Can One Purchase Salmon Without Skin?

OU policy is to allow raw salmon to be purchased from non-certified sources. This is because there are no non-kosher fish which look like salmon, and it isn’t possible to color a non-kosher fish to look like raw salmon. (This was the psak of Rav Belsky, zt”l, in the name of Rav Moshe, zt”l. For further elaboration see the following OU article published in Hamodia, July 2006). Although smoked salmon is technically raw, it does require kosher certification because of the possibility that non-kosher fish were smoked with the salmon in the same smoking oven.

For those interested in a more in-depth look at the halachos of fish please contact grossmany@ou.org to inquire about the OU’s Fish Industry Manual.

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.