Q. Do you make a bracha on Listerine strips?
A. Chayei Adam (51: 15) rules that when tasting food, even if the food provides a pleasure sensation, if it is not swallowed, no brocho is recited. (See Vesein Brocho p. 203).
On Listerine Pocketpaks Strips, contemporary Poskim disagree. The following opinions are quoted in different articles. According to Horav Yisroel Belsky, Horav Forscheimer and Horav Doniel Neustadt, a shehakol is recited. However, Harav Ephraim Greenblatt, Horav Pinchos Bodner, Horav Wikler, Horav Felder, Horav Fuerst and others maintain that no brocho is said.
Harav Forst asserts that a bracha is said if it is being taken for flavor, but not if it is only taken for fresh breath. (See Halachically Speaking Volume 5, Issue 3, Page 4. et. al.).
Horav Shlomo Miller’s Shlit’a opinion is that no brocho is recited.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit’a
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