FOOD INSPECTION, I43 



of old vinegar or mother of vinegar hastens the process some- 

 what. While some vinegar is still made in this way, the quick 

 process, used first for malt and distilled vinegars, is now gen- 

 erally employed by manufacturers of cider vinegar. In this 

 process the fermented cider or other alcoholic solution is made 

 to pass slowly through beech shavings which have been previ- 

 ously saturated with old vinegar, and at the same time a current 

 of air is forced through the shavings. The shavings are used to 

 increase the surface exposed to the air. Beech is commonly 

 employed because it is an odorless and tasteless wood. Under 

 proper conditions two or three days are sufficient to complete 

 the process. 



Besides acetic acid, vinegar always contains more or less of 

 other substances which vary widely with the source from which 

 the vinegar was made. It is because of these foreign matters, 

 characteristic of vinegar of the same kind, that it is possible for 

 the chemist to quite readily distinguish one variety of vinegar 

 from another. The sour taste of a vinegar is due to its acetic 

 acid, the other flavors are due to foreign matters in solution. 

 The standards which have been adopted take these other foreign 

 matters into account. 



The following standards for vinegars were adopted and pub- 

 lished as directed by law in May, 1905. 



vine;gar standards of maine. 



1. Vinegar, cider vinegar, or apple vinegar is the product 

 made by the alcoholic and subsequent acetous fermentations of 

 the juice of apples, is kevo-rotatory, and contains not less than 

 four (4) grams of acetic acid, not less than one and six-tenths 

 (1.6) grams of apple solids, and not less than twenty-five hun- 

 dredths (0.25) gram of apple ash in one hundred (100) cubic 

 centimeters. The water-soluble ash from one hundred ( 100) 

 cubic centimeters of the vinegar requires not less than thirty 

 (30) cubic centimeters of decinormal acid to neutralize the 

 acidity and contains not less than ten ( 10) milligrams of phos- 

 phoric acid (P2O5). 



2. Wine vinegar or grape vinegar is the product made by 

 the alcoholic and subsequent acetous fermentations of the juice 

 of grapes and contains, in one hundred (100) cubic centimeters, 

 not less than four (4) grams of acetic acid, not less than one and 



