Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) is a water based dielectric often used as a coating layer in paper industry. Due to its water solubility PVA is also interesting as gate insulator in organic field effect transistors. Depending on the preparation of the PVA gate, transistors with and without hysteresis can be produced, with applications in organic electronic circuits or memory elements. In the production of PVA, a major side product is sodium acetate, an ionic salt not completely removed during industrial purification. Such ionic impurities likely influence the hysteresis in PVA based organic field effect transistors. While a hysteresis is desirable in memory elements it is unwanted in transistors for electronic circuits. Ways to prepare transistors with a desired transfer characteristic are described, for example by using electronic grade products directly from the purchaser of PVA, or by employing PVA purified by means of dialysis. Measurements are performed with metal-insulator-metal (MIM) structures and organic field effect transistors (OFETs), where Buckminsterfullerene C60 is employed as organic semiconductor.