[Avodah] Kitniyos and Potatoes

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Micha Berger wrote:
> Personally, I think the notion of considering corn syrup to
> be mei qitniyos is simply adding insult to injury. It's so
> far removed from the original minhag, which itself is pretty
> hard to explain...

Sometimes (not on Shabbos or Yom Tov!) I will squeeze a peanut with my fingernail, and I can see and feel the oil that I've extracted. I have no personal knowledge of the methods by which corn syrup is made, but the authors below seem to feel that this is NOT the method by which oil is extracted from corn. (Hmmm... Is it possible that there is some confusion over corn syrup vs. corn oil? Anyway...)

Rabbi Tzvi Rosen, Star-K Kashrus Administrator writes (at http://www.star-k.org/kashrus/kk-passover-kitniyos.htm):

> Corn syrup is made through a conversion process, where the
> white starchy meat of the corn kernel is converted into
> sugar. ... What is of great halachic consequence is the
> halachic perception of these “corn converted” products.
> Since the final product is in liquid form, it was, and
> still is, considered to be shemen kitniyos by some
> authorities. Other Poskim posit that there is an intrinsic
> difference between classical shemen kitniyos, i.e. oil
> that is pressed out of the kernel, and a liquid converted
> from the actual kernel. The liquid is not shemen kitniyos,
> it is actual kitniyos.

Similarly, Rabbi Zushe Yosef Blech wrote in the April 2002 issue of Kashrus Magazine (online at http://www.kashrut.com/Passover/KnowThyBeans/):

> Although we noted that some allow the use of oil from
> Kitniyos, most authorities agree that corn syrup has the
> same Halachic status as the Kitniyos cornstarch itself rather
> than that of the oil expressed from it.

Akiva Miller

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