Contamination of Food

One of the goals of this paper was to bring together what seem like disparate issues and place them under the broad heading of contamination, intentional or otherwise, of water, food and drink. Contamination was divided into three broad areas, impurities, impure additives and in-situ impurities. This allowed for a discussion on each area drawing examples from various topics in order to determine general principles. Impurities were found to fall in two areas based on volume of substance; the key issue was the harm it would cause the individual if a large amount was considered impure. As a result without sensory determination to the contrary large amounts of substance were considered pure.

The addition of impurity was only permitted where a faqih’s position existed otherwise it was discarded. There was an opportunity to discuss the use of gelatine extracted from swine hide in foods. This is somewhat over analysed using current chemical analysis
techniques in order to determine if changes have occurred on the molecular level. This view was challenged in two aspects; firstly, the criteria described by the books of fiqh was not being utilised but rather a high-tech chemical analysis; secondly, this is an intentional addition of a contaminant which again is not what is described in the books of fiqh. The addition of gelatine hence was deemed as impermissible not because a change of nature was not detected but rather because it is the intentional addition of a contaminant, one which is described as an absolute impurity. Furthermore, in-situ contamination is over looked and permitted as long as the criteria determined by sight, smell or taste does not deem otherwise.

In summary, one can observe that unintentional contamination is over looked by the sharī’a when ‘umūm al-balwā is present and the contamination cannot be determined by sight, smell or taste. However, intentional contamination cannot be considered permissible.