That is salmiak flavored licorice, it’s not salmiak. Just like a bag of paprika flavoured crisps says ‘paprika’ on the front, doesn’t mean that paprika is another word for crisps.
The only relation between licorice and salmiak is that it’s used to flavour a specific type of licorice.
It’s also used in fertilizer, as flux for soldering or galvanizing metal, in batteries, and lots of other applications.
You can also buy salmiak powder as a form of candy on it’s own.
There are also a shitload more humans now. Even if number of horses per capita is lower, the fact that there are more people may compensate for that.