Your fish and chip shop probably isn’t using real vinegar on your chippy tea

YOUR Friday night chippy tea may taste delicious, but the vinegar you’re drowning your chips in might not be the real deal.

The truth was revealed by YouTuber Tom Scott - who has 1.88million subscribers - in a video called “The Fake Vinegar In British Fish and Chip Shops”.

In the video, he claims that what you’re actually putting on your chips is something called a non-brewed condiment.

It’s chemically very similar to real vinegar and is made from a mixture of ethanoic acid, water, food colouring and flavouring.

Real vinegar is made by malting and brewing barley into an ale which is then allowed to turn into vinegar through ageing.

But, according to Trading Standards, you can’t refer to version as vinegar because it isn't made through brewing.

You can't even put it in a container that people would associate with vinegar.

But, as Tom points out, many fish and chip shops still do.

The flavour of the non-brewed condiment is so strongly associated with fish and chips that it’s often referred to as “chip shop vinegar”.

Chippies prefer the non-brewed version mainly because it can be bought in concentrated form.

It’s also cheaper to buy that traditional malt vinegar, which takes much longer to make.

Plus, chip shop vinegar is both halal and gluten free because it is made without using alcohol or barley.

Opinions are divided over whether it matters that chip shop vinegar isn’t really vinegar.

One commenter on Tom’s video said: “You know what? I always thought the chippy vinegar tastes better than my stuff at home. Now I know why.”

Others, however, prefer the real stuff, another person wrote: “It does matter; because you don't get the malty aroma with non-brewed.”

We have contacted the National Federation of Fish Fryers regarding this and will update the article when we get a response.

Sometimes fakes are better than the real thing, as one dad found after he saved £3,360 by making his own "fakeaways".

If you're looking for more at-home fast food dupes, B&M are selling chicken nuggets that taste just like McDonald's.

But, you can get the real thing without breaking the bank because KFC have brought back their £1.99 lunch deal - that's less than a Tesco meal deal.

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Money team? Email us at money@the-sun.co.uk