Vinegar is a weak acid and dissolves the zinc. I work in roll manufacturing company.

Zinc Plating At Home
Removing zinc plating with vinegar. Overnight the bag inflated and split at the bottom but the parts remained covered with vinegar. Allow the zinc to remain in the vinegar for at least 15 minutes before beginning the electroplating. For electroplating to occur the plating solution must contain metal ions of the metal you want to plate. First fill your bowl with vinegar then put in the piece of metal from which you want to remove the zinc. Recently i got a job about removing plated zinc on steel roll. If you choose lemon juice you will need one or two lemons cut in half.
Allow the anode to sit for three hours to give the vinegar time to begin releasing the chromium microfibers. It took about half an hour to remove the zinc from a screw about 4 cm. If you choose to use vinegar use plain white vinegar. 60000 qa topics education aloha fun topic 36025 remove strip zinc plating from steel 2005. It was recommended by several people to use vinegar or muriatic acid to strip the zinc off. Choose a lemon or vinegar to clean your zinc.
I decided to use white vinegar as i had some. I put my parts in a ziploc bag with about a quart of vinegar. If you arent worried about removing the patina from your zinc objects use lemon juice or vinegar to clean your objects. Add 3 12 ounces of epsom salt and 4 14 ounces of table sugar to the vinegar. Fill a large glass container with one liter of white vinegar. This generates zinc ions in the vinegar.
Place the anode into the container.