WHAT IS KOSHER?
KOSHER FOODS ARE DIVIDED INTO THREE MAIN CATEGORIES:
MEAT, DAIRY AND PAREVE
MEAT
Kosher meat is ranked the most sensitive item and the details for kosher meat are numerous. In general for meat to be kosher it must first be a kosher animal requiring both signs as dictated in the bible. they must have split hooves and chew its cud. this restricts it basically to cows, goats, sheep, deer, and giraffe. other details of kosher is in the method of slaughtering where strict care is taken in regards to the sharpness of the special slaughtering knife cutting the trachea and esophagus to drain the blood of the animal the fastest. Aside from the production the supervision is of the highest standard requiring constant supervision.
DAIRY
Chalav Stam”Plain Milk”
– Generally all milk coming from a kosher animal is kosher. Milk coming from a non-kosher animal is not kosher. In the United States cows milk predominantly does not need supervision because there are such strict laws of the FDA regarding the mixing of other milk in product.
Chavlav Yisrael “Supervised Milk”
– The predominant law is that all milk needs to be supervised based on the possibility that non-kosher milk will be mixed with cows milk. although not likely in this country but in other countries where the law is not so strict it is treated as a highly sensitive item.
Cheese
Cheeses are a very sensitive item and require Kosher supervision. The reason being that in order to make hard cheese a rennet enzyme needs to be inserted in the milk. this rennet comes from the stomach of a cow and it must be kosher verified before inserting. even though these days many rennet’s are synthetically made Jewish law still requires and Kosher supervisor to administer the enzyme at production
In regards to other milk products since many manufacturers include other ingredients such as mono-diglycerides which could come from non-kosher sources so kosher certification is required. Yogurt plants and ice cream manufactures put gelatin in their product so in general these types of products need kosher certification.
PAREVE
The word pareve or parve meats simply neither meat or dairy. Such items include eggs, fish, grains, fruits and vegetables. There is a strict prohibition on mixing meat and dairy together. cheeseburgers are out of the question. Any products that contain milk and meat together are considered not-kosher of the strictest order. Parve products are items that can be eaten together with either milk or meat.
GO KOSHER!
A Kosher certification provides a marketing advantage over non-certified products, by offering a wide range of choices to traditional and non-traditional kosher consumers.