INTRODUCTION:
The Hebrew word kosher means fit or proper as it relates to kosher dietary
law. Kosher foods are permitted to be eaten, and can be used as
ingredients in the production of additional food items.
The basic laws of Kashrus (a Hebrew word referring to kosher and its
application) are of Biblical origin (Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 17). For
thousands of years, Rabbinic scholars have interpreted these laws and
applied them to contemporary situations. In addition, Rabbinic bodies
enacted protective legislation to safeguard the integrity of kosher laws.
The laws of kashrus are complex and extensive. The intention of this guide
is to acquaint the reader with some of the fundamentals of kashrus and
provide insight into its practical application. Given the complex nature
of the laws of kashrus, one should consult an Orthodox Rabbi whenever a
kashrus issue arises.
Though an ancillary hygienic benefit has been attributed to the observance
of kashrus, the ultimate purpose and rationale is to conform to the Divine
Will, as expressed in the Torah.
Not too long ago, most food products were made in the family kitchen, or
in a small factory or store in the local community. It was relatively easy
to ascertain if the product was reliably kosher. If Rabbinical supervision
was required, it was attended to by the rabbi of the community, who was
known to all. Today, industrialization, transcontinental shipping and mass
production have created a situation where most of the foods we eat are
treated, processed, cooked, canned or boxed commercially in industrial
settings, which can be located hundreds or thousands of miles away from
home.
What adds further complication is that it is generally not possible to
judge the kosher status of an item on the basis of the information
provided in the ingredient declaration for a variety of reasons.
First, the product may be made from kosher ingredients, but processed on
non-kosher equipment. Second, the USDA does not require the listing of
certain processing aids, such as pan liners and oils that serve as release
agents. Though not legally classified as ingredients, these items could
nonetheless render the product non-kosher. Third, many ingredients can be
kosher or non-kosher, depending on their source of origin. For example,
glycerin and emulsifiers are made from either vegetable or animal oils.
Finally, many ingredients are listed only in broad terms, with no
breakdown of the many complex components that make up the actual item. For
example, a chocolate flavor may contain 50 ingredients, but the ingredient
declaration will list this entire complex of ingredients as "flavors".
Unless a person is an expert in food production, the average consumer
cannot possibly make an evaluation of the kosher status, which is why it
is important to purchase only those products that have the endorsement of
a reliable kosher agency.
II. KOSHER AND NON-KOSHER MEAT, POULTRY, AND FISH
A. Meat:
The Torah states that kosher mammals are those which chew their cud
(ruminants) and are cloven-hoofed. The following animal species are
among those considered to be Kosher: Addax, Antelope, Bison, Cow, Deer,
Gazelle, Giraffe, Goat, Ibex and Sheep. In addition, meat and poultry
require special preparation, which will be discussed below.
B. Poultry:
The Torah does not enumerate specific characteristics to distinguish
permitted and forbidden birds. Instead, it enumerates 24 forbidden
species of fowl, while all other birds are considered to be kosher.
Nonetheless, for various reasons, in practice we eat only those birds
which have an established tradition that the species is kosher.
In the United States, the only poultry accepted by mainstream kashrus
organizations as kosher are chicken, turkey, duck and goose.
C. Fish:
The Torah establishes two criteria to determine what are kosher fish.
The fish must have fins and scales. The scales must be easily removable
without damaging the skin. [Generally, scales on kosher fish are either
thin, rounded and smooth-edged (cycloid) or narrow segments that are
similar to teeth of a comb (ctenoid)]. All shellfish are prohibited.
Unlike meat and poultry, fish requires no special preparation.
Nonetheless, the fish scales must be visible to the consumer in order to
establish the kosher status of the fish. Therefore, filleted or ground
fish should not be purchased unless properly supervised, or the fillet
has a skin tab with scales attached to the flesh. Furthermore,
purchasing fish in a non-kosher fish store is problematic, even if the
scales are intact, because the knives and tables are not kosher, and
Rabbinic guidance should be sought.
Rabbinic law prohibits consumption of fish and meat together.
Processed and smoked fish products require reliable rabbinic
supervision, as do all processed foods.
