ABSTRACT
Vinegar is a product resulting from the conversion of alcohol to acetic acid by acetic acid bacteria, Acetobacter species. With the ubiquity of acetic acid bacteria and the consequent ease with which wine is spoilt, vinegar must have been known to man for thousands of years since he apparently learnt to produce alcoholic beverages some 10,000 years ago. Vinegar may be regarded as wine spoilt by acetic acid bacteria for which other uses have been found. Although acetic acid is the major component of vinegar, the material cannot be produced simply by dissolving acetic acid in water. When alcoholic fermentation occurs and later during acidifications, many other compounds are produced mostly depending on the nature of the material fermented, and some of these find their way into vinegar. Furthermore, reactions also occur between these fermentation products. Ethyl acetate, for example, is formed from the reaction between acetic acid and ethanol. It is these other compounds which give the various vinegars their bouquets or organoleptic properties. This chapter discusses uses of vinegar, types of vinegar, organisms for the manufacture of vinegar, the Orleans (or slow) process, the trickling generators (quick), submerged generators and processing of vinegar.
