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A guest disposing of treif ingredients found in host’s home

Question:

Rabbonim mechubodim, I have a question whose resolution is causing me much concern and distress. I’m a guest in the house of a divorced man whose kashrus observance has dropped significantly since his divorce. He still keeps general kosher laws but isn’t careful to check for hechshers at the grocery store.

So my basic question:
Would it be permissible for a guest to dispose of treif foods without/before informing their host? And would it be different between a host who is generally strong in kashrus observance versus if the host doesn’t care about kashrus? (I expect a strong shomer kashrus would be glad that the treif foods were removed.)

My kishkes say if I did this it might be considered stealing, but I wonder if there’s an aspect of lifney iver? It just kills me knowing my kind and generous host is eating treif and feeding his kids treif (his kids split time between his home and his ex’s). I know that he eats at treif restaurants and he has resisted my encouraging him to throw out treif foods or even to donate non-perishables to goyish food banks.

 

Answer:

Unfortunately, it looks like this person knows what is kosher and what isn’t and he is choosing to eat non-kosher. By throwing out the food that you can, this is not really helping avoid sinning because he will buy it again. Additionally, throwing out his property when he doesn’t allow it will be stealing on your part.
What you can do at this point is to encourage him emotionally, because he is obviously going thru a hard time. I”YH with time hopefully he will get back to himself and start eating kosher again.

 

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