Religion Magazine

Rabbanut Deciding on Non-Kosher Sausage Casings

By Gldmeier @gldmeier
The Rabbanut council is fighting/debating over the issue of importing sausage casings that are made from non-kosher animals.
The sausage casings are to be used with kosher sausages in Israel, so the issue/debate is only with the casings itself.
According to the report on kikar, the two Chief Rabbis are arguing about the matter. Rav Lau wants the imports stopped, while Rav Amar, the former Chief Rabbi, had allowed them based on the psak of Rav Ovadia Yosef, with the current Chief Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef seemignly also allowing it.
Rav Lau had the import stopped, and the importer went to court asking for the permit to be continued based on the previous psak he had received allowing him to import it. The courts sent the issue to the council of the Rabbanut for a decision.
The issue is a halachic dispute regarding gelatin made form non-kosher animals. Many rabbonim have allowed it to be used as the bones are pulverized and destroyed and nothing of the original animal remains in the process and it has lost its status of food, and the resulting product is something new, whereas many other rabbonim have not allowed use of gelatin from non-kosher sources saying even though everything was destroyed it still comes from a non-kosher animal. As well, from what i remember, there is also a concern that perhaps not everything of the original was destroyed in the processing process.
A compromise offered by Rav Yosef was to allow the import but only for Rabbanut-kosher sausages and not for mehadrin sausages.
I am nto sure such a condition is really necessary, as mehadrin hechshers do not accept the use of the gelatins from non-kosher sources. So, condition or not, the mehadrin hechshers would not use it anyway.
Rav Lau proposed allowing the import with a statement on the label declaring the casing as being kosher but made from non-kosher sources.
Personally I think that last proposal is a bad idea. Nobody will buy it with a statement like that. They can write something blander like made from gelatin, or some other wording, but writing it comes from neveilos and treifos is like shooting the business in the head before it even starts.
Supposedly a decision will be made within the month.
I have no opinion on the matter, but watch with curiosity. In general the Rabbanut has allowed the use of "non-kosher" gelatin in its foods, so I am not sure why now this is suddenly an issue.
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