III. MEAT & POULTRY PROCESSING
A. Shechita:
The Torah requires that meat and poultry be slaughtered in a prescribed
manner known as shechita. The trachea and esophagus of the animal are
severed with a special razor-sharp, perfectly smooth blade, causing
instantaneous death with no pain to the animal. Only a trained kosher
slaughterer (shochet), whose piety and expertise have been attested to
by rabbinic authorities, is qualified to slaughter an animal for kosher
consumption.
B. Bedika:
After the animal has been properly slaughtered, a trained inspector (bodek)
inspects the internal organs for any physiological abnormalities that
may render the animal non-kosher (treif). The lungs, in particular, must
be examined in order to determine that there are no adhesions (sirchot),
which may be indicative of a puncture in the lungs. If an adhesion is
found, the bodek must further examine it carefully to determine its
kashrus status. It should be noted that in addition to fulfilling the
requirements of halacha (Jewish law), the bedika of internal organs
insures a standard of quality that exceeds government requirements.
C. Glatt Kosher:
Though not all adhesions render an animal non-kosher, some Jewish
communities or individuals only eat meat of an animal that has been
found to be free of all adhesions on its lungs. "Glatt" literally means
“smooth”, indicating that the meat comes from an animal whose lungs have
been found to be free of all adhesions. Recently, the term "glatt
kosher" is increasingly used more broadly as a generic phrase, implying
that the product is kosher without question.
D. Nikkur:
In some kosher animal species, many blood vessels, nerves and lobes of
fat are forbidden and must be removed. There are special cutting
procedures for beef, veal and lamb known as “Nikkur” (Hebrew word for
“excising”), which must be performed by a specially trained individual.
E. Koshering:
The Torah forbids the consumption of the blood of an animal. The two,
"Torah accepted" methods of extracting blood from meat, a process
referred to as “koshering”, are either salting or broiling.
Meat should not be placed in warm water before it has been “koshered”.
Once meat is cooked prior to koshering, it cannot be made kosher.
1. Salting:
The meat must first be soaked for a half hour in cool (not ice) water
in a utensil designated only for that purpose. After allowing for
excess water to drip off the meat, the meat is thoroughly salted so
that the entire surface is covered with a thin layer of salt. Only
coarse salt should be used. Both sides of meat and poultry must be
salted. All inside loose sections of poultry must be removed before
the koshering process begins. Each part must be soaked and salted
individually.
If the meat or poultry was sliced during the salting process, the
newly exposed surfaces of the cut must now be soaked for a half hour
and salted as well.
The salted meat is left for an hour on an inclined or perforated
surface to allow the blood to flow down freely. The cavity of the
poultry should be placed open, in a downward direction.
After the salting, the meat must be thoroughly soaked, and then
thoroughly washed to remove all of the applied salt.
According to kosher law, meat must be koshered within 72 hours after
slaughter so as not to allow the blood to congeal. If meat has been
thoroughly soaked prior to the 72 hours limit, an additional
seventy-two hours time stay is granted to complete the first step of
the salting process.
2. Broiling:
An alternate means of "koshering" meat is through broiling. Liver may
only be koshered through broiling, because of the preponderance of
blood in it.
Both the liver and meat must first be thoroughly washed to remove all
surface blood. They are then salted slightly on all sides.
Subsequently, they are broiled specifically on a designated
liver-broiling perforated grate over an open fire, which draws out the
internal blood. When koshering liver, slits must be made in the liver
prior to broiling.
The meat or liver must be broiled on both sides until the outer
surface appears to be dry and brown. After broiling, the meat or the
liver is rinsed off.
F. The Kosher Butcher:
Years ago, salting of meat and poultry was performed in the home of the
consumer. More recently, the kosher butcher performed salting in the
butcher shop. Today, the entire process of slaughtering, bedika, nikkur
and salting has shifted to the slaughterhouse. This allows for uniform
consistency of high standards. Nonetheless, the kosher butcher plays a
critical role in distributing the product. The butcher must be a person
of integrity and the store should be under reliable Rabbinic
supervision.
G. Packaging:
From the time of slaughter, kosher meat and poultry must be properly
supervised until it reaches the consumer. A metal tag called a plumba,
bearing the kosher symbol is often clamped on the meat or fowl to serve
as an identifying seal of supervision. Alternatively, the meat or fowl
is packed in tamperproof packaging with the kosher logo prominently
displayed.
H. Cost:
Because kosher meat and poultry have many processing requirements (shechita,
bedika nikkur and salting), which must be performed by specially trained
individuals, the labor costs associated with kosher meat and poultry are
significantly greater. This accounts for the higher cost of kosher meat
and poultry.
