for the record

Asked by adler · February 10, 2005 · Kashrut

Question

I know that many people say that just b/c the ingredients of a mass produced product are kosher, the reason why it does not bear a hechsher and is thus not kosher is b/c the machine that product was prduced in was not cleaned appropriately from a previous run of something that may not have been kosher. Can you tell me why this is inaccurate and wrong? I know that it has something to do, partially, with nosen taam lifgam? I also think that this should be posted as one of the FAQ's b/c many people (even hashgochos perhaps) are misinformed about this issue. Thanks a lot

Answer

Answered by Chaim Yisrael Abadi

The FDA requires that all machines be cleaned between products of different ingredients except when the ingredients are the same plus new ones that were notin the previous run (ie, plain potato chips and then flavored). The halacha of nosen taam lifgam is not used for this. We can't say for sure that a food is nosen taam lifgam. We can only say it by a utensil that has food absorbed in it, that we know was not used in the last 24 hours or even if we are not sure if it was used in the last 24 hours. CYA