Cream Of Tartar

Question

Cream of Tartar is naturally present in grapes. It deposits when the wine is left to stay in the tanks.

Cream of Tartar and Calcium Tartrate are obtained in the distillery along with alcohol from the processing of the lees and marcs. Both are directly obtained from the wine process and both come into contact with the wine. Both would be “washed” and purified before been sold.

Lees are deposits of dead yeast or residual yeast and other particles that precipitate, or are carried by the action of “fining,” to the bottom of the vat of wine after fermentation and aging. Marcs is the skin and seeds that the wineries don’t want in their end product.

The Tartaric Acid is made from Calcium Tartrate. Tartaric Acid may also be manufactured synthetically from starting chemicals.

Is the wine sourced Cream of Tartar, Calcium Tartrate and Tartaric Acid Halaal in light of the following additional considerations:

• They are in contact with wine.

• Once purified, very little of the wine remains behind. Perhaps less than 0.1%

• They are not intoxicating.

• They are used extensively in the baking industry.

Kindly advise in the light of the above whether Wine Sourced Cream of Tartar, Calcium Tartrate and Tartaric Acid may be regarded as Halaal?

Darul Ifta, Darul Uloom Azaadville · Accepted Answer

The dregs, lees, sediments and marcs formed after fermentation of grape juice into wine are without any doubt impermissible for consumption as it is clearly stated in our books of Fiqh (jurisprudence):

قال – رحمه الله – (وكره شرب دردي الخمر والامتشاط (به لأن فيه أجزاء الخمر فكان حراما نجسا والانتفاع بمثله حرام ولهذا لا يجوز أن يداوي به جرحا ولا أن يسقي ذميا ولا صبيا، والوبال على من سقاه وكذا لا يسقيه الدواب –

البحر الرائق شرح كنز الدقائق ج ۱۹ ص ۲۱۹

However this is not the case for the Cream of Tartar (Potassium Bitartrate) which after extraction from this wine residue, is treated with hot water and is made to undergo purification (filtration, crystallisation/precipitation) to produce the white, odourless, acidic crystals (cream of tartar), in a process that has hardly changed for centuries. The Cream of Tartar in its solidifying process out of the residue undergoes a change in essence and is therefore pure and suitable for consumption. This can be substantiated by the following text of Allama Shami (rahimahumullah) in his famous Raddul-Muhtar:

بخلاف نحو خمر صار خلا وحمار وقع في مملحة فصار ملحا ، وكذا دردي خمر صار طرطيرا وعذرة صارت رمادا أو حمأة، فإن ذلك كله انقلاب حقيقة إلى حقيقة أخرى لا مجرد انقلاب وصف

(الرد المحتار وحاشية ابن عابدين ج ١ ص ٣١٦ – سعيد)

في الهامش للدكتور حسام الدين بن محمد صالح فرفور : الدردي هو ما رسب من العصارات لا ما ترشح منها كما ظنّ إذ المترشح صافي الشيء و الدردي كدره و أكثرها منفعة دردي الخمر و يعرف بالطرطير إذا جفف –

(شامي فرفور ج ٢ ص ٣٤٩)

Considering the fact that the methods of washing and purification have improved over the centuries with the advent of processes like distillation etc, we find ourselves with Cream of Tartar presented in a much purer form than the final product that our Fuqaha (rahimahumullah) had passed.

Therefore it will be permissible to use and consume wine-sourced Cream of Tartar, Calcium Tartrate and Tartaric Acid after it has gone through hot water filtration and crystallisation/precipitation as described in the detail you have provided.

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