Ruling on eating tofu bacon Fatwa No: 137197
- Fatwa Date:23-6-2010
As a Muslim, i cannot eat swine but can i eat tofu bacon, otherwise known as facon?
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.
If the origin of this food is vegetarian but with pork flavor, then what should be looked at is whether its ingredients contain parts of pork, be it its meat or its fat or anything else, in which case, it is not permissible to eat it, because the pig is impure and forbidden to eat. Allaah Says (what means): {Prohibited to you are dead animals, blood, the flesh of swine,…}[Quran 5:3] Allaah also Says (what means): {…or the flesh of swine (pork, etc.) for that surely is impure.}[Quran 6:145]
However, if this flavor is extracted from a pure permissible product, then it is lawful to eat it as there is nothing that necessitates forbidding it.
Likening it to the smell of the flesh of swine does not mean that it is forbidden, however, it can be forbidden if the person who eats it intends to imitate those who eat pork because it is forbidden to imitate the dissolute people and the non-Muslims who eat pork.
Allaah Knows best.