The “Date Strategy Report” indicated that 14.3% of the total production in Iraq is wasted and 35.7% of the date crops are sold as animal feed to the dairies and sheep herders. To reduce these loses, a study program was initiated to investigate the suitability of low cost Zahdi date for natural vinegar production. The production of "Zahdi" vinegar was carried out by a two-step fermentation system; anaerobic conversion of sugars to ethanol using Saccharomyces cerevisiae and aerobic oxidation of ethanol to acetic acid at 30 °C using Acetobacter. The results indicated that 1 kg of low cost Zahdi date produced 4.30±0.35 L of 6.47+0.20% (w/v) ethanol in less than 96 h. The acetic fermentation of this wine for 12-14 days resulted in 4.05+0.27 L of natural vinegar containing up to 6.62+0.15% of acetic acid (w/v) with a fermentation efficiency of 90.50+1.70%. The concentrations of Na, K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb in Zahdi homemade vinegar and 21 commercially available vinegars were investigated as well. The results indicated that Zahdi dates vinegar could be considered as safe and as a good additional source of the essential nutrients