To obtain an edible vinegar having a good mellow taste, hardly losing acid taste and being slow in putrefaction by treating a raw material with a desalted sea water in processes of water absorption and steaming of the cereal raw materials such as a raw material rice for a rice vinegar, wheat, corn, etc., and then subjecting them under a prescribed fermentation method.

This method for producing an edible vinegar capable of shortening the fermentation of the edible vinegar for obtaining an objective edible vinegar having a good taste and excellent in flavor, is provided by treating a raw material with a desalted sea water in a process of water absorption or steaming of the cereal raw materials such as a raw material rice, wheat, corn, etc., for a rice vinegar or a cereal vinegar, adding any of sea water, concentrated sea water and desalted sea water as water for preparation to the treated cereal raw material and heating, then putting them in a stainless steel fermenting vessel, mixing with a seed vinegar well, fermenting by a prescribed fermentation method and diluting by adding any of the sea water, concentrated sea water or desalted sea water as a diluting water.