ABSTRACT
Vinegar is an acidifying and avoring agent of special importance for the safety and enrichment of human food, which results from microbial oxidation of ethanol contained in several substrates, such as wine, beer, fermented fruit, distilled ethanol, whey, and many others (Solieri and Giudici 2009). Vinegar was known and used by many ancient cultures: Egyptians, Sumerians, and Babylonians had experience and technical knowledge for making it from barley and any kind of fruit. Vinegar was very popular both in ancient Greece and Rome, where it was used in food preparations and as a remedy against a great number of diseases. In Asia, the rst records about (malted) rice vinegar date back to the Chinese Zhou Dynasty (1027-221 BC) (Mazza and Murooka 2009).
