Introduction
1. Severity of the issur. As an introduction to the halachos of insects, we mentioned in the previous issue (360) several important halachic principles. We mentioned the severity of the issur: one violates between four and six issurim for each insect (par. 7-10); it causes spiritual blockage of the heart (4) and the body (6); and one gets malkus for eating a whole insect [a “briyah”] intentionally, even if it is less than a k’zayis (10).
2. Chiyuv to check. We also defined the chiyuv to check based on the frequency of infestation of a given food, and the halachic differences between the categories. If something is assumed to be infested, there is a chiyuv d’oraisa to check it and may not be eaten without checking even b’dieved (par. 27).
3. Produce not assumed to be infested, but that is infested a significant minority of the time [מיעוט המצוי ]—some say this is about 5%; others say 30%; but the most prevalent practice is to use the figure of 10% (30-33)—must be checked mid’rabanan. Checking a sample is not enough (35). B’dieved the food may be eaten if it was not checked (29).
4. Strictly speaking, produce that is infested with a low enough frequency to be considered an insignificant minority of the time does not need to be checked. However, it is proper to look at the food before eating it to ensure it is truly free of infestation (38).
Depends on the Place and Time
5. The frequency and degree of infestation varies from place to place and from season to season. Thus, everyone must stay up-to-date and follow the procedure and manner of checking recommended by the local kashrus agencies, as they do constant research and they have the most accurate, up-to-date information in real time.
6. As we approach summer vacation, when many people leave home, great care must be exercised to avoid consuming insects. Sometimes people travel to places without kashrus agencies and accordingly will not have information on insects. This can easily lead to pitfalls in the issur, e.g., when one eats something assumed to be clean where he lives, but assumed to be infested where he is vacationing.
