Q. I travel on business often to China, where I visit some companies in different far off cities, that don’t have any kind of Jewish communities. I noticed that the life chickens in the market place look different than the ones we are accustomed to see in our countries, and since there is no local shechita, there certainly is no tradition on this birds to be kosher. Can I eat the eggs sold in the supermarkets?
A. Horav Shlomo Miller’s Shlit’a opinion is that first you should verify how different this chickens are from the common others, by taking a few pictures and consulting with a reliable Posek familiar with this type of shailes.
You should also find out if this kind of birds is not being consumed in other Asian provinces, where there is a Jewish community that keeps kosher, therefore creating an established “masores” or tradition that would permit it’s consumption.
If indeed it is declared to be different, and there is no permitting “masores” for this birds to be found, one should not consume the eggs as the are a “dovor hayotze min hatameh” or a food emanating from a non-kosher source and therefore prohibited. In doubt, one should also abstain.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit’a