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I make vinaigrette's using dehydrated fruit powders. Been doing it the same way for over a year. Now all are fermenting and fizzing. I mix the powder with agave nectar, wisk my oil and vinegar separately, combine both with water blend and bottle. I have 10 flavors and vinegar varies from red wine, white wine,balsamic and apple cider. I recently tried the hot fill method, still fizz! I'm stumped after doing it one way so long..now I can't seem to get it right. Please advise.

Samantha Hines
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    How are you storing the vinaigrette? – Sneftel Jul 12 '22 at 13:09
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    Also, what are the proportions of the ingredients? – Sneftel Jul 12 '22 at 13:29
  • After it's made I store in boxes in my dining room. For a batch of 12 bottles I use 10 cups water, 1 cip sunflower oil, 1 cup vinegar 1 cup agave nectar for my base, then mix 2 tblspns of fruit powder. My fruity ones are 3 fruit combinations example: raspberry, pomegranate pineapple is one flavor...strawberry blueberry peach is another – Samantha Hines Jul 12 '22 at 14:26
  • Even vinaigrette without water is normally recommended to be kept in the fridge. I actually managed to find a recipe that added some water, but far less than yours: [serious eats](https://www.seriouseats.com/simple-vinaigrette-recipe) add 1 tbsp water to 3 tbsp vinegar – Chris H Jul 13 '22 at 15:28

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The recipe you described will not produce a shelf-stable mixture. The acidity is too low to inhibit the growth of bacteria or mold, and any stray wild yeasts will greedily eat up the agave nectar.

I can't say why this is only now happening. My first guess would be that one of your ingredients previously contained an added preservative, and no longer does so. If that were the case, adding some preservative on your own could help; but preservative dosing takes you out of the realm of Official FDA Recommendations and is thus out-of-scope for this site.

In any case, there's nothing intrinsic to your recipe that would prevent microbe growth. The mystery is not why things are bad now, but why they were okay before.

Sneftel
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  • Storage temperature, maybe? Before it was winter, now it's summer in the northern hemisphere. – GdD Jul 12 '22 at 14:49
  • Maybe so, but that would be more a matter of degree [no pun intended]... presumably these vinaigrettes were being kept for a while. – Sneftel Jul 12 '22 at 14:50
  • I've heated the mixture..bottled it hot and it's still fizzing.. – Samantha Hines Jul 12 '22 at 17:07
  • What can I use for a natural preservative?? I – Samantha Hines Jul 12 '22 at 17:08
  • "Natural" preservatives, at a high enough level to be effective, will likely change the taste more than you would find acceptable. If it were me, I'd use sodium benzoate. – Sneftel Jul 12 '22 at 18:27
  • Good morning and thank you so much for the info! I did some research and was going to ask you about using this and you already answered my question! should I add it using my old method of mixing powders and liquid, or should I do the hot fill method? – Samantha Hines Jul 13 '22 at 13:10
  • Also..does potassium sorbate serve the same purpose? – Samantha Hines Jul 13 '22 at 13:16
  • Hot fill is probably going to help some, so I’d stick with that. Do *not* measure your benzoate by volume [the stuff is ineffective or dangerous at the wrong concentration]; get a precision scale. I suspect that sodium/potassium are interchangeable (they are with other preservatives) but I don’t have much experience there. You might want to post a new question about that. – Sneftel Jul 13 '22 at 13:25
  • Or guar gum? The sodium benzoate will add sodium, don't really wanna do that – Samantha Hines Jul 13 '22 at 13:25
  • Guar gum is a thickener, not a preservative. – Sneftel Jul 13 '22 at 13:39
  • Let us [continue this discussion in chat](https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/137758/discussion-between-samantha-hines-and-sneftel). – Samantha Hines Jul 13 '22 at 13:39
  • If you want a "natural" preservative, why not just use a proper quantity of vinegar (especially as you're considering citric acid, from chat) – Chris H Jul 13 '22 at 15:24
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Are you keeping these at room temperature? You should be fine if you keep them in the fridge. That being said, Fermentation is a result of temperature (warm ferments faster), sugar (which you're adding), cultures (which you might be adding via apple cider, wine, or fruit), water (which you have a lot of) and time. If you don't want to mess around with your ingredient ratios to make it more acidic or less sugary you can also do smaller batches so you use it before it ferments.

forrest
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  • Large batches save time. I sell at 3 farmers markets and work a full time job I don't have time to do small batches, was considering adding potassium sorbate, what are your thouggts? – Samantha Hines Jul 13 '22 at 18:18