QUESTION: I cooked food in a pot that had not been toiveled (immersed in a mikvah). What is the status of the food (is it kosher), and what is the status of the utensil (does it still require tevila)?

ANSWER: The Rama (Yoreh De’ah 120:16) writes that if one used a vessel that requires tevila without toiveling it first, the food remains kosher. However, as soon as you realize, you should remove the food from the vessel. You may not wait until the food is consumed, but rather you should immediately pour the food into another vessel (see Sefer Tevilas Keilim 4:9). Even if the utensil has already been used for many years, it still needs to be toiveled. Even if you received the pots from another Jew who owned them for many years, so long as they were originally purchased from a non-Jew and were never toiveled, you must toivel them. Before you can toivel any utensil, especially a used one, you must inspect it to make sure it is clean of any residue. Even a small amount of residue that you would care to remove will invalidate the tevila if it was not taken off beforehand. However, discolorations that are flush with the surface are not an issue.

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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.