QUESTION: A factory produces non-mevushal grape juice. Ordinarily, they add a miniscule amount of potassium metabisulfite to the grape juice to prevent it from fermenting into wine. To avoid the problem of a nochri handling non-mevushal grape juice, can the company add enough of this chemical to make the juice completely unfit for drinking? (The chemical will later be removed.)

ANSWER: Rav Belsky zt”l (Shulchan HaLevi 25:9) was asked this question and ruled that grape juice that is made undrinkable through the addition of a high concentration of chemicals may be handled by a nochri, even though it is possible to remove the chemicals at a later point. Once the chemicals are removed, the juice reverts back to its earlier non-mevushal status and may no longer be handled by a nochri. Adding chemicals to wine is different than cooking wine. Once wine is cooked, it is permanently changed, and there is no way to uncook wine. However, chemicals can be added and removed from juice. This is similar to the halacha of “irev bo davar mar” (mixing a bitter ingredient into a non-kosher food) which makes the food inedible. The halacha is that so long as the bitter ingredient is present in the food, the Torah prohibition of eating the food is suspended (Note, there may still be a rabbinic prohibition to eat the food.) Once the bitter ingredient is removed, the original prohibition returns. The same logic applies in our situation 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.