Is it halal to eat food that contain alcohol as one of its ingredients?

Question

I know that this kind of question has been asked multiple times on this site and you can probably find them on Google as well, but one thing that is still unclear to me is regarding alcohol that was used as one of the ingredients in any Japanese food (Sushi), Italian food (Lasagna) and any other western food in general.

Now, I've read in some hadith that:

Whatever intoxicates in large quantities, a little of it is haraam.” Narrated by al-Tirmidhi, 1865; classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in Saheeh al-Tirmidhi.

To make it clear for myself and anyone here, the above quote is referring to any drink that will make you drunk in large quantity even for a single drop it will be haram.

But, what if that single drop of the haram drink was added in any type of food and you consumed that food. Will it make the food that you consumed haram?

I know that the content of the alcohol doesn't evaporate completely and I'm referring it to many sources

A study conducted by the US Department of Agriculture’s Nutrient Data Laboratory in an articles called Alcohol retention in food preparation, by Augustin J, Augustin E, Cutrufelli RL, Hagen SR, Teitzel C., J Am Diet Assoc. 1992 Apr;92(4):486-8, calculated the percentage of alcohol remaining in a dish based on various cooking methods. The results are as follows:

Link to the table of content http://whatscookingamerica.net/Q-A/AlcoholCooking.htm

My real question is:

If drinking wine in large amounts is intoxicating in small amounts, it is haram.

If adding a small amount of wine to lasagne, and eating a large amount of that lasagne is not intoxicating, is lasagne halal?

Answer 1

You're familiar with the hadith

It was narrated from 'Amir bin Sa'd, from his father, that: The Prophet [SAW] forbade a small amount of whatever intoxicates in large amounts. Sunan an-Nasa'i 5609 [grade: hasan]

(Also graded as hasan at Jami' at-Tirmidhi.)

An IslamToday.net fatwa, in the context of non-alcoholic beers, gives this way of understanding it:

Sheikh Salman al-Oadah astutely observed: "The percentage of alcohol mentioned has no effect on the ruling. The ruling applies to the drink itself taken as a whole and not to its composition."

The same would apply to food. In which case, the answer to your question

If adding a small amount of wine to lasagne, and eating a large amount of that lasagne is not intoxicating, is lasagne halal?

according to the above, would be that this is the correct way to interpret it, and it's halal to eat.

I've surveyed fatawa here and here which include examples of scholars declaring drinks halal at very low percentage alcohol.

Answer 2

I am new here and I can not comment on Rebecca J. Stones's answer, so I am writing a new answer.

The logic of that answer is solid, and you can say food that contains small amount alcohol is halal, because you won't get drunk from it. But the thing is these kinds of food are not cooked with alcohol the chemical compound, on which we can apply the rule "Whatever intoxicates in large quantities, a little of it is haraam." That food is actually cooked using wine, and wine a has special hukm, which is tahreem. And Muslims are advised not to come near anything that has to do with wine. Here we'll be back to question whether a little bit of wine is halal or not. The answer is a little bit of wine is not halal (by applying the previously mentioned rule).

Quran prohibits drinking wine, not alcohol. Prohibition of alcohol and alcoholic drinks came as a generalization of the hukm of wine. If the halality of the products that contain alcohol depends on whether the said project will get you drunk, wine even in small amounts is not halal. Eating food that was cooked with wine means consuming that wine.

This is just my humble opinion.

Answer 3

Peace be upon you,

The answer is 'yes', because alcohol is haram and that food contains alcohol.