What is glacial acetic acid and why is it illegal?

Recently, a vinegar factory in Qingxu County, Taiyuan City, was fined one million yuan for blending glacial acetic acid into vinegar and selling it nationwide, which has attracted attention. The thing is that from January 2020 to November 2021, Wu, the actual controller of a vinegar company in Qingxu County, bought glacial acetic acid from Liu and others, knowing that glacial acetic acid could not be used for vinegar, and blended it into vinegar and sold it all over the country, with sales reaching 675,862 yuan. The Qingxu County People's Court made a first-instance judgment, sentencing the company to a fine of 400,000 yuan for the crime of producing and selling counterfeit and shoddy products, and to bear punitive damages of 1,013,793 yuan; the defendant Wu and 14 others were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from one to four years, and fined.

What exactly is glacial acetic acid and why is it illegal? Let’s talk about it today.

01. Why is glacial acetic acid illegal?

Here is the conclusion: Violators should be punished because the new national standard stipulates that vinegar can only be brewed from grains and other materials, and vinegar mixed with acetic acid cannot be called vinegar.

In layman's terms, it is selling dog meat (prepared vinegar) under the guise of selling mutton (vinegar). In other words, knowing that it is wrong to do something, but still doing it, the punishment is not unjust.

I guess many people are a little confused when they see this title, because people who have completed nine years of compulsory education should basically know that the active ingredient of vinegar is acetic acid, which is also called acetic acid (glacial acetic acid) and has the chemical formula CH3COOH.

Since this thing is an ingredient of vinegar and can be adjusted to the acidity of normal vinegar, how can it be against the rules?

In fact, the reason behind this is based on the new national standard "National Food Safety Standard Vinegar" (GB 2719-2018) promulgated in 2019. In this national standard, it is clearly stipulated that glacial acetic acid (low-pressure hydroxylation method) cannot be used for vinegar!

In this case, using glacial acetic acid to make vinegar would be against the rules.

02. New national standard for vinegar

Before this, the national standard for vinegar in my country was called "Hygiene Standard for Vinegar" (GB 2719-2003).

According to the old national standard, vinegar brewed from grains and vinegar blended with acetic acid are both compliant vinegars.

However, in the new national standard "National Food Safety Standard Vinegar" (GB 2719-2018) in 2019, prepared vinegar, that is, vinegar mixed with edible vinegar and glacial acetic acid, was eliminated.

So, is vinegar prepared with glacial acetic acid illegal?

It is not against the rules, but it cannot be called "vinegar " , but rather a compound seasoning.

03. What is the core of this violation?

What is the core of this violation? The answer is: fairness. If you pay attention, the news mentioned " the work of the city's procuratorates in optimizing the business environment ."

Current vinegar is brewed from raw materials containing starch, sugar, and alcohol, which is essentially a microbial fermentation.

This brewing cycle is longer and the cost is higher.

However, if glacial acetic acid is used, it is easy to achieve acidity at a low cost, which is tantamount to extremely unfair competition.

In fact, there are many types of vinegar, but the names must be clear and in compliance with national regulations, otherwise it would be a false reputation.

Finally, it should be mentioned that glacial acetic acid does exist in industrial grade and food grade, and the former is explicitly prohibited.

In the "List of Non-Food Substances that May Be Illegally Added to Food (Third Batch)" issued by the Ministry of Health in 2009, industrial acetic acid was clearly listed as a non-food substance. This is because the purification requirements for industrial acetic acid are lower than those for edible acetic acid, and it may contain benzene and some heavy metals.