Making Kale Smoothies, no checking needed?

amother

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Wed, Dec 21 2016, 10:24 am

I was very surprised to hear from a very frum person, who is extremely Medakdek on Kashrus in every way, that she uses washes very well the Kale and Spinach when making Smoothies, without checking, just washing well, because when Kale and Spinach are ground in preparation for what youre making, no checking is neccessary, theyre Muttar.

The way I understand from what I read on Yeshiva World, you may buy ready Smoothies made of not checked produce. But the dont speak of making Smoothies yourself. They dont mention Kale on YW, they mention strawberries.

Conclusion Regarding Buying Smoothies and Yogurts With Strawberries – Raspberries[44]

Smoothies- We mentioned above the background to the issues of bugs and fruits. Practically speaking the following is what emerges: For smoothies that call for fresh strawberries one can be lenient and eat it since it is pureed and there is no concern of “ein mevatlinissur,” since the one making the smoothies is not doing so with intent to crush the bugs. If frozen strawberries are use one may purchase the fruit smoothie as well since frozen strawberries are considered a miyut sheino mutzei and are permitted. In regard to raspberries in smoothies: Frozen raspberries are considered a miyut hamatzui and one can use them in the smoothie because it is pureed. The same is true for fresh raspberries.

Purchasing Smoothies at a Non-Certified Smoothies Store – Stand

One is passing by a fruit smoothie stand and wishes to know if he may purchase a fruit smoothie without certification. If they use frozen strawberries and raspberries as part of their smoothie it is permitted as mentioned above. However, although this may be the case it is still not advisable to buy from such a stand unless you know that the only items they make on the machine is cold smoothies and no other fruit juices are added to the mix. In all cases some juice has to be added to facilitate the pureeing of the fruits. One must make sure that there is no other fruit juices just water used since fruit juices can be an issue of non-kosher. If one is interested in buying it at a store which makes others items as well as smoothies one would be permitted to purchase a smoothie at the location without it being under a reliable hechsher if one makes sure the utensils are washed properly being that the process is cold.

http://www.theyeshivaworld.com......html

I searched Kale Smoothies on here, and one post mentioned that she makes smoothies of produce without checking because the produce gets ground.

Do any respectable Rabbanim say that?

amother

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Wed, Dec 21 2016, 10:48 am

Faigy86 wrote:

I'm fairly RW, don't remember which rav paskened for us but we eat all 'need to be checked' food items with just washing, not checking if they will be totally pureed.

I believe the rationale behind it is that a whole bug cannot be batel to the mixture, but pieces can be so if there is a chance that there may be pureed bugs (not that you know for sure, just that there may be a chance) it isn't a problem.

Thats how she explained it.

Does this apply to all well washed produce such as Kale, Romaine lettuce and Strawberries?

amother

Scarlet

Wed, Dec 21 2016, 11:53 am

This why every family needs to have their own rav.
You follow your rav, and then there's no questions, about this one allows this and that one allows that.
If you feel funny about bothering your rav about small things (which this is not) then he may not be the right rav for your family.
You shouldn't go rav shopping either.
Sometimes rabbis are stricter in one area and less strict in other areas.
Sometimes a rav gives less strict answers to one person, and very strict to another.
For example, may rav lets certain ladies go to mikvah with nail polish.
This is because he rather them go with nail polish then not go at all.
So, just because you heard your rav pasken something to so and so, doesn't mean you'll get the same answer.
If you heard differently, then tell your rAV, and ask him to explain.

tichellady

Wed, Dec 21 2016, 12:59 pm

amother wrote:

This is not how everyone views the halakhic process. Some of us live in communities with clear published community standards- it's not individual for each person and there's no need to ask the rabbi if you learn the halakha.

gp2.0

Wed, Dec 21 2016, 1:23 pm

When I learned this halacha in high school, I learned it as follows:

You are not allowed to grind up something like kale, which likely contains bugs, IF your purpose in grinding it up is solely about making it permissible to eat. For example, if you wanted to use kale in a salad, you can't grind it up and use it as dressing, because in this case the kale is not normally ground up and you are grinding it specifically to grind up the bugs and make the kale permissible to eat.

However, if you are using the kale in a recipe that requires grinding it up, like a smoothie, and you would have ground it up whether or not you suspected it contained bugs, then you can grind it up and eat it.

It's the INTENT that matters here. You can grind something up because you want to eat it ground up, and the side benefit is that it doesn't matter if there are/were bugs in it. But you can't grind it up specifically because you suspect there are bugs in it. And you definitely can't grind it up and eat it if you check and confirm that there are bugs in it.

There is also an addendum, that if something was frozen, then ground up it doesn't require checking at all - and I don't remember if intent matters in the case of something being frozen and then ground up.

FranticFrummie

Wed, Dec 21 2016, 2:29 pm

I eat broccoli, blackberries, brussel sprouts, all the things that they say are hard to check.

Personally, I would check the kale, but that is because I'm in Israel, where things tend to be REALLY buggy, unless they are grown in sand or hydroponically. If field grown, I know for a fact I'm going to find bugs in greens.

For smoothies, I would buy a large batch of kale, check it all at once, and then portion it out into bags to put in the freezer. That way I could just grab as much as I needed, knowing that it's already been checked, and throw it straight into the blender. So much easier that way, and no worries about getting "unwanted protein"!

Bodek produce is expensive, but if you've got a little extra time to spare, it's worth doing it yourself, and doing it properly. Soaking in a tub of salted water first makes it super easy, as the bugs tend to let go of the leaves and float to the surface anyway. Then you just have to double check for stragglers.

FranticFrummie

Thu, Dec 22 2016, 6:13 am

amother wrote:

We are very makpid about Kashrus. My husband's rav said that we can use strawberries only if it's fully pureed. We basically use it for smoothies or ices.

Are they very buggy where you are? Greenhouse strawberries are bug free. I still check under the leaves, and cut the tops off, but I've never found a bug on the fruit.

I miss Gush Katif strawberries. Those were the BEST! (stupid Palestinians could have made a fortune if they'd kept the industry up, but NO, they had to tear down the greenhouses to get scrap metal for rockets instead. /rant.) Mad