JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s chief Sephardic rabbi, Shlomo Amar, issued a ruling saying that bug-free leafy vegetables represent a health risk and should not be used.
Bug-free brands of vegetables are popular among Orthodox Israelis, but they use a large amount of pesticides.
In his ruling issued this week, Amar recommended that Israelis buy regular vegetables and wash them well, as they used to in the days before the innovation of bug-free vegetables.
The method of growing bug-free vegetables was pioneered in the greenhouses of Gush Katif, the Jewish settlements of the Gaza Strip. A brand of bug-free vegetables under the name Gush Katif remains on the market, though the vegetables are grown in Israel now.
The ruling is dozens of pages and took several months to write, according to Ynet.
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