Chapter 11:

Chametz after Pesach

Chapter 11:

Buying Chametz Food Products at a Supermarket/Grocery after Pesach
After Pesach, one may not buy chametz at a retail grocery/market that was owned by a Jew during Pesach unless the Jewish owner sold their chametz (or their business)¹ over the Pesach holiday.
However, if you visit a supermarket, and you’re unsure if a Jew owns the store or not, and it is not a simple matter to find out, you may purchase chametz there without obtaining that information.
If you know the supermarket owner is Jewish but you’re unsure whether the chametz was obtained before or after Pesach, and it is not a simple matter to find out, you may purchase chametz there without obtaining that information.
If you know the supermarket owner is Jewish, and you have reason to believe that their chametz was sold over Pesach, and it is not a simple matter to clarify whether the Jewish owner sold his chametz or business over Pesach, you may purchase chametz there without that information.²

The proper way to sell chametz of a business that operates during Pesach and sells chametz during Pesach is to sell the entire business to a non-Jew for the entirety of Pesach. This is our practice for local Jewish-owned restaurants under our supervision. It should be noted that the largest food distributor in the U.S. is Jewish owned and each year they sell their business for Pesach through a major kashrut organization. See Igrot Moshe OC 1:149, Divrei Chaim 2:46, Chelkat Yaakov 3:31.
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The rationale for all these leniencies is that they are cases of safek (questionable) chametz she’avar alav hapesach, a rabbinical enactment for which we can rule leniently in a case of doubt (safek d’rabbanan l’kula) and thus we can be ‘toleh’ (assume the best-case lenient scenario is that which occurred.) See MB 449:5. There is no requirement to clarify the situation (birur) per S”A OC 160:11 etc. because it is a safek d’rabbanan where there is tircha involved. See Machtzit Hashekel and Livushei S’rad ibid.
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