All about vinegar: why you should use a vinegar-based cleaner
You've probably been advised to use vinegar as a home cleaner, but you may have wondered: is it effective enough? Vinegar is an all-natural substance that's in almost everyone's kitchen. But it also has powerful cleaning properties that can be used to remove scale, polish surfaces and even disinfect. This natural, mildly acidic liquid does its job without producing toxic chemicals and can be produced in an environmentally friendly, sustainable way.
Read this article to find out all about vinegar, its history, how it's made, what types it is, its cleaning properties and most importantly, how to clean your home with it.
What is vinegar?
Vinegar is a jolly joker in the kitchen - we put it on salads, use it to preserve, pickle and cook - so it's a familiar ingredient to everyone. But do we really know what vinegar is?
Vinegar is a solution of acetic acid, a colourless organic compound with a distinct taste and a strong smell. Acetic acid (CH3COOH, in case you're interested in chemistry) is considered a weak acid, but in high concentrations it can be corrosive. It is usually found in vinegar at most 5-8%, and at this concentration it is perfectly safe to consume (even delicious), for example mixed in a salad.
The weaker acids, which include vinegar, are usually easy to produce. And because it is a versatile ingredient, it is welcome for uses other than food. Did you know, for example, that it can be useful in a variety of industrial applications, as well as in home cleaning products? This sour, tasty ingredient is not only delicious, but can also be used for other purposes!
A brief history of vinegar
If you look at the evolution of vinegar, it is certainly the oldest ingredient in your kitchen. Vinegar has been found in Egyptian shipwrecks from around 3000 BC, but vinegar is also mentioned in Babylonian writings from the same period. It is even mentioned in the Bible!
We won't bore you with the events of the next 4-5000 years, so let's jump straight to the 19th century! Although vinegar had been made for thousands of years, it was only Louis Pasteur who first published the scientific, microbiological knowledge behind vinegar in the 1850s. A few decades later, as large companies such as Heinz started mass-producing vinegar, it slowly became a household staple. As well as producing vinegar for pickles on a large scale, they were the first company to sell it in bottles so that everyone could use it in their own homes.
How is vinegar made?
The original name of vinegar comes from the French vin+aigre, which is how it came to be called "vinegar". The word means "sour wine", where vin means wine and aigre means sour. But vinegar can be fermented (i.e. fermented) from essentially any vegetable matter, so in addition to wine vinegar, you can also find vinegars made from rice, malt, fruit or cereals. To put it simply, any substance containing sugars and starches that can become alcoholic can also become vinegar during the fermentation process. The vinegar used in ancient times was probably made the way many great culinary discoveries are made: by accident.
Bacterial fermentation produces acetic acid, and in the old days this happened naturally, as it were, as the bacteria that pre-digested the acetic acid in the fermented, slightly alcoholic liquid were given oxygen. Until the 19th century people had no idea why this happened, so they thought that wine left in the open air simply turned into vinegar. But later, the true background to the process was understood, and this started a real revolution in vinegar production.
Industrial methods significantly speed up the process compared to natural fermentation by artificially supplying the bacteria responsible for the production of vinegar with excess oxygen. This means that today, under industrial conditions, they can produce huge quantities of vinegar in days instead of months.
But if you want to use vinegar as a cleaning agent, you don't need to use raw materials from the culinary world to make it: vinegar can also be produced from biomass. Acetic acid is also produced when the volatile fatty acids in biomass are extracted and fermented. This is how CYCLE , for example, produces the vinegar used in its products.
Well, we've gone through the broad outlines of the vinegar production process. But maybe we're a bit confused... so now you use the same vinegar for cooking and cleaning? Here's why we're interested in the type of vinegar!
Why is the type of vinegar important?
Vinegars are not born equal. In the culinary world, you can find white wine vinegar, red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, balsamic vinegar, rice vinegar or even more exotic varieties. Each vinegar has a different taste, strength and aroma. Some are more tart than others, others a little sweeter.
When we talk about "tartness" or "sourness", we are essentially talking about the density or strength of the vinegar. When we test for this, we are essentially determining the acidity of the vinegar. The strength of the vinegar depends on the amount of acetic acid formed in the chemical reaction required to produce it. This indicator determines the amount and strength of the acid and depends on the raw material used to make the vinegar. As a demonstration, let's look at what this means for some very common types of vinegar:
- White vinegar. We Hungarians know it as plain vinegar, and with an acid content of between 5-20%, it is the strongest. It is produced by mixing water and pure acetic acid, and is therefore much more characteristic than naturally fermented vinegars.
- Alcohol acetate. A type of vinegar further fermented from an alcoholic liquid simply fermented from sugar. A strong variety, similar to white vinegar.
- Distilled vinegar. The name comes from the way it is made: from any kind of vinegar, distilled to give a colourless substance of 5-10% strength.
- The acidity of the wine vinegar is between 6 and 8%, and it is produced by wine fermentation.
- with 4-7% acid content
- Beer, apple, malt vinegar. These varieties have an acid content of 4-5%.
Acidity helps us decide which types of vinegar are better for food and which are better for cleaning. White distilled vinegar is obviously much better for cleaning than a pleasant-tasting apple cider vinegar that you splash on your salad. If you want to clean with vinegar, you should go for the stronger, higher acidity ones.
