Re: [CH] 20% vinegar

Brad Lewis (bal99@jane.penn.com)
Fri, 26 Jun 1998 14:45:19 -0400 (EDT)

Reagent grade glacial acetic acid would be purer than food grade acetic
acid, that's not the problem. The problem is that the food grade may
contain a significant amount of some harmless material while the nonfood
grade may contain a small amount of toxic material. Food grade chemicals
must by definition contain no toxic impurities while no such restriction
applies to nonfood grad materials. I really don't even know if reagent
grade acetic acid is produced from fermentation. I don't believe that it
is. Instead I think it is gotten from oxidation of something like
ethylene or porpylene. You run the risk of having some really nasty side
products contaminating the acetic acid. Furhtermore I would bet that it is
illegal to use nonfoodgrade chemicals in anything that would be ingested.

I really feel this should be stressed: even though the glacial acetic may
be much purer, what little it does contain might be deadly.

Of course they would probably tell you this at Aldrich.

Good luck and let us know if you are going to retail this,

Brad

On Tue, 23 Jun 1998, Mark Gelo wrote:

> Mary:
> 
> You need to specify the correct grade.
> Reagent grade glacial acetic acid should be as pure (or purer) than a "food
> grade". You can get it from any laboratory supply dealer.
> 
>[snip]