By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for 5tjt.com
Last night (chol Hamoed Pesach 4th of the Omer), a Bain Hazmanim get-together of Bnei Yeshiva featured a seudah of grilled salmon along with three shiurei Torah entitled, “Salmon in Halacha” took place. The Bnei Torah were home for Pesach and had studied in leading Yeshivos in Eretz Yisroel.
THE FIRST TOPIC
The first topic covered was the debate between the Orthodox Union and the Star K about the kashrus of farmed salmon that are packed in filets without any skin. Generally speaking, kosher fish are identified by having fins and scales. As long as the scales fit the halachic definition of a scale – they can be identified as kosher solely on the basis of the presence of the scale (See SA YD 83:1).
RAV MOSHE’S RULING
Rav Moshe Feinstein zatzal had ruled that salmon’s uniquely colored pink flesh would constitute a siman muvhak that it is kosher (as only salmon and trout have pink or reddish flesh). Based upon this, there would be no need to actually examine the skin for scales or scale marks. The ruling was conveyed to Rav Belsky zatzal by Rav Nota Greenblatt shlita, one of Rav Moshe’s leading talmidim.
Subsequently, however, it was discovered that the flesh of salmon is not naturally pink. It is white. What makes salmon flesh pink? It is their consumption of an anti-oxidant called, “Astaxanthin” – a carotenoid pigment that occurs in microalgae, krill, plankton, and shrimp, and among other sea creatures. For farmed salmon, the Astaxanthin is added to the feed in one of two ways:
- They add crushed lobsters to the feed.
- They add Astaxanthin artificially. There are federal guidelines forbidding adding more than 72 grams per ton (See FDA Title 21 Sec. 73.35 (c).
The question arises as to whether the ruling of Rav Moshe zatzal would still apply to the farmed salmon with the artificial astaxanthin. Rav Belsky zatzal ruled that the finances involved in creating such an infrastructure would also create a “siman muvhak.” Rav Heinemann, lehavdil bain chaim l’chaim, ruled stringently. On account of this, the Star K does not allow Costco fillet salmon at their events. Can this issue be compared to the ruling of the Pri Chadash regarding Cholov Yisroel in Amsterdam?
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This author asked Rav Heinemann to what extent he was machmir. Was there a requirement, say, to kasher the oven as well – as would be the case with a non-kosher fish? Rav Heinemann ruled that there was no need to kasher the oven.
THE SECOND TOPIC
The second topic dealt with something that is about to come to market. It was supposed to come to market two years ago, but the pandemic derailed it. Generally speaking, farmed salmon is sold when it reaches 12 to 18 pounds in size. It takes 36 months to get to this size. However, there is a company called AquaBounty which has succeeded in adding different DNA to the salmon which will make it mature much much faster. With the newly introduced DNA from other aquatic creatures, it only takes 18 for the salmon to mature to the necessary size.
The problem is that some of the genetic material that is introduced is from a non-kosher aquatic creature called an Ocean Pout. Some of the other material is from the Chinook salmon. An ocean pout is decidedly not kosher, as its scales are not halachically considered kaskesses. The DNA of the ocean pout allows for the “pause switch” on the growth hormone from the Chinook material to stay on. The question is whether this is considered “shailah-free” or not. Perhaps some of the questions may be resolved with resolutions that have been provided to the killing lice on Shabbos question. There are other sugyas involved in this topic as well.
THE THIRD TOPIC
The third topic involves the kashrus of anisakis worms found in the flesh of Salmon. The sugya is found in the Gemorah in Chulin 67b. The underlying question is how we understand the ruling of the Mechaber (YD 84:16) when he states that if the worms are found in the gut – it is not kosher and if in the flesh, it is kosher. Was this an across the board statement? Or do we say that when there is indication that the worms may have migrated from the gut, the leniency does not apply? This author has video footage of the worms migrating. When this question was posed to Rav Elyashiv zatzal, he ruled specifically that the Mechaber was not referring to such a situation, and it would be prohibited.