The cleaning and antibacterial properties of vinegar
If you want to use it not only for making vinaigrettes and pickles, remember that vinegar is also an excellent cleaning agent thanks to its antibacterial properties. Let's look at the benefits of using vinegar to clean your home.
- A great solvent. Vinegar can easily dissolve soap residues and grease, so it's great for cleaning a variety of surfaces.
- Eliminates odours. Although vinegar has its own strong bouquet, it dissipates quickly and carries unpleasant odours with it.
- We've already discussed the acidity of vinegar, so you already know that this is important because it has this property that helps to remove water scale deposits.
- It has antiseptic properties. Researchers have found that vinegar not only kills bacteria and pathogens in food, but also kills some viruses.
- Easy to rinse off. Vinegar can be rinsed off completely with water without leaving a trace.
How to use vinegar for cleaning?
Vinegar is an effective, non-toxic and vegan cleaning product, but how should you use it to clean your home?
- Use white distilled vinegar or vinegar made from biomass. Leave apple cider vinegar and red wine vinegar for salads and other dishes, as they are not very clean and are more expensive. A good strong white distilled vinegar infused with water is better, but even better is to use a formulation made directly for cleaning, such as CYCLE products.
- Use vinegar to clean your kitchen. Vinegar is great if you want to get your kitchen clean - you can use it to wash down worktops and cutting boards, as it also removes odours, but it can also be used to wipe down kitchen utensils, tables and cupboards. Just wipe with a dry cloth after cleaning. Its antiseptic properties also make it useful after cooking. And because it's non-toxic and contains no dangerous chemicals, you can also rest assured when using it in places where food is handled, such as the fridge or on the aforementioned worktops and cutting boards.
- You can also wash your clothes with vinegar. It may sound strange, but if you add a little vinegar instead of rinse aid, your clothes will be cleaner, fresher and even softer.
- You can also use it to clean the toilet. You can also use vinegar to wash the inside and outside of the toilet bowl. Pour a splash of undiluted vinegar into the shell and leave it there for a few hours. Then rub it all over with a brush and rinse. This not only removes deposits but also unpleasant odours.
- Rid the bathroom of water boils with vinegar. The acidic properties of vinegar make it easy to remove calcium and scale deposits caused by hard water. You can even prevent them from forming by regularly wiping down taps, shower doors and tiles with vinegar-based cleaners. If you come across stubborn stains that won't come off at first try, spray them with vinegar cleaner, wrap them in cling film and you'll be sure to get rid of them the next morning.
- Use vinegar as a glass cleaner. Use one part water and two parts vinegar to make a window cleaning liquid, spray it on the glass and wipe it off to get a clean, spot-free glass.
- Also treat the surface of metals with vinegar. It's also great for removing dirt from copper and brass surfaces, so you don't have to use expensive, toxic products.
- By adding natural essential oils, you can also deal with the smell of vinegar. If you're looking for a classic cleaner scent, you can suppress the strong smell of vinegar by adding some natural essential oils. This could be orange, grapefruit or lemon essential oil. This will also make it smell better, yet won't add any toxic substances to the cleaner. We do this with CYCLE products [Link to fragrance article].
- You can also use it to remove stains on carpets. If you put baking soda on the stain on the carpet and then wash it down with half a cup of vinegar, you can get rid of it!
- Refresh your bedroom with vinegar. Spray a little vinegar on your mattress and leave it to dry. It will help remove mites, mould and odours.
- DO NOT use on marble, granite and hardwood floors! The acidity of vinegar can attack these surfaces and leave an unpleasant residue. In this case, you'll need to find another solution!
Why is vinegar a sustainable solution?
If you're still not convinced about the eco-friendliness of vinegar, here are some reasons why you should clean with natural, vinegar-based cleaners instead of other commercially available chemical cleaners:
- There are no toxic chemicals in it. Since you can even put vinegar in your food, you obviously know it's safe. So it's safe to use around the house, without endangering the health of yourself, your family or your pets.
- You know what it's made of. Some detergents may contain artificial fragrances that are harmful to your health, even if they don't appear on the label. If you use vinegar, you know exactly what you're using.
- Made sustainably. CYCLE products made from vinegar are sustainably produced from biomass. We use it to produce the acetic acid that we use to make our cleaning products. This means that we not only recycle the waste (biomass is waste) without using a single drop of drinking water, but we use it to make effective and environmentally friendly cleaning products that you can use in your home.
- Vegan. No animal involvement is required in the production of vinegar.
But always bear in mind that if you want to buy sustainably, you should check the source of the vinegar or vinegar-based cleaner you are planning to buy. Many brands are producing white vinegar as a by-product of the petrochemical industry, which means that some types of vinegar are actually made from fossil fuels and are not sustainable sources. Fortunately, there are environmentally friendly solutions, such as all CYCLE products, which are made by recycling biomass. So CYCLE is not only sustainably sourced, it is also completely vegan!
So the good news is that with CYCLE , you don't have to compromise: keeping your home clean and living an eco-friendly, sustainable lifestyle can now go hand in hand. Not only is the acetic acid inCYCLE products made from biomass, but the other ingredients are also derived from natural sources, such as essential oils for fragrance, recycled water and citric acid.
With CYCLE products, you can keep your home clean, while keeping you and your family safe and doing good for the environment!
