Frum Brands Asked to Make ‘Shabbos-Friendly’ Packages With Fewer Letters

(VINnews) — Ripping open packages on Shabbos creates a common Halachic issue which impacts many frum families, especially those with children. Packages which have lettering all around them, make it difficult to rip them open without destroying letters. (Please note: there may be other halachic issues associated with opening packages, however those are beyond the scope of this article).

The lettering poses a potential Melacha of erasing on Shabbos, at least according to many poskim, and now one vocal Jew is calling upon frum companies to make more “Shabbos-friendly” packages, which would contain ample space without letters.

The “Frum Tiktok” Twitter account posted:

“A request to all Kosher/Heimish food companies: Please make your products Shabbos friendly, so we can open them up without ripping any letters. Any company that would have Shabbos friendly packaging, would get rewarded by the consumers.”

Do any poskim permit cutting through letters in a destructive manner for the purpose of getting food?

Well, there is an Igrot Moshe YD 2:75 (left side, one paragraph before the end) where R’ Moshe writes (as summarized by R Doniel Yehudah Neustadt):

“The prohibition applies…

— Frum TikTok (@FrumTikTok) June 5, 2024

It certainly begs the question, why do companies NOT simply make packaging that avoids this issue? It certainly seems plausible.

The Twitter thread then gets involved in a detailed discussion about whether there are poskim who permit ripping the letters, since it is done without intent. (The Rama in OC 340 famously prohibits cutting a cake with lettering, which is very comparable to this scenario and seemingly a source to prohibit it.)

Either way, one wonders if there is any specific reason that the companies do not make Shabbos-friendly packages, as this is a source of frustration for many parents. In addition, it may chas v’Shalom lead to Melacha being done on Shabbos.

(It should be noted that seemingly there is less of a concern over ripping images or pictures on packages, however it is not clear why, since there seems to be a problem of “mechika” with images as well. This seems to be addressed by the Dagul Me’rvava regarding Matzos which used to have drawings on them)

Hopefully the frum food companies will respond to this request, and even better, it would be wonderful if they would change their packaging to accommodate this serious matter.

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