This, in essence, was the content of the three salmon shiurim.
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6 Responses
Despite insufficient testing and the vocal opposition of hundreds of thousands of concerned citizens, the FDA approved the GMO AquaBounty salmon just before Thanksgiving of ‘2016.
AquaBounty created this creature by inserting genes from one species of salmon and ocean pout, (which is an eel-like fish) into the DNA of an Atlantic salmon. The goal was to produce a salmon that grows faster, to make farming the fish more efficient from a narrow cost viewpoint.
There are many reasons why approving GMO salmon is a terrible idea:
-It’s been genetically engineered to produce growth hormones year-round, but there’s been no real testing about what these increased levels of hormones will mean for the people consuming them.
-The FDA used the fiction that the genetically engineered salmon was actually a “drug,” so that public participation in the approval process was severely limited. This is a problem not only for these salmon, but because it sets a precedent for the GMO animals that are likely to be proposed soon, including a GMO pig.
-The FDA’s lax approval process included reviewing an AquaBounty study that only examined six salmon—which nonetheless showed a 20-50 percent increased allergenic potency.
-GMO salmon pose a threat to wild fish populations. Academic scientists found that GMO salmon readily breed with a different species of fish. And since they grow so fast, the non-GMO wild fish could easily be outcompeted and become extinct.
-Canadian government scientists also found that AquaBounty’s salmon are more susceptible to disease-causing bacteria, which means that they will most likely be fed even more antibiotics than typical farmed fish, threatening the health of those who eat them and the continued efficacy of these antibiotics to treat human disease.
As with GMO plants, the FDA is not requiring labeling for GMO salmon. However, in response to consumer pressure, over sixty retail chains have stated that they will not sell the GMO salmon. The lag of this substance’s current availability in the marketplace is thus not only because of ‘covid’.
Salmon party? Sounds fishy.
I like sometime like a glass of wine with my meal too but hey. I don’t keep half a vineyard on my sideboard!!
I don’t understand what is the basis for not allowing the farmed salmon. Of course the pigment comes from the salmons’ feed. That’s true in the wild as well as on a farm. It’s not some new discovery! Who didn’t know that? But what has it got to do with anything? The point is that only salmon and trout have red flesh. No commercially available treife fish has such flesh, no matter what it is fed. You cannot get a red tilapia or snapper no matter what you feed it. And nor can you get a red catfish or shark or any other treife fish. So what is the problem?
And what possible comparison is there to the machlokes between the Radvaz (NOT the Pri Chodosh!) and the Chasam Sofer? That machlokes is strictly over whether there was ever a gezera on chalav akum. We hold like the Chasam Sofer who says it’s a davar shebeminyan, but the Radvaz says Lahadam! There was never any such gezera! And so in any situation where you know the milk is kosher you can drink it gezunterheit! Here with fish everyone agrees there is no gezera, the only question is ascertaining the facts, so if you have a good siman you can eat it.
As for the ocean pout DNA I do not understand what possible shayla there could be. The fish before you has simanim. Therefore it is kosher. Its parents had simanim; therefore they were kosher too. On what possible authority does anyone dare invent a brand new halacha, that was never given to Moshe on Sinai, that DNA can make an animal treif?!
Even if you want to argue that the original fish into which the ocean pout gene was introduced had a problem of zeh vozeh gorem, because the treife gene contributed to its growth, that fish is long gone, and the fish being introduced into the market are its many-times-great-grandchildren. Every atom of their bodies is the result of their parents and grandparents and great-grandparents, who were all kosher fish with two good simanim. Just as non-kosher yeast can be kashered by putting it through four generations, so too here, assuming there was ever a problem in the first place.
As for the third topic, anisakis, that is complicated. I think there may have been an editing error in the article, because the bit about killing lice seems to belong to the third topic, not the second one. The issue with anisakis is that the science contradicts our mesorah and the way Chazal understood the metzius. Just as it does with lice. So it’s the same discussion.