[Avodah] Pesach - Lecithin does not render chocolate non-KLP for Ashkenasim

[Zev Sero via Avodah]

On 22/03/17 10:19, Akiva Miller via Avodah wrote:

> Anyone who wasn't makpid on Jewish hashgacha, that's what they drank. As
> a know-nothing rookie baal tshuva in New Jersey in the early '70s, I was
> worried about the vitamins, so I mailed a label from the local milk to
> the OU, asking them about it (for year-round, not specifically Pesach)
> and they replied in writing that none of the ingredients were problematic.

Except when they were.  There was at least one company that was known to 
use shark oil as the source of its vitamin D.   That means it couldn't 
get a hechsher, but one could probably rely on bittul to drink it 
without one.

The reason to buy milk (or any other liquid) before pesach, and 
preferably to strain it before pesach as well, is so that if there *is* 
any chamets in there one can rely on bittul lach belach.   I am unsure 
whether that would apply to chocolate, which was once liquid but is now 
solid.

Kitniyos isn't the issue, chamets is.  Without a hechsher to ensure that 
they're not *deliberately* adding something that has chamets in it, and 
that they don't use the same equipment for a variety that contains 
chamets, I don't see how one can use it on pesach, unless one holds that 
something which melted and then solidified still benefits from bittul 
lach belach.  (In the case of chocolate in particular it seems to me 
that the most likely suspect would be vanilla extract, which is often 
chamets gamur.)

-- 
Zev Sero                May 2017, with its *nine* days of Chanukah,
zev at sero.name           be a brilliant year for us all