Citric Acid and Passover

Citric Acid and Pesach

Citric acid is used as a flavoring in many things including: juices, jams, candies and other food products.  In years past, it was made primarily from lemons and other fruits.  Today, however, it is primarily made from wheat!

The process of making citric acid is a tad complex.  The flour is mixed with water.  However, the flour is in the water for a maximum of six minutes- not enough time to become hametz.  In addition, at later stages of its creation, the mixture loses its taste and appearance, and is unfit for consumption even by a dog. As a result, even were it hametz, it would lose that status.

That alone allows many posqim to permit eating products containing citric acid on Pesach.  (See Yehaveh Daat 2:62)

Other posqim are strict on this matter. They base themselves on the notion that hametz only loses its status due to spoilage, and not via intentional change.  They, then, rule that the product remains hametz.

Rabbi Shear Yashuv Cohen, who passed away in 2016, investigated the whole matter very thoroughly and found that there is no concern that citric acid is hametz.  As we wrote above, the wheat put into the water never becomes hametz in the first place.  At that point, the starch is removed from the mixture.  Starch cannot become hametz.  Finally, citric acid is not formed from the starch itself, rather by the molds that feed off a substance whose ingredients include a material extracted from the unleavened starch.

Therefore, there is no issue with citric acid and Pesach.

See Peninei Halacha, Vol Pesach, Chap 8, page 104