Bitul B’shishim - Concentrates

QUESTION: If grape juice concentrate or milk powder was mixed into a food, would it be batel (nullified) in sixty parts, or will it take more for it to be batel because these are concentrated ingredients?

ANSWER: Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt”l (Minchas Shlomo 1:4) writes that since milk powder is a more concentrated form of milk, it is not batel in sixty parts. For example, if one cup of powdered milk can yield four cups of regular milk when reconstituted with water, then powdered milk will require two-hundred-forty times dilution to be batel. The Minchas Yitzchak (11:60) writes similarly regarding powdered milk and grape juice concentrate. However, Rav Shamai Gross (Nesiv Hachalav p. 64) writes that he discussed this issue with Rav Elyashiv zt”l and was told that milk powder would be batel in sixty parts just like other ingredients, so long as the taste of milk is not noticeable in the food. This was also the opinion of Rav Ovadya Yosef zt”l and Rav Belsky zt”l. Rav Belsky explained that not all foods have the same level of taste. Some foods are more flavorful and some are more bland. Still, the requirement of sixty was established by the rabbis as a lo plug (an across-the-board measure) for all cases to avoid confusion. Just like an onion can be nullified in 60 parts and we do not say that the taste of an onion is four times stronger than milk, so too milk powder is nullified in 60 parts even though it is concentrated.

A similar idea is discussed in Pischei Teshuva (YD 98:2). He writes that although congealed butter and liquid butter have different volumes, if the butter fell into a pot while congealed, we measure the sixty based on that size. Yet had it first been melted and then fallen into the pot, we would measure based on its liquid volume.

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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.