How does salt preserve food?

I have this from Google but I want more detail into how salt removes water from food.
The salt is a water absorbent and hence removes water from any food. In absence of water bacteria don’t multiply and hence act as preservative. Basically, salt works by drying food. Salt absorbs water from foods, making the environment too dry to support harmful mold or bacteria.

By drying it out – read

Here is a way of looking at it. If you drop some salt in water, the salt will disperse so that it is spread evenly. When you place salt on food, there is a high concentration of salt outside the cells. The water moves through the cell membrane to even out the salt concentration. You can think of it as the water dispersing through the salt.

Plants use this trick to get water to move through their roots. There is a salt gradient in the root cells, with an increasing concentration towards the plant. The salt is trapped in the cells. Water from outside the roots tries to dilute the salt concentration by moving along the gradient. That is why most plants can’t grow in salty soil.

By the way, does salt have a carcinogen? Something like Nezro…