FDA warns of 5 ‘substandard’ vinegar brands

MANILA, Philippines — The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advised the public on Tuesday not to buy or use five vinegar brands that it found to be of “substandard quality.”

Following their test of 39 samples of vinegar available in the market, FDA officer-in-charge Rolando Enrique Domingo said the following brands were found to contain synthetic acetic acid:

• Surebuy Cane Vinegar (with best before date of March 26, 2021
• Tentay Pinoy Style Vinegar (with best before date of March 18, 2021
• Tentay Premium Vinegar (with batch number TV Sep0718 AC)
• Tentay Vinegar Sukang Tunay Asim (which expires on June 6, 2020)
• Chef’s Flavor Vinegar (with batch number 8870401)

Domingo stressed, however, these brands, despite containing synthetic acetic acid, did “not pose any health risk as this only means that the vinegar is of substandard quality.”

“The presence of synthetic acetic acid merely represents that the vinegar did not undergo fermentation — either through a slow process, quick process, or submerged culture process which is used for commercial vinegar production,” Domingo said.

Under FDA standards on the quality of vinegar, any artificial matter — such as the synthetic acetic acid or any cloudifying agent — “deems the vinegar adulterated, hence must not be sold to the public.”

According to Domingo, the FDA will conduct an inspection of the factories of these brands “to further verify” if they did use synthetic acetic acid, as earlier flagged by the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute.

(Editor: Alexander T. Magno)