Someone cooked a korban (offering) and regular food together in one pot. Or he cooked higher-level korbanot (offerings) with lower-level korbanot together. Halacha (Jewish law) has its followings. If there’s enough of the higher-level korban—or enough korban there—to give taste to the other food, then the more lenient food—in those two cases, the regular food in the first one and the lower-level korban meat in the second—would have to be eaten under the same laws as the stricter food, because of the taste of that higher-level food. The kodashim kalim (offerings of lesser sanctity), or the korban meat, gives the flavor over to the other, less-holy meat, and therefore that meat takes on the stringencies of the higher level of holiness of that korban. So they would only be allowed to be eaten in the courtyard by male kohanim (priests), and during the appropriate time period. The kodashim (sacred offerings) are allowed to be eaten on the day that the korban was brought, and on the night afterwards.
Chachamim (Sages) explained at this point in the Mishnah that we add something missing in our version: the pots have to be purged and rinsed, and the lenient food that absorbed the flavor of the stricter food disqualifies other food by touch, by contact. If the lenient food was in touch with the kodashim meat, and the kodashim meat gives taste to it—let’s say both of them were hot—then that food also acquires all the stringencies of that higher-level korban, and would also become disqualified as notar (meat left beyond its time) at the same point when the kodshei kodashim (most sacred offerings) also become notar. The flavor of the kodshei kodashim goes into the kodashim kalim, and from there to another food, and therefore the other food takes on all the stringencies, even though the flavor was passed from food to food. So we add that into this part of the Mishnah.
But that’s only in a situation where there is a sufficient amount of higher-level food that would pass the flavor over to the more lenient food. The pots would not be required to be purged and rinsed. The lenient foods don’t disqualify other foods by touching them. We’re talking here about a situation where the lenient foods were with strict food, but there was no transfer of taste because of the amount that was there. So if there was no transfer of taste, we don’t have to worry about anything. There’s no need to kosher or purge the pots. And there’s no transfer of flavor, so the lenient foods wouldn’t disqualify other foods by touching them.
We’ll add in one more detail. If you have a mincha (meal offering) that was disqualified, and its wafer was disqualified, and it touched a permitted wafer and transferred over some of the taste—let’s say both of the wafers were hot—or a slice of meat from a disqualified korban touched a permitted slice of meat and also transferred some of the taste to it, again, as if they were hot, we don’t say that the entire second wafer or the entire second slice of meat becomes forbidden. Only the spot that absorbed the forbidden flavor from the disqualified wafer or the disqualified korban becomes forbidden. The parts of the second wafer or the second slice to which the flavor did not spread remain permitted.