Vinegar Confusion

[kbtoyssni]

I'm confused about vinegar. I know malt vinegar is a no-no. Is malt vinegar the same as distilled vinegar? I thought that distilled vinegar might be ok, but I ate some salsa with distilled vinegar in it and got sick. So, if it's not the same, do any of you have problems with distilled vinegar as well?

Some products labeled gluten-free have vinegar on the label. I assume that if the type of vinegar isn't specified, it's distilled. Is that correct? And if I do have a problem with distilled vinegar, can I eat the things labeled gluten-free that have vinegar as an ingredient?

Lots of questions, I'm so confused! And it would be great to be able to eat pickles and ketchup again. Is Heinz ketchup gluten-free?

[kabowman]

I will leave the malt vinegar question to someone who knows more than I do.

If you have a problem with all vinegars, which I experimented with myself and I do, you "may" have a yeast problem. There is yeast in the process. I eliminated vinegar and a month or two later discovered it was the yeast in the vinegar that was the problem for me, not the actual vinegar.

If yeast is OK for you, then most vinegars should be OK. Richard, among others on the board, can give you a good list.

[lovegrov]

Heinz ketchup is gluten-free.

Malt vinegar is actually brewed from malted barley and therefore is not gluten-free. Brewing, as with beer, does not make the barley safe. "Vinegar" or distilled vinegar is distilled, which does make it safe. In addition, wheat is only very rarely used as the grain in distilled vinegar (some vinegars even use wood) so it's not very often a concern anyway. I no longer worry about distilled vinegar or vinegar as an ingredient, but that's a personal choice.

You can read more about vinegar here:

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richard