Vanilla?

**Starrynight** · 06-29-2011

So I just learned about vanilla extract. What foods have vanilla extract in them? Is there any other hidden alcohol that I should be aware of?
How much alcohol does something have to have before it is haram?
Thank you!

**Ramadhan** · 06-30-2011

By the way, if you bake your own cakes or cook other food that require vanilla flavor, you don't have to use vanilla extracts, there are other alternatives:
(cured) Vanilla beans, vanilla powder, vanilla-vanillin powder or vanillin.

**Starrynight** · 06-30-2011

Ramadhan, thank you so much! You've put me at ease

**Dagless** · 06-30-2011

Originally Posted by Ramadhan

[Related by Abu Dawood, an-Nasaey and others authentically]

Now, does 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 an intoxicant and forbidden for consumption even if it is trivial in amount, because a large amount of the same substance would result in intoxication.

2 - Second, does mixing alcohol with food products make them impermissible or impure?

According to the stronger position (of the minority), alcohol is not physically impure. Thus, it doesn’t turn the mixture into impurity. Even, if it was impure, submersion in a large quantity of tahir (pure substance) according to the stronger position, does not affect the ruling of the pure substance unless one the characteristics of alcohol prevails (color, smell or taste).

Does mixing it with another substance change the ruling of the new substance even if it is not impure? Yes, if it makes the new substance an intoxicant.

3 - 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 what is said above, we believe that it is permissible to use food products which contain vanilla extract.

I hope this answer is satisfactory.

And Allah knows best.

Hmm does this mean you can eat food cooked with alcohol (not in alcohol) in restaurants? Sometimes places add a little red or white wine in the cooking process. It wouldn't break any of the rules above because 1) It does not intoxicate, 2) The majority of the dish is pure and does not taste of wine, and 3) It is not prepared by you. Clarifications?

**Ramadhan** · 06-30-2011

Originally Posted by Dagless

Hmm does this mean you can eat food cooked with alcohol (not in alcohol) in restaurants? Sometimes places add a little red or white wine in the cooking process. It wouldn't break any of the rules above because 1) It does not intoxicate, 2) The majority of the dish is pure and does not taste of wine, and 3) It is not prepared by you. Clarifications?

I don't know the answer to that. If you ask me, my hunch is it is haram, and I personally wouldn't eat food that I know it has been cooked with alcohol added. But that's just my opinion.
I think you'd better ask scholars, and I will read up more on the issue.

**Futuwwa** · 06-30-2011

Originally Posted by Dagless

Hmm does this mean you can eat food cooked with alcohol (not in alcohol) in restaurants? Sometimes places add a little red or white wine in the cooking process. It wouldn't break any of the rules above because 1) It does not intoxicate, 2) The majority of the dish is pure and does not taste of wine, and 3) It is not prepared by you. Clarifications?

I'd deem it halal, since (in addition to everything else) ethanol boils at a lower temperature than water. It is the first thing to boil away when cooking anything, there should at most be a minuscule trace left when the food is done and served. Or at least that's what I've heard from people with an interest in that kind of cooking.

**Futuwwa** · 06-30-2011

Originally Posted by Dagless

Your body regulates it (unless you have an illness which prevents that), so no (although just because you won't get high doesn't mean won't get fat

).

Weird, there is something called sugar intoxication in the Finnish language. It's a state of elevated blood sugar that makes you feel high, followed by a crash after which you feel tired and hungry.

It's not irrelevant. If you can never consume that amount of something without vomiting or dying from something else first then obviously it's not going to be an intoxicant.

Well, if you maintain that, it would follow that anything with a very small alcohol concentration would be halal too because of the same reason.

**Who Am I?** · 06-30-2011

Originally Posted by Ramadhan

By the way, if you bake your own cakes or cook other food that require vanilla flavor, you don't have to use vanilla extracts, there are other alternatives:
(cured) Vanilla beans, vanilla powder, vanilla-vanillin powder or vanillin.

Yes, I can have my homemade choccos now!

**Dagless** · 06-30-2011

Originally Posted by Ramadhan

I don't know the answer to that. If you ask me, my hunch is it is haram, and I personally wouldn't eat food that I know it has been cooked with alcohol added. But that's just my opinion.

I wouldn't eat it either, but it's an interesting question.

Originally Posted by Ramadhan

I think you'd better ask scholars, and I will read up more on the issue.

I'll be sure to ask the next time I bump into one

Originally Posted by Futuwwa

Weird, there is something called sugar intoxication in the Finnish language. It's a state of elevated blood sugar that makes you feel high, followed by a crash after which you feel tired and hungry.

Similar to coffee then but I don't think it can be called intoxication in the haraam sense.

**Dagless** · 06-30-2011

............

**Muhammad** · 07-01-2011

Btw, it's possible to buy vanilla extract/flavouring (can't remember which) which is alcohol-free.

**Salma1234** · 08-09-2022

Originally Posted by Ramadhan

One other thing to keep in mind:

the use of gelatin in many processed food products. Gelatin may be made from animal, including pork. And even if it's made from beef, for those who live in non-muslim countries it could very likely mean the cows are not slaughtered in halal way.

(but I guess someone could argue that if it's in low quantity than it must not be haram).

Assalamwaleikum,

Just so that everyone in this discussion knows, our prophet peace be upon him used to have vinegar. Vinegar is made using alcohol. Even though when It ferments into vinegar the ethanol (alcohol) changes chemically, there are still trace amount left in vinegar even though it’s not intoxicating. So my point is that when vanilla extract is used in baking, the heat from the baking will boil out any of the minute amour of ethanol that was in the product leaving only a trace amount that is not going to intoxicate a person. Even if I ate 500 whole cakes I wouldn’t get drunk, I’d just have a very bad stomach ache.

Also, let’s keep in mind that there are many different extract besides vanilla extract. So MANY of the foods that we eat contain some kind of extract unless it’s raw fruit and vegetables hahaha.

I myself have so many questions about this subject and I’m here to learn.

thank you ❤️