What happens when a Jew eats non-Kosher food by mistake?

Question

If non-kosher food is eaten accidentally, do you have to do anything afterward? Is some form of “purification” required? If so, what?

Answer 1

"Purification?" No. (And this kind of thinking has unfortunately lead to OCD in some people.)

Technically, if I eat a non-kosher-slaughtered chicken, that renders me "ritually impure", and I can't enter the Temple until I do a ritual bath and wait until nightfall; but those laws are generally moot with regards to the world in which we live today.

Eating non-kosher is a sin like any other sin, and follows the same atonement process. In Temple times, some severe categories of non-kosher would require a "mistaken sin" sacrifice; today we don't have sacrifices. Basically, it's feel remorse that you did it (which if it was really a mistake, you probably already have remorse) and make plans to educate yourself better so you don't make such mistakes again.

Lastly, for trivia's sake: technically, human milk is always kosher, regardless of what the human was eating; however, some have a fixation about if the mom ate non-kosher. So if a nursing Hassidic mom ate non-kosher by mistake, her rabbi might advise her to pump and dump for a day or so until it's out of her system. (Again -- the formal law doesn't require this.)