[Avodah] re Coca cola ingredients

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Arie Folger wrote:

> Flavorings are some of the most complex food additives and can
> have dozens or even over a hundred ingredients.
> ...
> But none of the individual ingredients are felt, when tasting
> the mixture, kal va'homer when tasting the final product that
> merely contains the mixture.

I've often pondered this concept. I may not actually taste any given ingredient, but that doesn't mean that its presence doesn't impact on the taste which I do perceive.

In RAF's example of strawberry flavoring. If one of those hundred components would be left out, we might very well say that, "This doesn't really taste like strawberry" or "The flavor is off" or "Did this spoil?" or something like that. And the proof is that the manufacturers would not bother to include ingredient ABC unless there's a good reason to include it.

What is the threshold for halachic significance of an ingredient? Suppose I have two products, and they are identical in every way, except that a certain ingredient is present in one but absent in the other. Further suppose that where it is present, it is in a proportion less than 1/60. Further suppose that if someone were to taste these two items, he would tell us that he CAN perceive a difference, but cannot identify what that difference is. Is that "significant"?

These are the ingredients, in the same sequence as printed on the package, of French's brand Classic Yellow Mustard:

- distilled vinegar
- water
- #1 grade mustard seed
- salt
- turmeric
- paprika
- spice
- natural flavors
- and garlic powder

I would be very surprised if any of us would taste this mustard and remark, "Mmm! The garlic makes this great!" I doubt any of us would even be able to tell that there is any garlic in there at all. Even so, I'm confident that French's would not put it in there unless they felt it was important.

Going back to what RAF wrote:
> But none of the individual ingredients are felt, ...

What is the "shiur" of "being felt"? Suppose that instead of garlic powder, there was a non-kosher ingredient used? Do we consider it batel unless the taste-tester says, "I can taste the lard in this"? Or is it NOT batel unless the taste-tester can't tell the difference?

In the classic Bitul B'Shishim case, we know exactly which ingredient fell into the pot by mistake, so it is easy to ask the taste-tester (yeah, yeah, I know we don't use a tester nowadays, let's talk theoretically...) whether or not he can taste any of the food that fell into the pot. But that's not our case. In our case, we don't even know whether or not any of the ingredients are non-kosher to begin with; much less do we know which flavor to ask the tester about.

So how does Bitul work in this case? On the one hand, we know that the non-Jew did put these ingredients into the food deliberately. On the other hand, even the non-Jew doesn't know their kashrus status, because he had no reason or desire to investigate such a thing.

I suspect that this is one of those things which cannot be answered Al Regel Achas. Rather, the answer requires a thorough study of Hilchos Taaruvos. Too many subjects are mixed together here. The ingredient was added deliberately, but by a non-Jew, so does it count as L'chatchila or B'diavad? And so on...

Akiva Miller

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