Red Yeast Red Vinegar
Red yeast red vinegar is a rice vinegar brewed with red yeast rice, the grain fermented with the mould Monascus purpureus, which supplies both the saccharifying enzymes for the mash and the pigments that give the finished vinegar its red amber colour.
The process is a two organism sequence. Monascus grown on steamed rice produces amylases that break rice starch into fermentable sugars, together with a set of azaphilone pigments, chiefly the yellow monascin and ankaflavin and the red rubropunctatin and monascorubrin, which bind to amino compounds in the mash and become water soluble red forms. Yeast converts the sugars to ethanol and acetic acid bacteria then oxidise the ethanol to acetic acid. The result is a vinegar of moderate acidity, generally milder than distilled white vinegar, carrying rice derived amino acids and sugars that give it a rounded, faintly sweet character rather than a sharp one.
It is a clear red to reddish brown liquid, filled into drums, carboys and bottles. The colour is pH dependent and shifts towards orange in strongly acid systems and towards brown on prolonged heating, and Monascus pigments are sensitive to light and to heat, which decides how the vinegar is stored and at what point in a recipe it is added.
We source bulk Red Yeast Red Vinegar from top China manufacturers for our partners. The manufacturer is in Zhejiang. A smaller requirement can ship in a combined container with other ingredients.
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- Function
- Bakery ingredient
Specifications
| Item | Specification |
|---|---|
| Appearance | Clear liquid, free from suspended matter and sediment |
| Colour | Red to reddish brown, characteristic of Monascus pigment |
| Flavour and odour | Characteristic mild rice vinegar, no mouldy or solvent note |
| Total acidity, as acetic acid | 3.5 g per 100 mL minimum |
| Non volatile acid, as lactic acid | 0.5 g per 100 mL maximum |
| Total soluble solids | 2.0 to 6.0 degrees Brix |
| Residual ethanol | 0.5 percent by volume maximum |
| pH | 2.8 to 3.6 |
| Citrinin | Not detected at the method limit of quantification |
| Lead | 0.5 mg/kg maximum |
| Total plate count | 100 cfu/mL maximum |
| Yeast and mould | 10 cfu/mL maximum |
| Escherichia coli | Negative in 1 mL |
| Salmonella | Negative in 25 mL |
Common Markets Grades
Grades separate on acidity and on brewing method. Total acidity expressed as acetic acid is the headline figure, and material is traded across a band from around 2.5 percent up to 5 percent or more, with the lower strengths sold for table and dipping use and the higher strengths for manufacturing where dilution follows. Solid state brewed vinegar, made in the traditional way on a grain bed, is priced above liquid state brewed vinegar produced in submerged acetators, and aged grades held for a season or longer are a separate line again.
Beyond strength, the trade distinguishes plain red yeast rice vinegar from spiced grades, in which the brew is infused with ingredients of the star anise and cassia type, and from grades adjusted with additional red yeast rice pigment for colour intensity. Sugar containing and seasoned versions blended with salt and sweetener are sold as finished condiments rather than as brewing vinegar. Filtration level runs from clear filtered through to unfiltered material carrying its own sediment.
Applications
- Cantonese seafood and soup service, offered as a dipping vinegar alongside shark fin style soups and steamed shellfish
- Chinese roast meats such as crisp skinned pigeon and roast pork, brushed on the skin before frying or roasting
- Chinese pastries and steamed confections needing a natural red tone in the dough or filling
- Sauces and marinades, where the mild acidity and rice sweetness balance soy and sugar
- Pickled vegetables and cold dressed dishes, which take both the acidity and the colour
- Braising liquors for red cooked dishes, contributing colour without added caramel
- Noodle and dumpling dipping sauces, blended with soy sauce, chilli oil and sugar
- Fermented bean curd and preserved vegetable production, used as an acidifying and colouring liquid
China Manufacturers of Red Yeast Red Vinegar
Top Red Yeast Red Vinegar manufacturers in China.
Company names and logos are the property of the manufacturers themselves. They are listed here because our own directory records them as producing this ingredient. A listing is not an endorsement by them, and we do not represent them or speak on their behalf.
Regulatory Status
Vinegar is a food, not a food additive, so it carries no E number in the European Union and is not the subject of an additive listing in the United States. In the United States the Food and Drug Administration compliance policy guidance on vinegar governs labelling and requires the acid strength to be declared where the product is below the customary strength for vinegar, and manufacture falls under the preventive controls rules at 21 CFR Part 117. In the European Union vinegar is placed on the market under the general food law and the hygiene rules of Regulation 852/2004, with compositional expectations set by national and trade practice rather than by a single harmonised standard.
The Monascus fermentation carries the regulatory issues specific to this product. Monascus cultures can produce the nephrotoxic mycotoxin citrinin under some fermentation conditions, so control of the culture and of fermentation temperature is a food safety measure and citrinin testing is a normal release requirement. The European Union has set a maximum level for citrinin in red yeast rice preparations and has restricted the use of monacolin K from red yeast rice in food supplements, and although those measures address supplements rather than brewed vinegar, they establish the reference points buyers apply to any Monascus fermented material. Where a red yeast rice pigment preparation is added to the vinegar for colour rather than being produced in the brew, it is regulated as a colouring ingredient, and its status differs between markets, so that distinction must be settled at the specification stage.
Manufacturing Process
Manufacture begins with the red yeast rice itself. Long grain rice is washed, soaked and steamed, cooled to inoculation temperature and seeded with a Monascus purpureus culture, then held on trays or in rotating drums under controlled temperature and humidity for one to two weeks while the mould colonises the grain and pigment develops through the kernel. The cultured grain is dried and milled, and part of it is reserved for use as starter.
For the vinegar, further rice is steamed and cooled, then mixed with the red yeast rice and water in a fermenter. Monascus enzymes saccharify the starch while yeast, either native to the starter or added, ferments the released sugars to ethanol, giving a red rice wine after one to two weeks. The wine is inoculated with acetic acid bacteria and oxidised to vinegar, either in a submerged acetator with forced aeration over a day or two, or on a solid grain bed turned by hand over several weeks in the traditional route. The raw vinegar is drained or pressed, then aged in tanks or jars so the acidity mellows and the aroma develops, clarified by settling and filtration, standardised to the specified acidity, pasteurised and filled.
