Some traders add certain chemicals to milk to delay its spoilage and hide this from the people. What is the ruling on this?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
May Allah bless you. This questioner also mentions another issue. He says: Some milk traders add a small amount of certain chemicals to delay its spoilage, and they hide this action from the people and dislike revealing it. Is this among the deception that is prohibited?
The Shaykh:
If the chemicals are put in the milk for its benefit and preservation, and the custom is that this is indicated on the label and written on the label, then it is a known thing among companies and factories, and it is also imposed by governments when licensing these factories.
Placing this substance for the benefit of the milk, and it is legally licensed and written on the label, then there is no concealment in this. No, but if he sells it as original milk with no chemicals in it, and it is not from canned goods, then it is forbidden for him; because it is deception and misleading the buyer. But if he sells it as factory-made and packaged milk, then this is clear and there is no harm in it. Yes.
The questioner:
May Allah bless you, meaning if he sells it in the form of fresh milk and puts in it what preserves it without revealing it to the people, is this deception?
The Shaykh:
This is deception. But if he sells it as factory-made milk from the production of factories, there is no harm in that?
May Allah bless you. This questioner also mentions another issue. He says: Some milk traders add a small amount of certain chemicals to delay its spoilage, and they hide this action from the people and dislike revealing it. Is this among the deception that is prohibited?
The Shaykh:
If the chemicals are put in the milk for its benefit and preservation, and the custom is that this is indicated on the label and written on the label, then it is a known thing among companies and factories, and it is also imposed by governments when licensing these factories.
Placing this substance for the benefit of the milk, and it is legally licensed and written on the label, then there is no concealment in this. No, but if he sells it as original milk with no chemicals in it, and it is not from canned goods, then it is forbidden for him; because it is deception and misleading the buyer. But if he sells it as factory-made and packaged milk, then this is clear and there is no harm in it. Yes.
The questioner:
May Allah bless you, meaning if he sells it in the form of fresh milk and puts in it what preserves it without revealing it to the people, is this deception?
The Shaykh:
This is deception. But if he sells it as factory-made milk from the production of factories, there is no harm in that?
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، بعض التجار يقوم بإضافة بعض الكيماويات إلى اللبن ليتأخر فساده ويخفون ذلك عن الناس فما حكمه؟ الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.