Facts and fiction, science and technology: the balsamic vinegar case study

FACTS AND FICTION, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: THE BALSAMIC VINEGAR CASE STUDY The history of microbial biotransformation is closely associated with vinegar production, which dates back to around 2000 years B.C. However, among fermented foods, vinegar has always been considered a poor commodity because it is not a food, lacks significant nutritional value, and it is produced from the transformation of richer and more nutritive fermented foods, such as wine and honey. Vinegar is a flavoring agent, but also a preservative and in some countries it’s considered a healthy drink. Vinegar production is regulated by an extensive set of statutes and the definition of vinegar varies from a country to another. FAO/WHO defines vinegar as any liquid, fit for human consumption, produced exclusively from suitable products containing starch and/or sugars by the process of double fermentation, first alcoholic and then acetous. Several botanical species can be used for vinegar production on the condition they satisfy two main basic requirements. Firstly they must be safe for human and animal consumption, and secondly they must provide a direct or indirect source of fermentable sugar. The two fundamental steps in vinegar production are the preparation of the raw materials and the fermentation. The first stage embraces all the necessary operations to ensure the availability of fermentable sugar and protein insolution, including slicing and/or crushing to obtain the fruit juice, enzymatic digestion of starch (for cereals), in some more easily stored and preserved, making their use independent of harvesting time. In general, vinegars are properly ascribed to the wider category of condiments, and they fall into two different sub categories: with and without Geographical Indication (GI). Under region or locality in that territory, where a given quality, reputation or other characteristic of the good is essentially attributable to its geographical origin”. GIs and trademarks are also similar in terms of the rationale behind their legal protection, that is, consumer protection and prevention of unfair competition. Misuse of GIs may be detrimental to the interests of consumers and constitute unfair competition between producers. Nowadays in the European Community there are four vinegars with the PDO and two with the PGI, the first vinegar with recognized GI status was applied to the two Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena and of Reggio Emilia and it date back to year 2000. The more recent one is the PGI of Zhenjiang Xiang Cu, in the year 2012. Third balsamic vinegar had the PGI in 2009 the Aceto Balsamico di Modena (ABM), with the opposition of some state member.