Received the SN and it feels frozen solid (and packaging/shipping details)

[Kalista]

Is this normal? The way it's packed is it's heat sealed in a transparent plastic. It's cold to the touch and It can be bent but takes some effort until you hear the sort of sandy sound. I don't know if it's just so air tight and the plastic is thick that it makes it feel fairly solid.

It has a slight yellowish color and you can see the tiny grain around the edges where it's more loose.

Can anyone confirm the consistency of it?

Other details of the package when it was shipped to me so people know what to expect are:
The customs label has a different item name on it rather than sodium nitrite which is good. It was never opened by customs and safely made it to me.
The packaging inside has two layers over the SN. A black plastic, bubble wrap, then the air-sealed SN. It's almost the length of your hand.

A total of 19 days to reach me. Ordered on the 5th of Jan. On the 9th, it was sorted and all throughout the 10th it was moving around until it was released from the country's customs. The 16th it was processed at the airport. The 20th is when it finally reaches the East Coast and eventually delivered today.

 

[thinvy]

if you also ordered from mds (which I think I've seen your username in one of the threads maybe?) then yeah, that's normal. mine also arrived vacuum sealed. it's done that way to prevent it from spilling out in transit, but mostly because the vacuum seal helps prevent it from degrading into sodium nitrAte, which will do more damage than death from what I've seen on here.

 

[stuckinthemud]

if you also ordered from mds (which I think I've seen your username in one of the threads maybe?) then yeah, that's normal. mine also arrived vacuum sealed. it's done that way to prevent it from spilling out in transit, but mostly because the vacuum seal helps prevent it from degrading into sodium nitrAte, which will do more damage than death from what I've seen on here.

Mine was the same from them also…I think it feels solid because it's vacuum packed but once opened I don't think it will be.

 

[Mayonaise]

SN may come packed in different ways: I've seen plastic bottles and plastic bags, including heat-sealed bags and ziplock bags. I never did perform a test myself but other people did, and as far as I know the package type doesn't affect the product purity by itself. The fact that it feels frozen solid may simply be due to the weather conditions during shipping.
The only way of assessing the substance's purity is testing it. About its consistency, sharing a picture could be useful