Pickle…pickling…pickle food- VINEGAR!

“Mmm…it taste much better than the raw taste of this vegetables and fruits.” “Eww…it taste too sour for me.” “Do it your own rather than buy outside. It’s simple and easy to make this “fingerfood”!” “It make my appetite more better! ” From those conversation what is it all about? It’s about pickle food.

What is pickle food? I think most of us know it very well.

Pickle food is the food that produced by pickling process. Pickling is the process of food preserving by immersion in an acidic solution-Vinegar. Pickle food is actually not only for food preserving is also for the taste and flavor purpose of yours. The main ingredients of this pickling process is vinegar.

Pickling process with the use of technology.

Traditional way of pickling process

What do you know about vinegar?

I think we will only answer vinegar smell bad, vinegar taste sour, there’s two type of vinegar it’s either black vinegar or white vinegar. Do you really go and do some research before you use it or eat it? Nah...probably not! Vinegar is liquid that consisting mainly acetic acid  (CH3COOH) and water. Vinegar is now more used as the ingredient of cooking. There are many types of vinegar. The most common vinegar is Apple cider vinegar and Balsamic vinegar.

The process of making Apple Cider Vinegar and Balsamic Vinegar:

Way to make Balsamic Vinegar

Way to make Apple Cider Vinegar

Besides than using vinegar for pickling process. Vinegar also contain many type of others uses.Vinegar can also use it for cleaning purpose, medical purpose, agricultural purpose and use it for food and beverage. Vinegar is quite useful in our daily life although it doesn't provide a good smell.

Here are some uses of vinegars and specific uses of Apple Cider Vinegar:

Not all vinegar suitable for all uses you might need to take a look first before you use it for some purposes. Apple Cider Vinegar is always the best choices for health usage. It's really good for health even my family use it to maintain their healths. Vinegar also contain pro's and con's. We have to use it with a suitable amount and not overuse it although it's sometime helpful and even good for health.

The side effect of vinegar:
1) Vinegar is very acidic, if we overuse it,it might damage our teeth enamel.
2) Interferance with potassium level. The potassium level in our body will decrease. This is because once we consume too much of vinegar our body might need to produce potassium and used up more potassium to digest the vinegar. The lack of potassium in out body may causes us fatigue, constipation, muscle damage or an irregular heartbeat.
3) Sore throat, the strong acid in vinegar can irritate our throat and make it become sore.
4) Acne appear, apple cider vinegar cleanse your body to clear out the impurities in your body that's why acne appear will appear on our skin because impurities come out from our skin. This effect will only last for a week.

For more detail about the side effect you can click into the link below:

1. http://www.livestrong.com/article/491270-bad-effects-of-vinegar/
2. http://www.livestrong.com/article/525130-what-are-the-dangers-of-ingesting-too-much-vinegar/
3. http://www.med-health.net/Apple-Cider-Vinegar-Side-Effects.html

Through the research we know that the main liquid consist in vinegar is Acetic Acid. So, let's now talk a lil bit about Acetic Acid.

Acetic Acid (CH3COOH)

Acetic acid is produced by fermentation of ethanol. The systematically name of Acetic acid is Ethanoic acid. It is an organic compound with the chemical formula, CH3COOH. Acetic acid is the main component of vinegar. Acetic acid has a distinctive sour taste and pungent smell that is why the vinegar taste sour and smell bad. Acetic acid is also type of carboxylic acid with the structure(figure below). It’s one of the simplest carboxylic acids.

A dilute acetic acid solutions is produced by fermentation and oxidation of natural carbohydrates called vinegar, salt, ester and more. In the form of vinegar, acetic acid solutions typically contain 5 to 18 % of acetic acid, the percentage usually calculated by mass. It use as a condiment, and also in the pickling. The amount of acetic acid used as vinegar on worldwide scale is not large, but this is the most old and well known application. Acetic acid has a carboxyl group -COOH so its a type of carboxylic acid. Acetic acid can separate from the molecule by ionization:

CH3CO2H → CH3CO2− + H+

Because of the release of  proton (H+), so Acetic acid has the acidic properties. Acetic acid is a weak monoprotic acid. Concentrated acetic acid is harmful towards our skin . Its corrosive to our skin so must handled it very carefully. Acetic acid not only use in vinegar. It also use as a medical purposes, ester production, vinyl acetate monomer production and very small amount uses in vinegar compare to the other production.

Conclusion

In our daily life, we might use a lot of thing that related with organic chemicals and compund that we don't really realise and observe. Some of the organic compound may be harmful to us but some may be good to us but for sure everything once we overuse it .It will somehow giving a side effect. Organic chemical not only will be in vinegar it can be in others foods, medicine, daily use product and more. Have you ever wonder how much chemical you actually consume? Let's start to observe this chemical world and find out more about it! 

"Know more it's always better than don't know! Start before you regret!"

Reference

1. www.culturesforhealth.com/making-vinegar-basic/
2. http://www.chemguide.co.uk/
3. http://www.versatilevinegar.org/usesandtips.html
4. http://www.livestrong.com/article/491270-bad-effects-of-vinegar/
5. http://www.livestrong.com/article/525130-what-are-the-dangers-of-ingesting-too-much-vinegar/
6. http://www.med-health.net/Apple-Cider-Vinegar-Side-Effects.html
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetic_acid
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinegar