All about vinegar: why you should use a vinegar-based cleaner
You’ve probably been told to use vinegar as a household cleaner, but you may have wondered: is it effective enough? Vinegar is a completely natural substance that is found in almost everyone’s kitchen. But it also has powerful cleaning properties that can be used to remove limescale, polish surfaces, and even disinfect. This natural, slightly acidic liquid does its job without producing toxic chemicals, and it can also be produced in an environmentally friendly, sustainable way.
Read this article and learn everything about vinegar, its history, preparation, types, cleaning effects, and of course, most importantly: how to clean your home with it.
What is vinegar?
Vinegar is the real joker of the kitchen – we put it on salads, preserves and pickles with it, and we also use it in cooking – so it's a familiar ingredient to everyone. But do we really know what vinegar is?
Vinegar is nothing more than a solution containing acetic acid, a colorless, organic compound with a distinct taste and a strong odor (or rather, smell). Acetic acid (its chemical symbol is CH3COOH, if you're interested in chemistry) is considered a weak acid, but can be corrosive in high concentrations. Vinegar usually contains 5-8% of it, and at this concentration it is completely safe to consume (and even delicious), for example mixed into a salad.
Weaker acids, such as vinegar, are generally easy to produce. And because it is a versatile ingredient, it is also used in many other areas besides food. Did you know, for example, that it can be useful in many areas of industry, as well as in household cleaning products? This sour, tasty ingredient is not only delicious, but can also be used for other purposes!
A brief history of vinegar
If we look at the evolution of vinegar, we can say that it is certainly the oldest ingredient in your kitchen. As early as 3000 BC, vinegar-based liquids were found in Egyptian shipwrecks, and there are also written records of vinegar from the same period in Babylonian writings. It is even mentioned in the Bible!
We don't want to bore you with the events of the next 4-5,000 years, so let's jump straight to the 19th century! Although vinegar had been made for thousands of years by then, it was Louis Pasteur who first published the scientific, microbiological knowledge behind vinegar in the 1850s. A few decades later, as large companies such as Heinz began mass-producing vinegar, it slowly became a staple in every household. In addition to manufacturing vinegar on a large scale for making pickles, they were the first company to sell vinegar in bottles, so everyone could use it in their own homes.
How is vinegar made?
The original name of vinegar comes from the French word combination vin+aigre, which translates to “vinegar.” The word means “sour wine,” where vin means wine and aigre means sour. But vinegar can be fermented from virtually any plant material, so in addition to wine vinegar, you can also find rice, malt, fruit, or grain vinegars. To put it simply: any substance that contains sugar or starch that can turn into alcohol can turn into vinegar during the fermentation process. The vinegar used in ancient times was probably made in the same way that many great culinary discoveries are: by accident.
Bacterial fermentation produces acetic acid, and in ancient times this happened naturally, as if by itself, as the acetic acid-producing bacteria in the fermented, slightly alcoholic liquid were exposed to 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 they understood the true background of the process, 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 extra oxygen. This means that today, under industrial conditions, they can produce huge quantities of vinegar in days instead of months.
But if we want to use vinegar as a cleaning agent, we don't need to turn to culinary ingredients for production: vinegar can also be produced from biomass. Acetic acid is also produced when the volatile fatty acids found in biomass are extracted and fermented. For example, this is how CYCLE produces the vinegar used in its products.
Well, we've covered the broad outlines of the vinegar production process. But we may have gotten a little confused… so is the same vinegar used for cooking and cleaning? Below we'll explain why the type of vinegar is interesting to us!
Why is the type of vinegar important?
Vinegars are not created equal. In the culinary world, you can find white wine or red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, balsamic vinegar, rice vinegar, and even more exotic varieties. Each vinegar has a different taste, strength, and aroma. Some are more tart than others, while others are a little sweeter.
When we talk about “tartness” or “sourness,” we are essentially talking about the density or strength of the vinegar. When we measure this, we are essentially determining the acidity of the vinegar. The strength of vinegar depends on how much acetic acid was formed during the chemical reaction required to produce it. This indicator determines the amount and strength of the acid, and depends on the raw materials used to make the vinegar. As a demonstration, let’s take a 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, so it is much more characteristic than naturally fermented vinegars.
- Alcoholic vinegar . A type of vinegar that is simply fermented from an alcoholic liquid made from sugar. A strong type similar to white vinegar.
- Distilled vinegar . Its name comes from its preparation: it is produced by distillation from any type of vinegar, resulting in a colorless substance with a strength of 5-10%.
- The acidity of wine vinegar is between 6-8%, and it is naturally made by fermenting wine.
- With an acidity of 4-7%
- Beer, apple, malt vinegar. These varieties have an acidity of 4-5%.
Acidity helps us decide which types of vinegar are better for food and which for cleaning. White, distilled vinegar is obviously much better for cleaning than a nice-tasting apple cider vinegar that we spray on our salad. If we want to clean with vinegar, we should turn to the stronger, higher-acid varieties.
