Grape Ingredients

QUESTION: I have seen OU certified products that list grape juice in the ingredients. How is this possible? If a nochri handles wine or grape juice, doesn’t this make it forbidden?

ANSWER: Wine and grape juice handled by a nochri are only forbidden if they were not previously mevushal (cooked). This is because Stam Yainom is prohibited because of the suspicion that the wine may have been used for idol worship. In the times of Chazal, only non-cooked wine was used to serve idols, and therefore the restriction of Stam Yainom was not enacted on cooked wine (yayin mevushal). Kosher mevushal grape juice may be handled in a non-Jewish factory like other ingredients. Of course, grape juice is a kosher sensitive ingredient. Factories that use kosher grape juice require extra hashgacha to make sure the grape juice arrives with the proper kosher seals that ensure its integrity, and that non-kosher grape juice is not used in its stead. 

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The Gerald & Karin Feldhamer OU Kosher Halacha Yomis is dedicated to the memory of Rav Yisroel Belsky, zt"l, who served as halachic consultant for OU Kosher for more than 28 years; many of the responses in Halacha Yomis are based on the rulings of Rabbi Belsky. Subscribe to the Halacha Yomis daily email here.