Kashrus - Hand Sanitizer

QUESTION: I have heard that wine alcohol might be used in some hand sanitizers. Is there any concern with buying this? What if the alcohol was denatured alcohol?

ANSWER: Chazal forbade not only drinking non-kosher wine but deriving any benefit from it as well. This is because in Talmudic times there was a concern that the wine might have been used as libation for idols, and it is forbidden to derive benefit from anything that was used to serve idols. Even though today wine libations are uncommon, Shulchan Aruch (YD 123:1) writes that the prohibition to benefit from this wine remains. Sefardim follow this ruling. However, Ashkenzim follow the ruling of Rema (YD 123:1) which is more lenient. Rema writes that today if there is a situation of potential loss, you may benefit from non-kosher wine, but otherwise one should be strict.

Regarding the original question, if one knew for certain that non-kosher wine alcohol was being used to make the hand sanitizer, it would be forbidden for Sefardim to benefit from it, and even Ashkenazim should not buy it lechatchilah. However, since the overwhelming majority of alcohol sold in the market is not wine alcohol, and there is no way to know the source of the alcohol, one has the right to assume that the hand sanitizer was not made with wine alcohol and it is fine to use.

Even in a case where the alcohol was denatured, which means that it became completely unfit for consumption, since we are dealing with the prohibition of deriving benefit from Avodah Zorah items, it does not matter if the wine became inedible. So long as one is benefitting from the wine, it is forbidden. Even if one were to burn the wine and reduce it to ashes, those ashes would be forbidden as well (see Shach YD 123:26). Yabia Omer (YD 7:11) writes that even if one could chemically change the non-kosher wine into a completely new entity, which may remove other kashrus concerns, it would still be forbidden to benefit from it. However, if the wine alcohol was mixed with other ingredients such that it is less than one part in sixty-one, at that point it is nullified. One may even drink such a mixture, and one may surely benefit from this mixture as well.

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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.