1.Some fruit snacks contain a small percentage of alcohol to prevent them from hardening, if this alcohol is not ethanol and not intoxicating, is it ok to eat? 2.What is the ruling on porcine enzymes, mono and di glycerides,and vanilla extract? 3.What is the hadith about a little impurity in a lot of purity is halal? 4.Must i look up every ingredient and call every company about every food i eat?

All praise be to Allah, and may his peace and blessings be on the last and best prophet and messenger, Muhammad. May Allah reward you for wanting to ensure the wholesomeness of what you eat, which is a sign of Iman. Here are some principles: The things forbidden for us are either: Najis (filthy), such as pork, dead corpses (including animals unlawful to eat even if slaughtered) and blood, Harmful, such as poisons and intoxicants Repulsive, such as small rodents and cockroaches The food of the People of the Book is permissible for us until a particular food has been established to be impermissible due to some reason related to slaughtering or the addition of some forbidden ingredients during the production. A substance is considered khamr if it causes intoxication when consumed in large amounts. Istihalah (i.e. change in chemical composition) into another substance will cause the ruling to change according to the stronger position. Minuscule is overlooked. If reasonable alternatives are facilitated for you, then acting upon what is safer and avoidance of the suspicious matters will always be commendable. As for products such as lecithin, mono and diglycerides, and the various enzymes, I would consider them permissible to consume for the following reasons: 1- "Minuscule is overlooked" in sharia, and that may apply to the emulsifiers and enzymes that are used in very small amounts to accelerate certain chemical pathways. The enzymes taken from pancreatic secretions are used in trivial amounts to accelerate chemical reactions, and rennet is used for this purpose in the making of cheeses. Abu Dawood authentically reported that the Sahabah (Companions) ate from the cheese of the Zoroastrians, and it is known that even when they slaughter, their slaughtered animals are still treated as un-slaughtered carrion (“dead” meat: al-maytah). They must have based their action on the fiqh principle: "Minuscule is overlooked" (not explicitly formulated at the time, yet implicitly understood). 2- Many of the ingredients that are controversial get transformed and the transformation changes their ruling according to the majority. 3- Najasah of the dead and non halal animals usually pertains to the animate body parts that have tissue life, not the parts that have vegetable like life such as the hair, teeth, bones, and fluids aside from the known excrements. 4- Najsaat are different in their grades, with the najasah by propinquity being a weaker one. Many times the najasah of enzymes is because of their touching of the dead tissues of the dead animal. The substance, gelatin, may be derived from animal or plant sources, but in the West, it is mostly derived from animal sources, especially pig. Since achieving a complete transformation in the manufacturing process is a matter of difference among the scholars, it is obligatory to avoid food products containing this substance, although there would be no blame in taking medicine containing a miniscule amount of it when there are no other alternatives. As for the utensils of the People of the Book, you assume their purity and you do not need to investigate it. The Messenger of Allah did eat the food of the People of the Book without asking them about the status of their utensils. His companions also drank from the water skin of a pagan woman, after he made its water abundant for them, as reported by al-Bukhari. If there is no need to use their vessels and clothes, you are encouraged to avoid them, since many scholars disliked their use based on the statement of The Messenger of Allah regarding them: "فَلَا تَأْكُلُوا فِي آنِيَتِهِمْ إلَّا أَنْ لَا تَجِدُوا بُدًّا، فَإِنْ لَمْ تَجِدُوا بُدًّا فَاغْسِلُوهَا وَكُلُوا." "Do not eat from them unless you do not find others, then wash them and eat from them" (Ag). This does not apply if you are certain of the impurity of their utensils. As for Alcohol in candy and other food items, there is a difference between two cases: the first case pertains to Alcohol that naturally exists in foods and drinks, not Alcohol that you add to them. It would be impermissible to add it, but if it naturally exists or forms during the process of cooking, then the drink will not be called khamr (wine) and deemed impermissible as long as it would not make any one intoxicated even in very large amounts that a human being can consume. As for your statement, “a little of impurity in a lot of purity is halal,” this is not a hadith, but a valid concept when the