Re: Blood spots in eggs - the contemporary halacha

yehonatanshimshon@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
This has been discussed before but I feel there is a lack of knowledge
on the topic and that many posters are unaware of the facts which are
pertinent to the contemporary halachic situation

For starters see "The Modern Day Blood Spot" TRANSCRIBED BY RABBI
YOSEF GROSSMAN BASED ON A DISCUSSION WITH RAV YISROEL BELSKY, SHLITA.
http://www.ou.org/pdf/daf/5766/Daf%2014-8.pdf

(1) Modern eggs in supermarkets (free range or barn eggs and battery)
are produced in an environment where the hens do not have access to
cockerels. This is because it is commercially disadvantageous to
supermarkets for their customers to find blood spots in the eggs.

This means any spots found in modern supermarket eggs will NOT be
"developing-embryo" spots.

(2) There are various other causes of spots in eggs e.g. specks of
blood or other matter from the hen can cross the membrane into the
egg) and these are NOT "treif" though we may remove them for reasons
of marat ayin.
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/ourbooks/1/egg-quality-handbook/28/blood-spots
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/publications/1/egg-quality-handbook/29/meat-spots

(3) Because customers don't like blood spots in eggs supermarkets
candle the eggs. This was always true of white eggs but recently the
technology for candling brown eggs has improved and so blood spots
(even the specks of blood from the chicken) are rarer now in brown
supermarket eggs than they used to be and there is less difference
between brown and white eggs in this regard. It is still harder to
candle brown eggs but you are talking about perhaps one in a hundred
noticeable blood specks getting through nowadays. You also get fewer
noticeable blood specks in eggs from younger chickens and you get
fewer in eggs that are not so fresh.

(4) Rav Moshe Feinstein (Igros Moshe, Yoreh Deah 1:36) writes that
even though the blood spots found in eggs are not treif (so in theory
one need not check for them and need not throw away the egg) -
mei'ikar hadin removal of the blood spot would suffice, one should
still check eggs if possible and should throw away the egg if a spot
of blood is found - because eggs are cheap and there may be an issue
of maras ayin.

But if you did not (b'di eved or because it was dark and there was a
power cust) then your egg is still kosher.

Since HaRav Feinstein's ruling, some relevant circumstances have
changed. Supermarket eggs have become ubiquitously free of serious
blood spots. Candling technology for brown eggs has improved. The
issue (or perhaps it is the awareness) of cruelty in the rearing of
battery hens has arisen. This last seems to me to be something a
Rabbi today should take significantly into account as tsaar baalei
chaim is arguably a d'oraytah prohibition. Since brown free range
eggs are produced without the cruelty involved in the production of
white battery eggs it seems to me that there should be a positive
requirement to use them in all kosher food nowadays.

The usual argument one hears "white eggs have been candled so you do
not get so many blood spots" no longer applies nowadays because the
blood spots are not in any case "treif" blood spots mei'ikar hadin and
we check and throw out the blood spot eggs nowadays only because eggs
are cheap so the bal tashchit is insignificant and someone might see
you and think you were eating a treif egg (at least that seems to be
the reasoning). The near-universality of unfertilised eggs in shops
has come about since Rav Feinstein was writing - so marat ayin is
actually rather less of an issue.

(4) Even before the prevalence of unfertilised eggs in supermarkets
the rule was that you only had to throw away the entire egg is the
spot was of a colour and in a position that suggested it was a
potential embryo i.e. if it was red or reddish brown and was attached
on the surface of the yoke of the egg near the white stringy bit.
(Rulings on this vary a bit according to strictness and Ashkenazim
differ from Sephardim). If the spot was NOT likely to be a potential
embryo it was generally considered dam beitzim (a small amount of
blood from a broken blood vessel in the hen, which is not forbidden)
and was sufficient to remove the spot and use the egg. Rav
Feinstein's ruling therefore represents either a chumrah or an
innovation and was definitely not in the context of eggs that we know
to have been produced in a manner involving extreme cruelty to the
hen.

If in any doubt about the "tsaar baalei chayim" involved in the
production of modern battery hen eggs, one can view one of the many
videos available on the web showing the conditions the hens are raised
in e.g.:
http://www.animalsaustralia.org/media/videos.php?vid=battery_hens

much junk delted.

From a halacha standpoint, if it serves a human purpose pain may be caused to animal.
If you want to oppose things on a non halachic basis that is fine, but the problems
real or not that you raise do not fall withing the halachic definiton of tzar balei
chaim.
.