Investigating the differences in the amounts of acetic acid inud100 ml of lemon, pomegranate and grape vinegars and determining which one is most suitable for pickling

摘要

Vinegar is an important substance that has many uses in our daily life due to its acidicudproperties. It is used in pickling process which involves maintaining the nutritive quality of certainudfoods. Its acidic property provides a bacteria‐free medium for pickling which is essential whenudkeeping the food healthy. As the acidity increases, so does the ability to prevent bacteriaudformation. Vinegar’s acidic property is a result of acetic acid, an organic acid of two carbons,udwhich is present 4% ‐ 5% in a bottle of vinegar. There are many types of vinegars in markets,udwhich include different fruits, flavors and different percentages of acetic acid, the question is:udWhich type of vinegar is more acidic and, therefore, more suitable for pickling? In this study, theuddifferences in the amounts of acetic acid in 100 milliliters of lemon, pomegranate and grapeudvinegars are investigated.udSimple acid‐base titration was used as vinegar contains acetic acid. The titrations wereuddone with 1.00 ± 0.01 molL‐1 sodium hydroxide solution as the titrant and samples of 30 millilitersudof each different kind of vinegar as the analyte. By using a pH meter, the pH value of the analyteudsolution was recorded for each addition of 0.50 ± 0.05 milliliters of the titrant, 1.00 ± 0.01 molL‐1udsodium hydroxide solution. The S‐shaped graphs of titrations were drawn and the equivalenceudpoints of each titration were determined. This data is used to find the amount of acetic acid in aud100 milliliters sample.udWith a 3.880% acetic acid in it, the grape vinegar is found to be the most acidic andudtherefore the most suitable one for pickling among the other types of vinegars tested. It is alsoudfound that the lemon vinegar has 3.682% and the pomegranate vinegar has 3.282% acetic acid inudthem.