Bitul or batel (''nullification'' or ''of no significance'') is a concept in

kashrut (also or , ) is a set of Food and drink prohibitions, dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to halakha, Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed ko ...

that stipulates that food is still considered kosher if a small amount of forbidden food is mixed with a permitted food, such as a drop of milk in a meat dish. ''Bitul b'shishim'' (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

: בטל בשישים) is the concept that a dish is kosher if the prohibited food is less than one-sixtieth of the entire dish. ''Bitul barov'' is the concept that a dish is kosher if less than one-half of the meal contains prohibited food. Orthodox Union Kosher does not allow for bitul containing non-kosher foods. To accommodate

Sephardi Jews Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...

who do not mix fish and dairy, dairy products containing fish that is not batel b'shishim are listed as OU Dairy FisH. Products containing more than one-sixtieth fish, for example

Worcestershire sauce Worcestershire sauce or Worcester sauce (UK: ) is a fermented liquid condiment invented by pharmacists John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins in the city of Worcester in Worcestershire, England, during the first half of the 19th century ...

s containing

anchovies An anchovy is a small, common forage fish of the family Engraulidae. Most species are found in marine waters, but several will enter brackish water, and some in South America are restricted to fresh water. More than 140 species are placed in 1 ...

or marshmallows containing

fish gelatin Isinglass ( ) is a form of collagen obtained from the dried swim bladders of fish. The English word origin is from the obsolete Dutch ''huizenblaas'' – ''huizen'' is a kind of sturgeon, and ''blaas'' is a bladder, or German ''Hausenblase'', ...

, are certified by the

Orthodox Union The Orthodox Union (abbreviated OU) is one of the largest Orthodox Jewish organizations in the United States. Founded in 1898, the OU supports a network of synagogues, youth programs, Jewish and Religious Zionist advocacy programs, programs f ...

as "OU Fish". However, products containing less than one-sixtieth fish are not required to be labelled with the OU Fish

hechsher A hechsher or hekhsher (; "prior approval"; plural: ''hechsherim'') is a rabbinical product certification, qualifying items (usually foods) that conform to the requirements of halakha, Jewish religious law. Forms A hechsher may be a printed an ...

as long as the fish ingredient is listed on the package. Cheese made with rennet from an

animal Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Biology, biological Kingdom (biology), kingdom Animalia (). With few exceptions, animals heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, ...

who has not been ritually slaughtered is not kosher, due to the presence of non-kosher meat. Many hard cheeses contain less than one-sixtieth animal rennet, but non-kosher animal rennet is not bitul because the rennet is considered ''dovor ha-ma’amid'' (a material that gives a product its form).

References

External links

Nullification
on Halachipedia
Batel B'shishim
on Jewish English Lexicon {{Kashrut Hebrew words and phrases in Jewish law Kashrut

See also

References

External links