Selling spoiled or expired goods

A question about selling spoiled or expired goods, in which Jordan's General Iftaa Department answered that selling spoiled or expired goods, or tampering with their dates, is forbidden; a seller whose goods cause someone's death is a transgressor owing blood money (diya) and expiation, and the authorities may impose deterrent discretionary penalties. ¹

The questioner asked about the ruling on selling spoiled or expired goods to the public. ¹

The Department answered that Islam urges what is wholesome and forbids replacing it with the unlawful in spending and trade, citing Surat al-Baqara 2:267, Tafsir Ibn Kathir (1/697) on not turning from the lawful to the unlawful, and a hadith narrated by Ahmad and Ibn Majah that there is to be no harm and no reciprocal harm; this includes banning the sale of spoiled or expired food and tampering with production or expiry dates. ¹ It said that a trader who knows goods have expired is forbidden to sell them since they usually cause harm, that taking their price is consuming people's wealth wrongfully, citing Surat al-Nisa' 4:29, and that it is forbidden cheating, citing a hadith narrated by Muslim whose meaning is that whoever cheats does not belong to the Prophet's community. ¹ It said that if such goods cause a death and this is medically established, the one who caused it is a transgressor and transgression entails liability, like someone who places stones on a public road; deceiving buyers by selling spoiled goods as sound is a kind of coercion, quoting al-Juwayni in Nihayat al-Matlab (16/127) that selling poisoned food to someone likely to eat it resembles coercion because it leads to death. ¹ It concluded that a seller who knew the danger owes blood money and expiation as the cause if the food kills an eater who did not know, and likewise if he did not know it was spoiled, since the printed expiry date counts as notice to him; the authorities may impose deterrent discretionary penalties on those who sell such goods. ¹

Jordan's General Iftaa Department published this fatwa on aliftaa.jo as no. 3770, dated 21 May 2023. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.