Question: Is food containing Vanilla or Vanillin permissible to consume? I understand ethyl alcohol/ethanol is the type that causes intoxication. Yet, alcohols are an entire group of chemical compounds, common in the inclusion of the -OH molecular group in their chemistry. The different types of alcohol compounds used commercially have many varying properties, with only ethanol being an intoxicant. My question is that the compound Guaiacol is used to synthesise vanillin from the vanilla bean industrially. This is not an intoxicant, but merely an alcohol compound. Should foods containing vanillin/vanilla extract, therefore, be prohibited for consumption by Muslims?

Answer: If the vanillin is made with guaiacol it will be permissible, however if it is made with ferulic acid it will be called natural vanillin and may have alcohol. Also, vanilla extract contains 35% ethanol and will also considered to be not permissible.


And Allah knows best.
Maulana Sheraz Ali
Darul Uloom Halaal Committee