FDA to revoke registration of 'fake' vinegar

THE Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday, May 21, announced that it will be revoking the Certificate of Product Registration (CPR) of brands deemed as "fake" vinegar.

In a statement, FDA OIC-Director General Rolando Enrique Domingo said they will be revoking the CPRs of vinegar products made with synthetic acetic acid.

"Products using synthetic acetic acid shall have their registration with the FDA revoked for misdeclaration,” said Domingo.

He explained that this is because FDA standards consider vinegar a natural product that should have undergone the natural process of alcoholic or acetous fermentation of natural raw materials.

"If the product contains artificial matter, such as synthetic acetic acid or cloudifying agent, it is considered adulterated," said Domingo.

The FDA statement comes on the heels of a report by the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute- Department of Science and Technology (PNRI-DOST) that as many as eight out of 10 vinegar products are not made from natural sources.

According to the PNRI-DOST report, such products did not undergo the natural process of fermentation of acetic acid, which is the usual process of making vinegar.

The FDA acting head pointed out, however, it is unlikely that health risks will come with the consumption of the so-called "fake" vinegar.

This, he said, is because FDA classifies vinegar as a low risk product, which means that these products are unlikely to contain pathogenic microorganisms and will not normally support their growth because of food characteristics.

"There is also no evidence that synthetic acetic acid is harmful to health," said Domingo.