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Fatwa ID: 79298
Title: Alcohol in food - Soy Sauce
Category: Food
Scholar: Dr. Hatem al-Haj
Date: 06/29/2009

Question
Sh Hatem posted a thorough answer to alcohol in food in fatwa no 23043. The conclusion was specifically directed to the use of vanilla extract, but the arguments seem applicable to soy sauce as well. Can you please confirm if the same arguments apply?

Answer
All praise be to Allah, and may His Blessings and Peace be on His Last Messenger, I am not sure if someone may get drunk off soy sauce. If it is possible, it would be khamr. Then, there will be the controversy over the consumption of food cooked with khamr that has evaporated. As for intoxication off soy sauce, it sounds unlikely, because based on the percentage of Alcohol in the naturally brewed kind, you need to consume three liters of it before you can get drunk. However, since I am not sure of that, I will refer you to the principle, which is that Alcohol occurs naturally in many foods and drinks, and that is due to the process of fermentation by bacteria and yeast. A substance is considered khamr if it causes intoxication when consumed in large amounts. More than 25 years ago, I heard his eminence, Sh. Abu Bakr al-Jazaery simply put it in this sentence, "if you die because of over consumption before you get drunk, it is not khamr." Allah knows best.