WHAT ARE THE COMPONENTS OF VINEGAR? - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The main components of vinegar are water, alcohol and acetic acid, which gives it that particular smell and sour taste. Acetic acid is the most important because it occupies between 4 and 5% of the composition of vinegar.

Vinegar is obtained by the fermentation of certain compounds. For example, rice vinegar, apple vinegar or balsamic vinegar base their fermentation processes on rice, apple and grape must, respectively.

The main component of vinegar is acetic acid.

Vinegar has been used for several millennia. Its current name comes from the Latin term vinum acre, whose translation into Spanish is "sour wine." This is because it is obtained by fermentation, just like wine.

Vinegar arises because the glucose formed by rice, apples or grapes is transformed into acetic acid through an oxidation process.

Those that carry out the fermentation process are bacteria. Hence, vinegar is an organic acid.

That is why it works very well to eliminate organic fats in the kitchen, because they are similar compounds that can dissolve with each other.

Vinegar production processes

Throughout history, different processes have been developed through which vinegar production has been optimized. The characteristics of these processes will be detailed below:

1- Acetic fermentation process

As in other fields of science, vinegar was made and used by man before the chemical transformations that occurred to create it were known in detail.

Acetic fermentation corresponds to the transformation of alcohol into acetic acid by certain bacteria, which gives the characteristic taste of vinegar.

Acetic bacteria are one of the most interesting groups of microorganisms due to their role in the production of vinegar and the changes they cause in food and beverages.

2- Slow production process

In the past, vinegar was produced slowly through the contact of an alcoholic substrate with air. An example of this is wine or beer.

There was human intervention just to add some unpasteurized vinegar, in which acetic bacteria were present.

Renewing the substrate and extracting the vinegar, it was possible to continue the fermentation, obtaining vinegars that had 4 to 5% acetic acid and a certain amount of alcohol.

3- Fast production process

Rapid vinegar-making processes were developed from the early seventeenth century with the use of different porous materials such as corn, thus increasing the contact surface of acetic bacteria with wine inside a conical wooden cylinder.

This system to generate acetic acid represents the first step for the industrialization of the vinegar production process.

However, even having represented a notable technological advance, the process presented some problems, such as an evaporation of approximately 10% of the final product.

4- Immersed production process

Unlike the previous processes, in this one the acetic bacteria are immersed in the wine, they are not added through unpasteurized vinegar.

Furthermore, they do not have any porous material support but are in intimate contact with the oxygen in the air from intense aeration.

The equipment used is a large capacity container, generally made of stainless steel.

References:

1. Vinegar Production System. Brazilian Agricultural Research Company. Recovered from the site: Sistemasdeproducao.cnptia.embrapa.br
2. Why is vinegar good for so many things? BBC World. Recovered from the site: bbc.com
3. What is vinegar? CONTRERAS, RAMÓN. Recovered from the site: biologia.laguia2000.com
4. 10 medicinal properties of vinegar. Hello Doctor. Recovered from the site: holadoctor.com