If you're in the abyss, ran out of salt and don't wanna give up, there're two options:

1. Run fast/drag the starving character to next objectives if at all possible (you still get all possible achievements from hello abyss game mode, just need to finish it);

2. Take a break from the game, evaluate what's already been done and come up with a new plan of action. Tail meat/bird egg may be what you're looking for since they're ingredients for dishes that don't require salt.

TL;DR: Harvest and stockpile fruit/tail meat if you aren't using salt. Save food that's ready to eat: Some players don't know they have an item box located at character's room inside Belchero's Orphanage. Other things in the same room are a mirror to change some of the character's appearance and a diary/logbook to manually save current progress. Pack lots of unused backpack weight with pre-cooked meals, follow the rule of thirds (third of resources to advance, third to return and third for emergencies), discard valuable things to pick up more valuable things. Durability's automatically repaired if the item's damaged but not broken yet and you carry it out of the abyss.

There's a layer 1 dish that doesn't require salt: Cooked Tail Meat, from Mantoyers. You may get unlimited amount of those at Multilayer Hill if you let 1-4 Mantoyers randomly spawn near you after surviving in the zone for 5+ minutes or something (you must not have modded the game to remove infinite spawns, since this requires it), use the spike traps to kill Mantoyers without spending weapon durability. Alternatively, stock up on Hegui Fruits: Put them inside your item box in your room at Belchero Orphanage, outside the abyss.

Pack your prepared food into your backpack and go dive into the abyss looking for relics and items unrelated to food: You start off knowing how much food you'll eat and, when running low, ascend back to town. Safest rule of thumb (also used in real life diving) is spare one third of resources to advance, one third of resources to retreat and one third of resources for emergencies. In the abyss, they usually try to steal your life before they try to steal your belongings. Character never misplaces/forgets/drops/loses backpack's contents.

It's possible to turn inventory weight into relics if you fill it beforehand with foods you know you'll eat in the abyss later. To make room for relics, eat food. Keep the future empty weight you'll fill with relics/etc later, filled with food now. It takes different amount of practice for different people, but it's a good life skill that'll serve you well at some point, not even in this game, but also in this game: The skill of keeping resources available for when you know you'll need them. Ropes for rock climbing. Oxygen tanks for sea diving. Water for hiking (there are cases of unprepared families including baby and dog going hiking and dying of thirst because they packed insufficient amount of water while unprepared for the route, procured insufficient water from sources, didn't seem to know location of water sources, didn't manage to track them, converted insufficient amount of stuff into drinking water. Please learn and give meaning to their experience. They had their car key on them at the hike trail, a potentially useless item compared to survival/swiss army knife; key would've only been good for unlocking vehicle upon return; they were hiking on foot, didn't manage to go back to vehicle and may have lost the key, which could've contributed to their demise: Spending vital time searching for it, going off-trail (potentially twisting ankle, being hunted by animals), etc. Advice is to hide the key or a spare near the vehicle in a way that's accessible to the original owner while practically inaccessible to other creatures, consider weather changes, etc). Be smart, be safe, protect yourself, protect the ones you love, protect your neighbors.

You can exchange weapon durability for tail meat and bird egg which are ingredients for dishes that don't require salt (use weapon durability to attack and kill creatures that drop those items). If you're looking for food, favor high durability/low weight weapons that'll efficiently assist in gathering what you seek. Someone said you can fire arrows from bows when at zero stamina; in that case, character could hunt while starved. Stone and bone are required to craft basic weapon; creatures that drop tail meat also drop bone, so consider carrying stones and bones to make more weapons to harvest more tail meat. Creatures respawn by changing zone. Fruits and stones respawn by changing expedition (must exit and re-enter abyss for them to reappear).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thirds_(diving)

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/app/1324340/discussions/0/3728450372147621173#c3728450372149538382

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2906362798
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2860059436
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFoK9RuFg3A