was donated by Tone Brothers Inc., a spice producer in Ankeny.

The garlic salt had been destined for the landfill, but instead road crews mixed it with regular road salt and sprinkled it on the roads and highways to melt the snow and ice.

It’s not surprising that the crew reported being hungry after their shift distributing the salt. They were probably craving garlic toast or a nice steak with some sauteed mushrooms.