Vinegar: Outlasting the test of time

When I smell that authentic aroma of vinegar, I still get flashbacks as a child at my grandmother’s kitchen where I could smell the residue of vinegar on her sink, stove and table. Although she’d tell me that vinegar would clean all the germs lingering around, I was convinced it was just some old wives’ tale that came from our Italian heritage.

But in later life as I took an interest in science and chemistry, I found that there are some cleaning technologies that vinegar still outperforms. Vinegar through the ages has left a legacy of clean, as civilisations like the Babylonians, Egyptians and Greeks not only used vinegar to preserve food but used it for cleaning and medicinal disinfection purposes. The antimicrobial wonders of vinegar were recognised long before Louis Pasteur’s germ theory came about.

In fact, it has been reported that Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, used vinegar to treat wounds as early as 400 BCE. Other historical periods that utilised the power of vinegar included medieval Europe, where it was used to prevent plagues and disease, and during WW I when medical supplies were scarce and it was commonly used to disinfect wounds.

So, after thousands of years, why does natural vinegar still work today?

Fact is the unique properties of vinegar make it a wonder product for a few key reasons:

• The natural acidity of vinegar creates a solution where bacteria and germs can’t grow or survive.
• This natural acidity, with a pH that is less than 3.0 makes vinegar a powerhouse degreaser
• The low pH level of vinegar creates this natural acidity giving it natural disinfectant properties.
• Naturally fermented vinegar is created by a fermentation process, that originates from a food source. Modern cleaning agents contain synthetic chemicals often originating from petroleum-based materials, and none offer the scope that vinegar properties have.
• As vinegar comes from a plant source, it is non-toxic, biodegradable, and safe around food, pets, the elderly and children.

For consumers in search of natural cleaners free of preservatives, synthetic chemicals and odours, vinegar as it has proven over millennia, remains the most sustainable cleaning ingredient on the planet.

And as my grandmother showed me, vinegar is proof that nature got it right and remains the “Hero of Clean”, outlasting the test of time.

Phil Scardigno
Co-founder & Director of The Hygiene Co.