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What is the ruling on eating Balut, which is a fertilized duck or chicken egg containing a nearly developed embryo, that is boiled and eaten with its shell?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Balut is an egg that has been incubated for 18 days, containing an embryo with a rudimentary skeletal structure. It becomes ready for consumption when it is between 16 and 20 days old. Eating this egg is forbidden (haram) because it is considered carrion (maitah). The Permanent Committee for Issuing Fatwas has issued a fatwa prohibiting the consumption of this egg, considering the formed chick inside the egg to be carrion that is not permissible to eat.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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