The fact that chippies have been using non-brewed condiment instead of vinegar has come to light in a YouTube video

When it comes to fish and chip shops, those three little special words aren’t: “I love you”, they’re: “Salt and vinegar?” Although, strictly speaking, they should probably be four words instead: “Salt and non-brewed condiment?”

For decades, our nation’s chippies have, instead of vinegar, been using a mixture of water, ethanoic acid, colourings and flavourings that comes in a concentrated form and is then watered down and served to customers. Unlike vinegar, it isn’t brewed from alcohol, meaning that it’s halal, it’s possible to create gluten-free versions and it’s a lot cheaper. But this week, a mini-furore has been kicked off by a video from YouTuber Tom Scott entitled The Fake Vinegar in British Fish and Chip Shops.

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“Most people don’t know that this isn’t vinegar,” he points out as he wanders around a beach clutching a bottle amid cutaway shots of fried potatoes being doused in it. ‘‘Legally, it can’t be described as vinegar. Trading standards are really clear on that. It cannot be put in the little bottles that people traditionally associate with vinegar.” Off the back of Scott’s video, numerous sneering articles have been penned about the phenomena, including the Metro’s pithy analysis: “NOOOOO.”

The point, presumably, is that most fish and chip shops do label non-brewed condiment as vinegar. Which means that our nation’s chippies have been playing fast and loose with trading standards regulation for decades. But so what? Is anyone bothered? Or is this just pointless red tape? After all, when people have conversations about their favourite chippy, are they really basing them on the chemical composition of the tangy stuff they sprinkle on their meal?

“People care about the quality of their fish, not the quality of their vinegar,” says Tony Georgiou, who runs George and Helen’s fish-and-chip shop in Quinton, Birmingham: a 50-year-old chippy that uses fresh fish (rather than frozen), the walls of which are decorated with photographs of celeb customers including Westlife, Danny Dyer and Dynamo. “Dynamo didn’t come to my fish shop based on what sort of vinegar we serve. It’s the quality of the cooking and the ingredients of the meal that matters.”

Even Scott himself is unfazed by chip shops using the cheapo substitute. “I have absolutely no idea why the media has picked this up. I’ve known about it for years!” No matter how many articles are written about it, then, it seems chippies are probably going to carry on attempting to get more tang for their buck.

• This article was amended on 3 and 5 August 2016. An earlier version said in the text and subheading that been “substituting vinegar for” non-brewed condiment.