Vinegar represents a sour-tasting liquid produced usually by oxidation of the alcohol in wine or other hydro-alcoholic solutions, and used as a condiment or food preservative. In Romania there is a great interest for the fermentation...
moreVinegar represents a sour-tasting liquid produced usually by oxidation of the alcohol in wine or other hydro-alcoholic solutions, and used as a condiment or food preservative. In Romania there is a great interest for the fermentation vinegar industry. Till 1990 the technologies and equipments from vinegar industry were old-fashioned from technological point of view, ensuring low quality production with low efficiency. Most of vinegar factories had a prevalent craftsman specific activity and as concerns the technical and economical aspects, profitableness, productivity, quality control and competitiveness on a free and unplanned market were not considered. At present most of these vinegar factories are closed due to the lack of raw materials, especially the piquette, the lack of auxiliary materials such as the sawdust to fix the acetic bacteria and due to the old equipment. The paper presents the considerable results obtained by the Institute of Food Research in the field of vinegar technology, the results being applied within the Romanian vinegar factories. These results are the following:-intensive vinegar technology ensuring a duration of the technological process of ca. 60 hours, in comparison with 7-9 days performed in this moment;-equipments ensuring the best conditions in order to apply the intensive technology and allow the uniformity and the control of the main technological parameters;-specific technologies to ensure the sanitary and hygienic conditions, necessary for the development of a biotechnological process;-microorganisms pure cultures, in this case acetic bacteria, that could be delivered by request and having a high shelf-life duration and ensuring the quick initiation of the technological process;-different vinegar varieties depending on the production area and season. Oţetul reprezintă un lichid acru, obţinut prin fermentarea acetică, în special a vinului sau a altor soluţii hidroalcoolice, care este întrebuinţat în alimentaţie drept condiment şi conservant. Oţetul este un acid alimentar, care în alimentaţie este folosit în concentraţii de 3-12% acid acetic. Oţetul are practic aceeaşi vârsta ca şi vinul, câteva zile mai mult sau mai puţin, ceea ce înseamnă în jur de 5000 de ani. Oţeţirea poate fi, fără îndoială, privită ca prima "boală" cunoscută a vinului. Pe parcursul secolelor, într-o lume aproape în totalitate rurală, producerea oţetului a fost o îndeletnicire domestică ce 281