The cleaning and antibacterial properties of vinegar
If you want to use it not only for making vinaigrettes and pickles, don't forget that vinegar, thanks to its antibacterial properties, can also be used as an excellent cleaning agent. Let's see what benefits there are when you use vinegar to clean your home.
- A great solvent. Vinegar can easily dissolve soap scum and grease, making it great for cleaning a variety of surfaces.
- Eliminates odors. Although vinegar has a strong aroma of its own, it evaporates quickly and takes unpleasant odors with it.
- We've already discussed the acidity of vinegar, so you already know that it's important because it helps remove limescale deposits thanks to this property.
- It has disinfectant properties. Researchers have found that vinegar not only kills bacteria and foodborne pathogens, but also some viruses.
- Easy to rinse off. Vinegar can be rinsed off completely and without leaving any residue with water.
How do you use vinegar for cleaning?
Vinegar is an effective, non-toxic, and vegan cleaning agent, but how should you use it to clean your home?
- Use white distilled vinegar or vinegar made from biomass. Save apple cider and red wine vinegar for salads and other dishes, as they don't really clean well and are more expensive. A good strong white distilled vinegar diluted with water is better, but it's even better to use a product specifically designed as a cleaning agent, such as CYCLE's products.
- Use vinegar to clean your kitchen. Vinegar is great for keeping your kitchen clean – you can use it to clean countertops and cutting boards, as it also removes odors, but it is also suitable for wiping down kitchen utensils, tables, and cabinets. Just wipe it down with a dry cloth after cleaning. Its disinfectant properties make it worth using after preparing food. And since it is non-toxic and does not contain any hazardous chemicals, you can rest assured even if you use it in places where food is handled, such as in the refrigerator or on the aforementioned countertops and cutting boards.
- You can also wash your clothes with vinegar. It may sound strange, but if we add a little vinegar instead of fabric softener, our clothes will be cleaner, fresher, and even softer.
- You can also use it to clean your toilet. You can wash the outside and inside of your toilet bowl with vinegar. Pour a dose of undiluted vinegar into the bowl and leave it there for a few hours. Then scrub it all over with a brush and rinse. This will not only remove deposits but also unpleasant odors.
- Get rid of limescale in your bathroom with vinegar. Thanks to the acidic properties of vinegar, calcium and limescale deposits caused by hard water can be easily removed. In fact, you can even prevent their formation by regularly wiping down faucets, shower doors and tiles with vinegar cleaner. If you encounter stubborn stains that don't come off on the first try, spray them with vinegar cleaner, wrap them in plastic wrap, and you'll be sure to get rid of them by the next morning.
- Use vinegar as a glass cleaner. You can make a window cleaner by using one part water and two parts vinegar, which you can spray on the glass and wipe off to get clean, streak-free glass.
- Treat metal surfaces with vinegar as well. It also removes dirt from copper and brass surfaces, so you no longer have to try expensive, toxic products.
- You can also deal with the vinegar smell by adding natural essential oils. If you are looking for the scent of classic cleaning products, you can suppress the strong smell of vinegar by adding some natural essential oils. This can be orange, grapefruit or lemon essential oils. This will also make the smell better, but you will not put any toxic substances in the cleaning product. We do this with CYCLE products [Link to the article with fragrance].
- You can also use it to remove stains from carpets. If you put baking soda on the carpet stain and then sprinkle it with half a cup of vinegar, you can get rid of it!
- Freshen up your bedroom with vinegar. Spray a little vinegar on your mattress and let it dry. It helps eliminate dust mites, mold, and odors.
- DO NOT use on marble, granite, or hardwood floors! The acidity of vinegar can attack these surfaces and leave an unpleasant residue. In such cases, you will need to use another solution!
Why is using vinegar a sustainable solution?
If we haven't convinced you yet 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:
- It contains no toxic chemicals. Since you can even put vinegar in your food, you know it's safe. So you can use it around the house without putting yourself, your family, or your pets at risk.
- You know what it's made of. Some cleaning products can contain harmful, artificial fragrances that aren't even listed on the label. When you use vinegar, you know exactly what you're using.
- Sustainably made. CYCLE products made from vinegar are sustainably made from biomass. We use this to produce the acetic acid that we use to make our cleaning products. This means that we not only recycle waste (because biomass is actually waste) without using a single drop of drinking water, but we also use it to make effective and environmentally friendly cleaning products that you can safely use in your home.
- Vegan. No animal intervention is required in the production of vinegar.
But always keep in mind that if you want to shop sustainably, it’s worth looking at the source of the vinegar or vinegar-based cleaner you’re planning to buy. Many brands produce white vinegar as a by-product of the petrochemical industry, which means that some types of vinegar are actually made from fossil fuels, which are not sustainable sources. Fortunately, there are eco-friendly solutions, such as all CYCLE products: they are made from recycled biomass. So CYCLE is not only sustainably sourced, but also completely vegan!
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 in CYCLE products made from biomass, but the other ingredients also come from natural sources, such as essential oils used for fragrance, recycled water and citric acid.
With CYCLE products, your home can be clean, while you and your family are safe, and you are even doing good for the environment!
