Is the fatwa you issued permitting the use of vanilla, which contains alcohol, and which has opened the door to the use of food containing alcohol and intoxicants, correct and does it lead to the permissibility of adding alcohol to food during cooking?

Alcohol is an intoxicant and shares the same ruling as wine. It is not permissible to intentionally add it to food or medicine. However, if it has been added, then one should consider: if its proportion is consumed (i.e., negligible) such that its effect is not apparent and it does not intoxicate, then there is no harm in consuming it. But if its effect is apparent or it intoxicates, then its consumption is forbidden.

It is stated in the fatwas of the Permanent Committee: "It is not permissible to mix medicines with intoxicating alcohol. However, if they have been mixed with alcohol, their use is permissible if the percentage of alcohol is small, such that its effect does not appear in the medicine's color, taste, or smell, nor does it cause intoxication when consumed. Otherwise, the use of what is mixed with it is forbidden."

There is a difference between placing alcohol or wine in food or medicine—which is forbidden—and consuming food or medicine that contains alcohol. This latter case involves details: if this mixture does not intoxicate in large quantities and the effect of alcohol is not apparent in it, then it is not considered wine, and its consumption is permissible.