An old bottle of vinegar said?

It's because you can make ethyl alcohol (the kind you find in alcoholic beverages) out of natural gas and other petroleum derivatives, and fermentation of that alcohol is what makes vinegar.

Ben, In the late 1800, Vinegar used to be made partly of petroleum. Distilled white vinegar can be made from petroleum. Not all of it is, though, and it was very common. So here the bottle was telling its consumers that the producers did not make this vinegar from petroleum.

Good find though. and a good laugh too.

Okay, its probably older than the 80's. It seems that before 1980 (not sure of the exact year) that because of some shady wording, vinegar could technically be made from petroleum. This bottle was proabably produced while they were changing the laws and regulations regarding this.

JK (the cosmic jester) is on the right track, but missed a bit in the conclusion. Vinegar is ascetic acid and water. Ascetic acid is the waste product from BACTERIA that thrives on alcohol. In the vinegar on grocery shelves today, YEAST is used to FERMENT a mixture of sugar, water and either berries, fruits or grains. The yeast's waste product is alcohol. Then bacteria do their ascetic acid thing.

The vinegar's taste, and safeness to consume, is affected by the source and the type of the alcohol..