Is it Permissible to Eat Mono and Diglycerides in Food? Ask Shaykh YQ #213

Our next question, brother Eunice from Vancouver emails and asks about mono and diglycerides in food products model and diglycerides and he asks whether these are permissible to eat or not

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So, model glycerides are a form of fatty acid along with triglycerides and diglycerides. And they occur naturally in some foods and are added to improve the texture and the quality and even the, the shelf life of other food products. So sometimes they're not true. And in any product where they're natural, there's not a problem and sometimes they are added and modified glycerides are typically a type of well there are type of fat, either saturated or unsaturated. And they are if they are going to be added to the food product, then they are extracted from plant or animal sources, okay. And so, either plants, plant oils, plant seeds, animal fats, they are extracted from them, and they are

added as food additives to particular products, sometimes they occur naturally. And usually when you purchase for example, bread, when you make bread, when the commercial manufacturers make bread or they make other things they will add mono and di glycerides What is the purpose of mono and diglycerides these substances are emulsifiers. What is an emulsifier and emulsifier means that they stop the water and the oil from separating they make the water and the oil make sure that they are combined together. And this makes it very, very useful to many processed foods especially to lengthen the shelf life or to make the texture to be more edible and easy to digest. And

the source of these as I said model and diglycerides. According to a survey done by the FDA,

almost 70% of the emulsifiers that are used in food products are from the model and diglycerides family. Therefore 30% are from other families, but mono and diglycerides form the bulk of emulsifiers. And in Europe, any product from Europe, these emulsifiers are given the the the icon or the the symbol e 471. And so in European food packages, if you look at the products, ie 471 is what the mono and diglycerides are now, where is the origin of these mono and diglycerides. If you look at it chemically speaking, the majority of monoglycerides are taken from soybean from vegetable sources, this is the default. Obviously, anything that comes from soybean is halal. However, a

percentage comes from animals, and

also it is extracted from animal fat. Now, I tried to look up the extraction process, I was not able to find it in the brief survey or in the brief research that I did today. So we also have to look at the extraction process is the extraction process so radical that a transformation occurs such that it doesn't matter what the origin is, because in a longer q&a, I did go over the issue of

the change that occurs of a chemical substance or compound that if a change occurs, then we don't care what the origin is. Because in reality, all of the atoms that we have, at one point in time might have been somewhere else or going to go somewhere else. If a radical change occurs if a complete change occurs is called istikhara. In Arabic, if a complete change occurs, we don't care about the origin. But if a change does not occur, and it's simply a physical extraction, well then it does matter. But then we also have to look at another point and this is the quantity of this product in the final item that we are consuming. And overall again, you will have different methods

and different schools and different opinions. If you ask me my ad my position has been consistently the same on this issue. And I have written an online article about this as well. When the about the Doritos cheese I wrote about this you can read that it is online. My attitude overall is that such can My position is that such catalysts and emulsifiers whose origins are mainly halaal, but some might be dubious, and whose presence in the final product is extremely small, that these types of emulsifiers and

catalysts, they can be overlooked, we are not required to achieve purity at the molecular level. And it is okay, it's permissible to purchase a product that overall the product is held on. But there is a catalyst or there is an emulsifier. That is point 1% point 2%, maybe even less around this, you know, very, very miniscule percentages whose origin is dubious. Now, emulsifiers, as I said, majority of it comes from soybeans, perhaps some of it might come from animal, we don't know, the extraction process, given all of these factors. And in particular, the undeniable fact that the quantity of these catalysts and emulsifiers is an infinitesimally small amount compared to the

overall product, it is forget even 1% it is maybe point three or point four, maybe even less than this. Given all of this, then my position has been that we should not make the religion so difficult that we consider a final product to be Haram. Because of you know, a few molecules of dubious things that have been added for secondary purposes, we're not talking about a salad with bacon bits in it that has been added for seasoning. Clearly that is how long, we're not talking about an item where vodka or rum or gin has been added. For the taste. Clearly, that's just how long, we're talking about bread or yogurt product or something that clearly the essence is head on. And there has been a

catalyst or you know, equivalent of a catalyst, which is an emulsifier. And technically, an emulsifier is not quite a catalyst, but it acts like a catalyst, it's a very small amount that is meant to impact the final item, not for the taste, and not for you know its product, but so that the final product is able to be packaged the way that it is. And therefore, the position that I hold is that there is an amount of tequila, there's an amount of extra

incessant level of piety that is actually harmful. When you look at the small quantity and you say the product is going to be held on because of you know, for the Doritos I calculated it to be one times 10 to the negative five, why like 00 point 0000 1% for example, I said you're going to consider a product to be how long? You know because of this, it is easier to make an argument that's something like doritos are not good to eat because of health reasons. I'm not saying there are I'm just saying if you were to say that it would make more sense than to make them how long because of something as miniscule you know as the catalyst that was added from a dubious source. So in the end

of the day, we'll Lodi them mono and diglycerides can be overlooked for two reasons. First and foremost, the most important reason the quantity of it, it is not intended for itself. It's not intended for the taste. It's not intended, you know, to be something how long it is done for a catalyst or emulsifier. And then secondly, the fact of the matter for mono and diglycerides. The default is that they come from soybeans, but a percentage we don't know how much 30 40% or 20%. a percentage might come from animals and even that animal we do not as of yet well at least I'm not aware of the extraction process. So it might even be here that even if it comes from an animal, if

in the extraction process, a radical change occurs and Allah subhanho wa Taala knows best

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