[RPG] Would the spell Purify Food and Drink remove physical hazards like bone shards from otherwise normal food

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In a session of the Hoard of the Dragon Queen adventure, our characters were sitting down to a campsite meal provided by the chuck wagon. Being aware that they were being hunted/stalked, the cleric of the party (a dwarf for what it's worth) cast Purify Food and Drink on their meal. They were getting ready to chow down when an NPC approached and advised them not to eat. This NPC then proceeded to fish or filter (I can't recall which now) several sharp bone that would have (we were informed) been quite deleterious to our health.

The DM ruled that since bone is not poisonous, it would not be affected by the spell. I say that, RAW, by the very definition of "purify", any harmful substance would be removed.

I researched the site and found a similar sort of question in: How great is the purifying power of Purify Food and Drink?, but it didn't precisely speak to the question at hand. Our DM requested that I post the question here seeking disinterested third-party opinions.

The description of the Purify Food and Drink spell says:

All nonmagical food and drink within a 5-foot-radius sphere centered
on a point of your choice within range is purified and rendered free
of poison and disease.

From the definition of "purified" on OxfordDictionaries.com:

  1. having had contaminants removed; cleansed.

The definition of "purify" on Dictionary.com:

  1. to make pure; free from anything that debases, pollutes, adulterates, or contaminates: to purify metals.
  2. to free from foreign, extraneous, or objectionable elements

The Merriam-Webster definition of purify:

: to make pure: such as

a : to clear from material defilement or imperfection

And of "pure":

1 a (1) : unmixed with any other matter
(2) : free from dust, dirt, or taint

"Purify" in the Cambridge English Dictionary:

(NOT MIXED) ​ to remove bad substances from something to make it pure:

[…]

(MAKE NOT MIXED) ​ to rid something of dirty or harmful substances

Whose interpretation, RAW, holds more water? Or, more to the point, would the spell Purify Food and Drink remove physical hazards like bone shards from otherwise normal food?

Please note the school of transmutation. To transmute is to change in form, nature, or substance.

Best Answer

Possibly yes, but in this case, no.

It's pretty reasonable to assert that purify food and drink would remove hazards like bone slivers from food. Personally, I'd rule that is does, since a spell designed to make food safe to eat should, you know, make food safe to eat. However, it's a reasonable ruling to make that the spell only affects "poison and disease", since those are the only effects mentioned in the spell.

However, since you're playing Hoard of the Dragon Queen, this is all immaterial. Spoilers ahead.

On page 38, in the Who's Your Friend section, Jamna Gleamsilver approaches the players and tells them that they have bone slivers in their gruel. There are no bone slivers in the gruel, but there's one stuck to her knife, which she dislodges into the player's gruel in order to get the players to trust her. There aren't any bone slivers to purify, and since the sliver wasn't in the gruel until Jamna stuck her knife in it, there was none to purify beforehand either.

To give a non-spoilery summary: in this case, purify food and drink would not have prevented the NPC from finding bone slivers in your food.

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