JavaScript is off. Please enable to view full site.

Vietnamese woman caught mixing acid with water to make vinegar

Vietnamese woman caught mixing acid with water to make vinegar

Friday, April 08, 2016, 16:12 GMT+7

While vinegar does contain a few percentages of acetic acid, producing the liquid merely by mixing the acid with water is undoubtedly unacceptable.

But that is what Nguyen Thi Kim had been doing since September 2015, until she was caught in the act on Thursday.

Kim, 45, was producing ‘vinegar’ by mixing water with acetic acid at her facility in Vinh, the capital city of the north-central province of Nghe An, when environmental police stormed in.

The raid came shortly after officers caught a man named Le Van Thanh when he was carrying 30 barrels of the vinegar in the city.

The deliveryman failed to show any quality certification for the products, and ended up confessing to police he had sourced the vinegar from Kim.

At the woman’s facility, officers found 146 barrels of ‘rice vinegar’ and three 20-liter containers of acetic acid, suspected to be of Chinese origin, Nguyen Viet Nhi, deputy head of the province’s environmental police unit, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Friday morning.

Nguyen Thi Kim illustrates how she makes her vinegar using acetic acid and water. 

Kim confessed that the ‘formula’ to make her ‘rice vinegar’ is mixing a liter of acetic acid with 100 liters of water.

She produced some 15 cardboard boxes, each containing 24 bottles, on a daily basis and sold them for VND25,000 (roughly US$1) per box.

The woman admitted to having made vinegar this way since September 2015.

Vinegar is a sour-tasting liquid containing acetic acid, obtained by fermenting dilute alcoholic liquids.

Commercial vinegar is produced either by fast or slow fermentation processes. In the slow process, the fermentation proceeds slowly over the course of months or a year, whereas it only takes 20 hours to three days in the case of fast production.

Although it is classified as a weak acid, concentrated acetic acid is corrosive and can attack the skin.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!

TUOI TRE NEWS

Read more

;

Photos

VIDEOS

‘Taste of Australia’ gala dinner held in Ho Chi Minh City after 2-year hiatus

Taste of Australia Gala Reception has returned to the Park Hyatt Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City's District 1 after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic

Vietnamese woman gives unconditional love to hundreds of adopted children

Despite her own immense hardship, she has taken in and cared for hundreds of orphans over the past three decades.

Vietnam’s Mekong Delta celebrates spring with ‘hat boi’ performances

The art form is so popular that it attracts people from all ages in the Mekong Delta

Vietnamese youngster travels back in time with clay miniatures

Each work is a scene caught by Dung and kept in his memories through his journeys across Vietnam

Latest news