Business Dealings With Non-Kosher Foods

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While it is well known that it is forbidden to eat non-kosher foods, it is not as well known that it is also often forbidden to engage in business dealings involving them.¹ According to some authorities the prohibition on conducting business with non-kosher foods, referred to as issur sechora, is forbidden by Torah law,² while according to others it is a rabbinical enactment.³

One should not confuse issur sechora with issur hana’a. The prohibition of issur hana’a is a separate, more stringent injunction against deriving any benefit from certain types of foods, such as mixtures of milk and meat.⁴ For example, most dog food contains mixtures of milk and meat, and serving such food to one’s pets would be considered to be deriving benefit from the food.⁵ There is no prohibition, however, against serving most other non-kosher foods to one’s pets.⁶

The ban on doing business with non-kosher foods was instituted as a precautionary measure to help ensure that one does not come to accidentally eat them.⁷ It is permitted, however, to do business involving foods that are only non-kosher due to rabbinic decree.⁸ In most cases, it is also permitted to do business concerning non-kosher foods that are manufactured specifically for animal consumption.⁹ So too, with the exception of pigs, one is permitted to engage in trade with live non-kosher animals that are likely to be used for purposes other than food, such as for farming, breeding and racing.¹⁰

Indirect involvement with non-kosher foods is often permitted as well. It is thus permitted to serve as a broker, negotiator, or other form of intermediary in the sale of non-kosher food products.¹¹ Similarly, it is permitted to hold stocks in non-kosher food companies, though one should not serve in a decision-making capacity in such companies.¹² One is permitted to work in a store that sells non-kosher food products, even if one will be required to handle them.¹³ One should not operate vending machines that dispense explicitly non-kosher foods.¹⁴

It is permitted to sell non-kosher food products that were unintentionally acquired. For example, a professional fisherman who unintentionally caught non-kosher fish along with the kosher ones is permitted to sell the non-kosher fish.¹⁵ So too, a shochet who discovers in the course of his bedika that the animal he slaughtered is not kosher is permitted to sell the carcass to a non-Jew.¹⁶ One who received a non-kosher gift is permitted to sell it or pass it on to a non-Jew.¹⁷

It is also permitted to do business with non-kosher products when one is faced with no choice but to include them along with the sale of kosher products.¹⁸ One may accept non-kosher food as payment for an outstanding debt and then sell the item.¹⁹ There is no restriction on doing business involving non-kosher foods that are repulsive or disgusting to eat.²⁰

One is permitted to provide non-kosher food for one’s non-Jewish workers.²¹ Under normal circumstances, however, one should not purchase non-kosher foods to give as gifts to one’s non-Jewish friends.²² Nevertheless, as can be inferred from what has been mentioned above, it is permitted to purchase and give non-kosher foods to one’s non-Jewish friends if they are only forbidden according to rabbinic law. Therefore, giving gifts such as non-kosher wine or chocolates poses no halachic problems. Even when it is permitted to purchase non-kosher food for business or gift purposes, one should never do so publicly, lest it arouse suspicion and appear to onlookers that one is purchasing the food items for oneself.²³ One who is asked to contribute funds as part of a group for the purpose of purchasing a non-kosher gift is permitted to do so.²⁴

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1. Yerushalmi Shevi’it 7:1; Shevi’it 7:3; Tosafot, Bava Kama 82, s.v. “Lo yigadel”; Rambam, Hilchot Ma’achalot Assurot 8:16; YD 117:1; Sma, CM 409:4.
2. Tosafot, Pesachim 23a; Rosh, Bava Kama 79b; Pri Chadash, YD 117; Chatam Sofer, YD 104–106, 108; Yabia Omer 8:13.
3. Taz, YD 117:1; Chavot Yair 143; Chatam Sofer, YD 108.
4. YD 87:1.
5. OC 448:6; Taz, YD 94:6; Chatam Sofer 92; Badei HaShulchan 87:25. But see Dagul M’revava, YD 87:1, and Rambam, Keritut 3:4, for an alternative view.
6. Mishneh Halachot 4:104; Igrot Moshe, YD 2:37; Shevet Halevi 6:114.
7. Teshuvot HaRashba 3:223; Taz, YD 117:1.
8. YD 117:1.
9. Igrot Moshe, YD 2:37.
10. Shach, YD 117:1; Aruch HaShulchan, YD 117:3, 4.
11. Aruch HaShulchan, YD 117:28; Melamed L’hoil 2:39; Beit Avi 3:103.
12. Igrot Moshe, EH 1:7.
13. Yabia Omer, YD 4:6, 8:13; Bach HaChadashot 15; Beit Avi 3:104; Levushei Mordechai 4:215, Chavalim Bane’emim 2:46. But see Avnei Nezer 1:105 for a dissenting view.
14. Be’er Moshe 6:84; Rivevot Ephraim 3:252.
15. YD 117:1; Knesset HaGedola, YD 117:5.
16. Rema, YD 117:1; Ne’ot Desheh 25; Beit Yisrael (Horovitz), YD 25; Da’at Torah, YD 117.
17. Chiddushei Rabbi Akiva Eiger, YD 117, s.v. “V’im.”
18. Aruch HaShulchan, YD 117:27; Zekan Aharon 2:45.
19. Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 64:3.
20. Darkei Teshuva, YD 117:11.
21. Shach, YD 117:3; Aruch HaShulchan, YD 117:19; She’eilat Yitzchak 2:115; Teshuvot V’hanhagot 2:394.
22. See Shach, YD 117:3.
23. Teshuvot V’hanhagot 2:394.
24. Aruch HaShulchan, YD 117:23.