[3] Sodium hexametaphosphate of commerce is typically a mixture of metaphosphates (empirical formula: NaPO3), of which the hexamer is one, and is usually the compound referred to by this name.

Artificial maple syrup, canned milk, cheese powders and dips, imitation cheese, whipped topping, packaged egg whites, roast beef, fish fillets, fruit jelly, frozen desserts, salad dressing, herring, breakfast cereal, ice cream, beer, and bottled drinks, among other foods, can contain SHMP.

[10][11][12] SHMP is used in Diamond Crystal brand Bright & Soft Salt Pellets for water softeners in a concentration of 0.03%.

This contradicted the findings of the famous Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius, who had stated that phosphoric acid did not coagulate water-soluble proteins such as egg white.

That analysis was accomplished in 1833 by the Scottish chemist Thomas Graham, who named the sodium salt of the new acid "metaphosphate of soda".

[20][21] By 1956, chromatographic analysis of hydrolysates of Graham's salt (sodium polyphosphate) indicated the presence of cyclic anions containing more than four phosphate groups;[22] these findings were confirmed in 1961.