Chapter 8b - MIXTURES OF FOOD cont'd

If forbidden food is tasteless or gives a mixture a permanent bad taste (or if it is a creature: itself has a bad taste) it does not make the mixture forbidden unless it is the majority ingredient, but it should still be removed from the mixture if possible; see 81:8;95:4;100:2;103:1-4; 104:1-3;107:2;122:1;123:25. Food absorbed in an object loses its taste after 24 hours and no prohibition results if it is reabsorbed in other food afterwards (93:1;94:4;95:2;103:5,7;122:4,6-7), but food adhering to the surface of an object does not lose its taste, and in any case if an object has absorbed forbidden food it should not be used with permitted food even after 24 hours until the absorbed food is removed from it (122:2-3; see Ch.7b). Milk or meat absorbed in an object and reabsorbed in meat or milk within 24 hours results in a prohibition, but if it is first reabsorbed in something else it becomes a "second-order" taste and can no longer result in a prohibition (94:5,9;95:1-3). In strong-tasting food, even absorbed tastes that are 24 hours old or second-order are not permitted (95:2;96:1-5;103:6;122:3).

Precautions should be taken to avoid the possibility of forbidden and permitted things becoming mixed up; see 101:8-9;110:10;123:23. If a piece of forbidden food that is not large enough to serve to guests becomes mixed up with two or more pieces of permitted food of the same type the pieces are all regarded as permitted, but one person should not eat all of them (109:1, and see Ch.9). If they were cooked together the result is forbidden unless the forbidden food is less than 1/60 of the total of the food that is in doubt (109:2, and see 111:7; a person is allowed to add permitted food to the mixture before cooking it to ensure that the forbidden portion is less than 1/60). If a piece of forbidden food becomes mixed up with pieces of permitted food of a different type and cannot be distinguished, it is not regarded as permitted unless it is less than 1/60 of the mixture (109:1); but if it is more than 1/60 the mixture is not regarded as entirely forbidden, and if more permitted food is added to it until the forbidden portion becomes less than 1/60 the mixture becomes permitted (92:4). If an object that has absorbed forbidden food becomes mixed up with other objects they are all permitted (102:3;122:8).

If an "important" forbidden thing (for example, a living creature or anything that is counted rather than measured) becomes mixed up with any number of permitted things of the same kind the mixture is forbidden (e.g. 86:3), but if the things lose their importance (for example, the living creatures are slaughtered and are not large enough to serve to guests) and this was not done deliberately the mixture becomes permitted (110:1-2), and if one of the things is accidentally destroyed the others become permitted because we assume that the forbidden one was destroyed (this also applies to creatures, large portions, and things that are only temporarily forbidden), but they should be eaten two at a time by more than one person and they should not all be eaten at once (110:7). See Ch.11 on the case where the things are forbidden because of idolatry.

Shulchan Aruch, Copyright (c) 1999 Project Genesis, Inc.