Does eating pork break wudu?
No. Eating pork is haram, but it isn't one of the things that break wudu, so your wudu stays valid. Rinse your mouth well before you pray, since most scholars consider pork impure. If it happened by mistake, there's no sin on you, and pork you ate before becoming Muslim doesn't affect you at all.
Haram, but not a wudu-breaker
The Quran is clear that pork is forbidden:
But "forbidden" and "breaks wudu" are separate rules. Wudu is broken by a short list of things, like using the toilet, passing wind or deep sleep. Eating isn't on it. The Prophet ﷺ once ate cooked mutton, was called to prayer, and "prayed without repeating ablution" (Sahih al-Bukhari 208). No school counts pork as a wudu-breaker. See What breaks wudu?
Rinse your mouth
The majority of scholars consider pork itself najis (impure). So if you've eaten it, rinse your mouth thoroughly and wash your hands before praying, so nothing impure is on you. That's cleaning, not redoing wudu. If you're worried about cross-contamination in food, see Is it haram to eat food that touched pork?
The camel meat exception
The only food with a wudu rule is camel meat. A man asked the Prophet ﷺ whether to make wudu after mutton, and he said it was up to him. Then he asked about camel meat, and the Prophet ﷺ said, "Yes, perform ablution (after eating) camel's flesh" (Sahih Muslim 360).
- Hanbali: eating camel meat breaks wudu, based on this hadith.
- Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i: it doesn't. They read the hadith as recommended or later relaxed.
So even the one food that some scholars link to wudu is lawful meat. Pork's issue is that it's haram, not that it breaks wudu.
Mistakes and life before Islam
- By accident: if you ate something and only later learned it had pork or bacon in it, you didn't sin. The Quran teaches the dua "Our Lord, do not impose blame upon us if we have forgotten or erred" (Quran 2:286). Stop eating once you know, rinse your mouth, and move on.
- Before Islam: years of bacon and ham before your shahada don't leave you impure, and you don't need any special cleansing for them. Islam wipes the slate clean. See Are all my sins forgiven when I become Muslim?
If you're still curious about the reasons behind the ban, see Why can't Muslims eat pork?
- Eating pork is haram but doesn't break wudu.
- Rinse your mouth and hands before praying.
- Only camel meat breaks wudu, and only in the Hanbali view.
- Accidental pork and pork eaten before Islam carry no sin.
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