Buying cut up fruit In supermarket

amother

Sun, Nov 08 2020, 6:51 pm

Can I buy cut up melon In supermarket?
Just melons. No other fruit that need checking.

Do I need to ask a rav? Or is there a general answer? Ie like it being allowed to buying raw salmon.

bunchagirlies

Sun, Nov 08 2020, 7:18 pm

you cannot buy anything cut up in a non-jewish store! The knives can be non-kosher! I know people buy fresh salmon in costco. Although they don't share knives for diff type of fish, for allergy reasons, who said they didn't use it for shell fish the day before and wash it well? It's still treif!!
I was surprised to hear that so many do buy there, so I asked a rav that specializes in kashrus. He was appalled!! "CHAS V'SHALOM!!"

amother

Sapphire

Sun, Nov 08 2020, 7:21 pm

bunchagirlies wrote:

Right, so no.
He didn’t say no because of the knives. Don’t get confused.

amother

Babyblue

Sun, Nov 08 2020, 7:21 pm

bunchagirlies wrote:

clean and cold is not a problem, so it doesn’t matter if the knife was used to cut shellfish the day before.

amother

Lavender

Sun, Nov 08 2020, 7:23 pm

bunchagirlies wrote:

I wouldn’t use any,
But I’d rather use Costco fish than a grocery cut fruit. Costco has policy that is followed, a supermarket does whatever they want. They can share one knife with fruit, meat, cheese, fish.

esther11

Sun, Nov 08 2020, 7:23 pm

We hold that if they have a separate produce department/area and counter in the store, it’s safe to assume that they don’t mix knives from the other counters. We could therefore buy any precut fruit that doesn’t require checking from such a store.

In terms of fresh salmon from Costco (and elsewhere!) our rav says to just rinse it before cooking on the off chance that it touched a non kosher fish or the knife wasn’t cleaned properly.

amother

Sun, Nov 08 2020, 7:24 pm

bunchagirlies wrote:

My rav holds that I can buy salmon from a supermarket. So take a chill pill

amother

Jade

Sun, Nov 08 2020, 7:32 pm

I actually met my ravs wife in Costco she was buying the Costco raw salmon for her family.
He’s a big Talmud chachim.
Sometimes people who don’t know the Halacha think that it’s automatically better to just say something is assur.

sarahmalka

Sun, Nov 08 2020, 7:35 pm

Large grocery chains that have produce sections with cut up fruit have an entire dedicated central prep place for only fruits and vegetables. They have a vested interest in keeping things clean and separated for contamination reasons, health code reasons. It's not the same prep area as for the baked goods, prepared foods, meat packing, etc. My spouse worked for a big grocery chain and this is what he learned from that experience. Ask your local rav bc this must be a locally decided question. Also by my town it is absolutely standard that costco (or any store) salmon with skin on is fine! As long as the skin is on, for identification, and because it's cold like posted above. I was told to slice off the cut ends of the salmon and throw that part away, before cooking. Also I rinse off the fish before using, as I would even from a kosher fish market. Obv ask your own rav how to manage this in your area, just giving examples of what I was told. I am in USA, not NY.

amother

Blue

Sun, Nov 08 2020, 7:40 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

My rav holds that I can buy salmon from a supermarket. So take a chill pill

And my rav buys the Costco salmon for himself !!

amother

Blue

Sun, Nov 08 2020, 7:41 pm

amother [ Jade ] wrote:

This exactly !

Ema of 5

Sun, Nov 08 2020, 7:53 pm

bunchagirlies wrote:

This is not true, but I have a headache and don’t have the energy to correct you.

challahchallah

Sun, Nov 08 2020, 9:12 pm

Here’s an OU article on cut fruit. While I’m sure there are those who hold differently (as is the case with basically everything in Judaism...), it is absolutely a mainstream opinion that buying cut up fruit from a grocery is fine.

https://oukosher.org/halacha-y.....rket/

amother

Olive

Sun, Nov 08 2020, 9:17 pm

amother [ Lavender ] wrote:

Costco doesn't have a monopoly on store policies. Please. Most chain groceries have same policies in place. In any case this is a cold knife going into a cold, non-sharp tasting piece of raw fruit. There is no issue.

amother

Olive

Sun, Nov 08 2020, 9:21 pm

bunchagirlies wrote:

Regarding bolded: WRONG.

Regarding underlined: You may have found yourself a rov that says this, and you are welcome to hold this way for yourself, but if you knew the kashrut laws you would understand that there is no kashrut violation involved in what OP is asking about and just about everyone holds it's fine.

Hashem_Yaazor

Mon, Nov 09 2020, 12:48 am

In produce that was cut in mass production, it's allowed, as even if there was a concern the knife might have been used on tarfus and had shamnunis, which it shouldn't anyway, it would be botul in the amount of produce being cut. Most grocery stores get it cut in large operations, not even necessarily at the store but at central locations that pack it up and send them to the supermarkets to sell prepackaged.

Hashem_Yaazor

Mon, Nov 09 2020, 12:51 am

Fish is different as not all fish are kosher (all produce is).
A whole side of salmon should be fine as it's done on the salmon boat with just salmon. When it's a cut and you don't know what knife was used, you can cut off a thin sliver where the knife touched and get rid of that. Wash it well, and you're good to go (for salmon, as it has specific color that doesn't lend itself to being mislabeled and instead being a non kosher fish)