impurity is totally consumed by a large amount of pure substance. This concept is derived from the following ahadeeth, The Messenger of Alalh (blessings and peace be upon him) said, "إذا كان الْمَاءُ قُلَّتَيْنِ لم يَحْمِلْ الْخَبَثَ." "When the water is an amount that fills qullatayn (two large pots), it will not be rendered impure." (The Four, Kh, Hib: Auth.) He also commanded the companions to pour a bucketful of water on the urine that was on the (soil) ground of the masjid, when a man urinated in it. [Reported by al-Bukhari] As for Ethanol Alcohol vs. other Alcohols, it is important to know that khamr is not only Alcohol and Alcohol is not all khamr. The khamr that was present during the time of the messenger of Allah was made mainly of dates and grapes, thus the Hanafi scholars limit the use of the term “khamr” to drinks made of them, but they still forbid intoxication by any drink. The majority of scholars – and that is clearly the stronger position – consider all intoxicants to be khamr, for the Prophet (Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: “كل مُسْكِر خَمْر، وكل مُسْكِرٍ حَرَام." “Every intoxicant is khamr and every intoxicant is haraam.” [Reported by Muslim] Thus, the majority would consider haraam any amount of a beverage that intoxicates, whether it is fermented from cooked juices or from uncooked materials like honey, wheat, barley, millet, or figs. This is the right position based on the following hadeeth reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim: عَنْ أَبِي مُوسَى قَالَ : بَعَثَنِي النَّبِيُّ  أَنَا وَمُعَاذَ بْنَ جَبَلٍ إِلَى الْيَمَنِ ، فَقُلْتُ : يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ ، إِنَّ شَرَابًا يُصْنَعُ بِأَرْضِنَا يُقَالُ لَهُ الْمِزْرُ مِنْ الشَّعِيرِ ، وَشَرَابٌ يُقَالُ لَهُ الْبِتْعُ مِنْ الْعَسَلِ ، فَقَالَ : " كُلُّ مُسْكِرٍ حَرَامٌ ." Abu Musa said: The Prophet (Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) sent me and Mu’adh ibn Jabal to al-Yaman, and I said: O Messenger of Allah, there is a drink that is made in our land called al-mizr, and made from barley, and another drink called al-bit’, and made from honey. He (Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Every intoxicant is haraam.” At the time of the prophet (Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) solid or gaseous substances that cause intoxication were not known, so when they became first known (hashishah = cannabis) to the Muslim scholars, the most learned of them did not hesitate to include them under the terminology of khamr, so they became automatically forbidden by the textual proofs that forbid khamr, or at least they included them under the ruling of khamr by analogy (Qiyas). Imam Ibn Taymeah said: “وأما المحققون من الفقهاء فعلموا أنها [الحشيشة] مسكرة ، وإنما يتناولها الفجار ، لما فيها من النشوة والطرب ، فهي تجامع الشراب المسكر في ذلك. والخمر توجب الحركة والخصومة ، وهذه توجب الفتور واللذة ، وفيها مع ذلك من فساد المزاج والعقل ، وفتح باب الشهوة ، وما توجبه من الدياثة مما يجعلها من شر الشراب المسكر ، وإنما حدثت في الناس بحدوث التتار. وعلى تناول القليل منها والكثير حد الشرب ، ثمانون سوطا ، أو أربعون إذا كان مسلما يعتقد تحريم المسكر " “The verifying scholars recognized that it [hashish=cannabis] is an intoxicant, and only consumed by the wicked, because of the euphoria it brings, so, it is like intoxicating drinks. Khamr causes increased energy and quarrels, whereas this causes lassitude and enjoyment, but it still has the characteristics of corrupting the mood and intoxicating the mind as well as exacerbating lustful desires and causing one to have no jealousy for his household. All of this would make it even worse than intoxicating drinks. This [the appearance of hashish in Muslim lands] came along with the advent of the Tatars. The one who consumes a little or a lot of it deserves the punishment prescribed for drinking: eighty or forty lashes, if he were a Muslim who believes in the prohibition of intoxicants.” [al-Fatawa al-Kubra: 3/423] The position of giving all drugs the name of khamr is stronger and supported by the Prophet’s saying “Every intoxicant is khamr.” That may not apply to all rulings of khamr, and would at least not apply to the physical filth, which some consider khamr to be. That is the first part that needed clarification, which is that khamr refers to all intoxicants. As for Alcohol, there are so many types of Alcohol. The Alcohol that was present in the khamr during the time of the Messenger of Allah, and in modern time alcoholic beverages is Ethyl Alcohol, or more precisely, Ethanol. The word Alcohol was not used during the time of the Messenger, and we need to know some about it to clarify any confusion that may result in mistaken judgment. Obviously, and as admitted by the western scientists, the word has an Arabic origin. The al– in alcohol indicates the Arabic descent, for “al-” in Arabic