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Summary of Halachic Issues Regarding Insects

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Miut hamatzui:

1. If a type of vegetable contains a miut hamatzui of bugs then, mid’rabannan, the vegetable cannot be eaten unless it is cleaned or checked.

a. The follows the opinion of Mishkenos Yaakov that a 10% infestation level is considered a miut hamatzui.

b. Others hold that a 6.67% infestation level is considered a miut hamatsui.

c. Rav Belsky does not subscribe to the school of thought which quantifies miut hamatzui with fixed numbers. Instead he favors a more subjective measure of which vegetables are commonly infested; Shevet HaLevi IV:81 has a similar opinion.

2. There are two methods of calculating whether a vegetable does or does not have a 10% infestation:

a. PRODUCT:10 heads of lettuce or 10 containers of blueberries are checked and if one or more bugs are found then the batch is rejected. This is the opinion of Rav Elyashiv and Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach. Rav Belsky accepts this opinion.

b. Serving: 10 servings of lettuce or blueberries are checked and if one or more bugs are found then the batch is rejected. This is the opinion of Rav Schachter who reasons that a vegetable is permitted if less than 1 out of 10 people eating from it will eat a bug.

3. Generally, there is little practical difference between any of the aforementioned opinions because most types of vegetable either clearly do or do not contain a miut hamatzui of bugs according to all opinion. In cases where a disagreement occurs, the position is formulated based on a consensus of its Poskim.

Less than miut hamatzui:

4. Even if the infestation level is below 10%, the should not certify the product if other companies offer comparable vegetables which are completely bug-free.

Muchzak b’tolaim
5. If more than 50% of the servings of a product have bugs, then the product is muchzak b’tolaim and it is an issur d’oraisah to eat it.
6. If the vegetables are muchzak b’tolaim then one should not use them to flavor a soup even if they are enclosed in a “gourmet bag”, but should also not protest those who do. If the vegetables are only infested to the miut hamatzui level then they may be used in gourmet bags.

Small bugs & Beryos:

7. Bugs which are not visible to the naked eye are not forbidden because Hashem didn’t expect us to check our fruit with a magnifying glass or microscope.

8. There are small bugs which can be seen as dark spots with the naked eye but it is impossible to discern that they are bugs unless one uses a magnifying glass. People who are experienced at checking vegetables for bugs can identify these spots as bugs without using a magnifying glass. May one eat vegetables which contain these spots?

a. There are Poskim who say, based on Responsa Rashba I:275 which
is cited in part in Rema 84:6, that if experience has shows that such “spots” are in fact bugs then one may not eat the vegetable without removing the spots.

b. Rav Schachter clarified that this is limited to spots which the average person can learn to identify as bugs with a minimal amount of practice. Bugs which can only be identified by “experts” are not forbidden.

9. If the dark spots discussed in point #8 are not identifiable as bugs but are seen to “crawl” across the fruit or vegetable then they may not be eaten.

10. Whole bugs are considered to be beryos and cannot be batel. Fragments of a bug are not beryos and can be batel; there is usually well more than a 60:1 ration of vegetables to bugs.

11. However, a whole bug or even a fragment of a bug which can be removed from a vegetable is not considered to be nis’arev in that vegetable. Thus, the bug or fragment is mid’oraisah ineligible for bitul, and the vegetable cannot be eaten until the bug or fragment is removed.

12. Therefore, if there is a safek whether a vegetable contains beryos of bugs or merely contains fragments, we may not consider this a safek d’rabannan unless even the fragments of the bugs would not be removable.

13. It is bitul issur l’chatchilah for someone to puree an infested vegetable until there are no beryos left. We cannot certify bitul issur l’chatchilah even if the company is owned by non-Jews. Rather, the company must clean the vegetables or purchase produce which is not infested.

14. If however, a type of vegetable is known to have a miut hamatzui of insects but we do not know that the specific vegetable in front of us is infested, then one may puree the vegetable if that would be the common method of preparing the dish irrespective of the possibility of insects. As noted, this leniency doesn’t apply if the specific vegetable in front of us is known to be infested or if this type of vegetable is muchzak b’tolaim.

15. Therefore, if a company cannot possibly clean or check the vegetable in question on the scale necessary for commercial production AND it is not possible to purchase “clean” produce, then we may certify the product if:
a. The level of infestation is miut hamatzui. and,
b. The vegetables are cooked, sieved or thickened in a manner which is likely to be mirasake the beryos. and,
c. The company is not cooking etc. just to satisfy the aforementioned requirement.
The rationale for this psak is based on Shach 84:29, Taz 138:14 & 137:4 and Pischei Teshuvah 99:4.

16. We cannot allow companies to take infested vegetables and pack them in a thick oil which obscures the bugs.

Bugs in Fish:

17. If a fish swallowed a microscopic sized bug and then that bug grew inside the fish until it can be seen by the naked eye, the fish and the bug may be eaten. One may presume that bugs found in the flesh of a fish grew inside of the fish and are permitted.

18. If however, the bug was visible to the naked eye before it was swallowed by the fish, then the fish may not be eaten until the bug is removed. Therefore, bugs found in the intestines of a fish may not be eaten. For this reason the intestines of a fish should be removed carefully without causing them to rupture.

Freeze-dried spices:

19. There are those who opine that the process of freeze-drying causes the bugs to:
a. become permitted and
b. break-apart and lose their status as beryos.
The OU questions both of these points on factual and halachic grounds but permits the spices because the process causes all of the bugs or bug fragments to fall to the bottom of the equipment where they are removed before the spices are packed.

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