Investigators have identified 2 persons as the operators of a counterfeit vinegar production site. Rather than brewing rice vinegar through natural fermentation, the suspects allegedly diluted two liters of industrial acid with 100 liters of well water, then sold the product falsely labeled as brown rice vinegar. The city’s economic police division detained one of the persons and placed the other under house arrest, charging them with producing and trading counterfeit food products.
During the raid, officers seized more than 2,000 bottles of fake vinegar, over 2,000 liters in total, along with 20 containers of concentrated acetic acid amounting to roughly 600 liters. Authorities estimated the seized stockpile could have produced as much as 30,000 liters of counterfeit vinegar. Health experts cautioned that vinegar made with industrial acid poses serious dangers, including stomach damage, neurological poisoning, cancer, or even death if the concentration exceeds safe limits. Police are now widening the investigation to trace the full distribution chain. Within the same week, the economic police also shut down another illegal operation that had been producing nearly 38,000 bottles of counterfeit bird’s nest drink.