is a definite article corresponding to “the” in English. The origin of the word cohol may have to do with “kuhl”, which is a fine powder mostly made of antimony, and was mainly used in cosmetics. It could also have come from Ghawl//Ghool, a word used in the Quran to refer to the after effects of wine. Alcohol is made from natural product processing, such as the fermentation of carbohydrates or reductive cleavage of natural fats and oils, or manufactured from petroleum’s hydrocarbons. So, not all Alcohol is made by the fermentation of carbohydrates like the case during the Prophet’s time. Alcohols are derivatives of hydrocarbons in which one or more of the hydrogen atoms have been replaced by a hydroxyl (-OH) functional group. Hydrocarbons are compounds which contain hydrogen (H) and carbon (C) only. There are many types of Alcohol, such as Ethyl Alcohol (the type present in alcoholic beverages), Methanol, which is used in various products, such as anti-freeze, Glycol and Iso-Propyl Alcohol, which are toxic and intoxicant, but there are types of Alcohol, such as the completely denatured Alcohols, which are not intoxicant, because Alcohol simply means hydroxylated hydrocarbons. It is always safe however to consider all Alcohols intoxicant, whether they are natural or synthetic, because the very vast majority of Alcohols is. As for vanilla extract, it is a solution containing the flavor compound vanillin. Pure vanilla extract is made by extracting from vanilla beans in an alcoholic solution. In order for a vanilla extract to be called pure, the FDA requires that the solution contain a minimum of 35% alcohol and 13.35 ounces of vanilla bean per gallon. This extract is then added in small amounts to ice cream and other food products. The ruling depends on a few factors: • First, If a large quantity of a substance intoxicates, then a small quantity of that substance is forbidden. Conversely, if the large quantity did not intoxicate, then that substance is not forbidden for the reason of intoxication. That is confirmed by the following hadeeth " ما أسْكَر كَثيرُه فقَليلُه حَرَام " "Whatever intoxicates in large quantities, then a small quantity of it is forbidden." [Related by Abu Dawood, an-Nasaey and others authentically] Now, does the ice cream made with vanilla extract intoxicate? No one would say that. So, when does it become an intoxicant? If you extract the Alcohol from that extract in the ice cream and isolate it, then it becomes intoxicant and forbidden to consume even if it were trivial in amount, because more of the same will result in intoxication. • Second, would the mixing of Alcohol with the food products make them impermissible or filth? According to the stronger position (of the minority), Alcohol is not physical filth. Thus, it doesn’t turn the mixture into filth. Even, if it was filth, submersion in a large quantity of tahir (pure substance) according to the stronger position, will not affect the ruling of the pure substance unless one the characteristics of Alcohol prevailed (color, smell or taste). Does mixing it with another substance change the ruling of the new substance even if it was not filth? Yes, if it made the new substance intoxicant. • Third, would it be permissible for Muslims to add Alcohol to food products? No - as in the case of turning Alcohol into Vinegar - that would not be permissible for Muslims, though, it would be permissible for them to consume it if it was added by others, and most certainly if it occurred naturally in a food (even bread goes through fermentation) so long as the consumed substance is not intoxicant even in large quantities. Based on the aforementioned, we believe that it is permissible to use food products that contain the vanilla extract. Living in the west, I would pay attention to: • Pork and its products • Animals that have canine teeth and birds with claws (predators) • Animals killed not slaughtered • Animals slaughtered by other than Muslim Jew or Christian • Animals upon whose slaughter the name of other than Allah was mentioned (yet, you don't need to verify what was mentioned) • Blood and its byproducts • Wine and all intoxicants Thus, we can eat: • All vegetables and vegetarian foods • All sea food As for meats of cattle goats and chickens, There is a controversy regarding eating the regular grocery store meets. I choose for you to avoid it and eat only certified halal meet. As for the ingredients, we should look for and avoid: • Lard • Porcine … (related to pork) • Animal shortening/fat • Liquor/Alcohol (the word liquor itself means liquid, and may or may not be alcoholic.) • Gelatin & Glycerin If you want to be extra careful, you may refer to one of the websites that detail the acceptable and unacceptable ingredients, even though I think you will be safe if you just avoided the things mentioned here above. Allah knows best.