Kitniyot: Difference between revisions

# The Ashkenazic minhag is to avoid eating Kitniyot on Pesach, however, even Ashkenazim hold that one does not have to burn or sell one's Kitniyot. <ref>The S"A 453:1 writes that it is permitted to eat a cooked dish made out of Kitniyot. The Rama 453:1 writes that the minhag Ashkenaz was to forbid and one shouldn't change this minhag. The Rama, however, notes that one is permitted to keep Kitniyot in one's home on Pesach.</ref>

# The minhag to not eat kitnios begins on Erev [[Pesach]] at the same time that one may not eat chametz <ref> Shevet HaLevi III:31 citing Chok Yaakov 471:2 </ref>. Although one may not eat kitnios, one may own and derive benefit from kitnios. Therefore, on [[Pesach]] one may keep cans of sweet corn in their property or feed millet to their parrot. Additionally, children, people who are ill, and people whose diet is otherwise restricted and must eat kitnios, are excluded from the minhag and may do so after consulting with a Rav. This halacha is quite relevant to baby formulas and nutritional supplements (e.g. Ensure) which invariably contain kitnios, and are usually used by people who have few non-kitnios choices, if any. When such foods are used on [[Pesach]] they should be prepared in special non-Pesach and non-chametz utensils, which should not be washed with the [[Pesach]] dishes. <ref> http://www.kashrut.com/Passover/Kitniyot/</ref>

# Kitnios is batel b’rov, which means that if someone accidentally put kitnios into their [[Pesach]] food, the food is b’dieved permitted assuming the food contains more non-kitnios than kitnios <ref> Rema 453:1 as per Mishnah Berurah 453:9 </ref>. This means that although the food may have a pronounced taste of kitnios, the food is permitted (unless there are recognizable pieces of kitnios which haven’t been removed). Therefore, if a beverage is sweetened with aspartame made of kitnios shenishtaneh, even those people who hold that aspartame is forbidden (as explained above) may drink the beverage because the aspartame is batel b’rov in the other ingredients. Similarly, we have seen that there is a disagreement as to whether fenugreek is kitnios. Nonetheless, even those who follow the strict approach may consume maple syrup which is flavored with fenugreek (as it often is) because it is batel b’rov. Thus, although we’ve seen a number of disagreements as to whether certain foods are or aren’t kitnios, those disagreements are limited to one who wants to consume the actual item (or a hashgachah certifying someone else who is intentionally putting the ingredient into a food), but these disagreements rarely affect consumers. <ref> http://www.kashrut.com/Passover/Kitniyot/</ref>