Short answer
Yes. Apple cider vinegar is halal, and so are malt, distilled (white), rice and spirit vinegar. The alcohol that forms on the way has been turned into acid, so the vinegar does not intoxicate. The Prophet ﷺ praised vinegar as an excellent food.
All vinegar is pure and halal in the Hanafi school, including vinegar whose base liquid passed through an alcoholic stage. Apple cider vinegar drinks, capsules and gummies are halal if their other ingredients, such as gelatin, are halal.
The four schools agree on this.
Explanation
Apple cider vinegar is made in two steps: apple juice is fermented into cider, and then bacteria turn the cider's alcohol into acetic acid. Malt vinegar is made the same way from malted barley, and distilled white vinegar from grain or corn alcohol.
In the Hanafi school this is a clear case of istihala (transformation): the alcohol has changed into a new substance. Vinegar does not intoxicate however much you take, and it was an everyday food in Madinah. When the Prophet ﷺ asked his family for something to eat with bread and was given only vinegar, he said that vinegar is an excellent condiment.
- Raw apple cider vinegar with the mother (the cloudy culture) is halal.
- Malt, distilled, spirit, rice and coconut vinegar are halal.
- Apple cider vinegar gummies may contain gelatin: check the source (see gummies).
- Wine vinegar has its own answer: white wine vinegar.
Vinegar may keep a tiny trace of alcohol that cannot intoxicate, and that does not affect the ruling (see how much alcohol is haram). Most scholars of all four schools treat ordinary apple cider vinegar as halal. The Shafi'i and Hanbali schools have stricter conditions for vinegar deliberately made from an intoxicating drink, which some of their scholars apply to cider and malt vinegar too.
The evidence
Quran, Surah Al-Baqara 2:168
يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ كُلُوا۟ مِمَّا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ حَلَٰلًۭا طَيِّبًۭا وَلَا تَتَّبِعُوا۟ خُطُوَٰتِ ٱلشَّيْطَٰنِ ۚ إِنَّهُۥ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّۭ مُّبِينٌ ﴿١٦٨﴾
O mankind, eat from whatever is on earth [that is] lawful and good and do not follow the footsteps of Satan. Indeed, he is to you a clear enemy.
Lawful, wholesome food is to be enjoyed.
Sahih Muslim 2052
Sahih... نعم الأدم الخل ...
"What an excellent condiment vinegar is."
Vinegar is praised as a good food.
Where the ruling is recorded
- al-Hidaya, Kitab al-Ashriba. Vinegar made from an intoxicating liquid is lawful once it has fully turned.
- Radd al-Muhtar (Ibn Abidin), Kitab al-Taharah, chapter on impurities, on transformation (inqilab al-'ayn). A substance that fully changes into another takes a new ruling.
Checked by our team. For a more accurate answer to your own situation, consult a scholar. Quran translation by Sahih International. Hadith Arabic from the standard editions of the six books and the Muwatta, with gradings as recorded there; the English is our own rendering. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.