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I was told that if one finds a bug in food, one may simply take it out and continue eating. Why don't we have the usual concerns about blias/taamim/imparted taste with bugs?

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  • As always, sourcing assumptions in a question improves it. Not only does it focus the question, facilitating answering by others, but it often forces the OP to clarify what he/she knows. When can bliot be shown to be a concern, etc.
    – mevaqesh
    Apr 5, 2017 at 21:05
  • Are bli'os not transferred only if it's hotter than yad soledes bo?
    – DonielF
    Apr 5, 2017 at 22:21
  • @DonielF It may also need to be kli rishon he.wikisource.org/wiki/… but the OP doesn't say it's not yad soledet bo.
    – Double AA
    Apr 5, 2017 at 22:28
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    In general, bugs are supposed to have a bad taste. Bad or stale tastes are called : "nosen taam lifgam". Such tastes usually do not count. Apr 5, 2017 at 23:35

1 Answer 1

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SA YD 104, 3:

דברים המאוסים שנפשו של אדם קצה בהם כנמלים וזבובים ויתושים שכל אדם בודל מהם למיאוסן אפילו נתערבו בתבשיל ונמחה גופן לתוכו אם ההיתר רבה עליו מותרים ומכל מקום כל שאפשר לבדוק ולהעביר במסננת בודק ומסנן.‏

‏ (מיהו בחלא ושכרא יש לחוש כמו בעכבר) (ב"י לדעת הרשב"א):‏

There are disgusting things, as ants, flies and mosquitoes, things that are unpleasent and disgust everyone. Their bodies mixed in a volumetric majority of allowed food cannot prohibit it. Therefor, if they may be cleared by filtering, filtering is required. Bit in some cases, they can possibly improve the taste of some product, as vinegar or beer.

See Baer Heytev sk 5, if I understand right, Even a proportion of kazayt bichde achilat pras is allowed (this is against one of the shitot of the Ran in chidushin AZ, a discussion about the degree of pgam which cancel the pb of taste is different than the degree which cancel the pb of perceptible quantity). The Maharshal and Bach prohibit (1). This last point needs to be detailed.


We learn from kle Midyan that bad taste coming from prohibited food does not prohibit. Regarding disgusting things, from memory, there are two ways in Rishonim to understand this, or bad taste simply, or taste that remember us a bad thing. There are other kinds of bad taste, e.g. bad mixing, of somewhat may prohibit a food A and not prohibit a food B because of the bad result of its taste for the food B. Degradation of a taste swallowed in vessels can make it bad. According to Rashba, a combination of "taste state (non body state)" and mild degradation cancel the power of prohibit by taste.


(1): See Tosfot AZ 69a

ההוא אימרטוטי אימרטט. יש לתמוה עכשיו היאך אנו אוכלים דבש דבורים והלא רגלי הדבורים מעורבים בדבש ואף על גב דהוי פגם מ''מ השרץ עצמו דאיפגם מיתסר לכ''ע לכ''נ לר''ת דודאי רגלי הדבורים כיון דעצמות בעלמא נינהו מותרים דהא העצמות טהורים דתנן במס' (. טהרות פ''א) עצמות החמור טהורות ורגלי הדבורים כעצמות החמור והא דאמרי'. אברים אין להם שיעור אפילו פחות מכזית מן המת ופחות מכעדשה מן השרץ היינו לענין טומאה וכגון דאיכא בשר עלויה הא לאו הכי טהורין ולענין אכילה שפיר דמי:‏

The opinion of Tosfot is against the SA (based on Rashba). If there is bodies of disgusting insects, the mixture remains prohibited. But Rabenu Tam says a novelty: Legs of insects (a kind of arthropods) has a status of bones, that cannot prohibit by taste.

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    You should clarify that negative tastes don't present Kashrut problems. Even if a pig falls into your bowl of soup, if the taste imparted makes the soup worse, it's kosher even if you can clearly taste the pig.
    – Double AA
    Apr 5, 2017 at 21:17
  • @DoubleAA I am working to improve, in my youth Icwrote a chabura on torat habayt, and Ran on Rif and chiddushin
    – kouty
    Apr 5, 2017 at 21:28
  • @DoubleAA I never knew that. Interesting nuance. But who decides on the taste? Everyone's taste is different.
    – DanF
    Apr 6, 2017 at 14:27
  • @kouty Perhaps you could work a bit on improving this answer for clarity? I'd like to accept it
    – SAH
    May 29, 2017 at 7:17

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