IV. CATERERS,
RESTAURANTS, HOTELS:
Caterers, restaurants, and hotels must be supervised by a reputable
Orthodox Rabbinic authority.
It cannot be assumed that kashrus is maintained simply because a kosher
impression is created by an advertisement or by a statement, such as, "we
serve a kosher clientele." Too often, 'vegetarian' or 'dairy' restaurants
are assumed to be kosher and beyond the need for supervision.
Unfortunately, this is a prevalent misconception. Fish, baked goods,
cheese, shortening, oil, eggs, margarine, dressings, and condiments are
among the many foodstuffs requiring supervision in 'vegetarian' and
'dairy' restaurants. Even those food items that are kosher in their raw
states could be rendered non-kosher when prepared on equipment used for
non-kosher food. For these reasons, reputable kosher supervision is
required.
V. MEAT AND MILK IN THE KOSHER KITCHEN
The Torah forbids: 1) cooking meat and milk together in any form; 2)
eating such cooked products, or 3) deriving benefit from them. As a
safeguard, the Rabbis extended this prohibition to disallow the eating of
meat and dairy products at the same meal or preparing them on the same
utensils. Furthermore, milk products cannot be consumed after eating meat,
for a period of time. There are different traditions for how long to wait
between meat and dairy, but the most prevalent custom is to wait six
hours.
Meat may be eaten following dairy products with the one exception of hard
cheese that is aged 6 months or more, which requires the same waiting time
as that of dairy after meat. Prior to eating meat after dairy, one must
eat a solid food, either drink a liquid or thoroughly rinse one’s mouth,
and check the cleanliness of ones hands.
A. Utensils:
Unless one is a vegetarian and meat is totally excluded from his
kitchen, a kosher kitchen must have two different sets of utensils, one
for meat and poultry and the other for dairy foods. There must be
separate, distinct sets of pots, pans, plates and silverware.
B. Washing Dishes:
Ideally, it is best to have two kitchen sinks, one for meat and the
other for dairy. If this is not feasible, and one uses one sink for both
meat and dairy, dishes and utensils should be placed and washed on a
rack, so as not to touch the sink. Separate racks are to be used for
meat and dairy use. Care must be taken to make sure that the water
should not be allowed to rise to reach the level of the rack, and dishes
cannot be soaked in a sink used for both dairy and meat.
VI. EGGS
The eggs (or other by-products)
of non-kosher birds or fish are not kosher. Caviar, therefore, must come
from a kosher fish and this requires reliable supervision. Commercial
liquid eggs also require supervision. Eggs of kosher fowl, which contain a
bloodspot, must be discarded, and therefore eggs should be checked before
use.
VII. SHORTENING AND OIL:
Government regulations
concerning the labeling of food ingredients have undergone strict changes.
Not only must the label specify the type of shortening, i.e., vegetable or
animal, but it must declare the actual source as well. Thus, it is
commonplace to find mention of cottonseed oil, lard, coconut oil, and
other oil sources. The result of this explicit label display is that the
consumer can easily detect what is blatantly non-kosher. However, it is
important to be aware that the kosher status of a product containing even
pure vegetable shortening can only be verified by reliable kosher
certification. The reason for this is that manufacturers of vegetable
shortening often process animal fats on common equipment. Pure vegetable
products may satisfy USDA guidelines for purity, however, in terms of
Jewish law, vegetable oil may be non-kosher because it is processed on
non-kosher equipment.
VIII. EMULSIFIERS:
Emulsifiers are complex
substances that are used in many types of food production. They can
perform a number of critical functions, among them acting as a surfactant
(reducing the surface tension of a liquid) thus making oil and water
soluble. Emulsifiers are critical components in many food items, such as
margarine, shortenings, cream fillings, toppings, coffee creamers,
whiteners, prepared cake mixes, donuts, puddings, ice cream, frozen
desserts, instant mashed potatoes, peanut butter, breakfast cereals,
chocolates and candies. Emulsifiers may be listed on the ingredient label
as polysorbates, glycerides, mono and diglycerides, sorbitan monostearates,
etc. Emulsifiers are produced from either animal or vegetable oil, and
emulsifiers require reliable kosher supervision.
IX. FLAVORS:
A critical sector of the food
industry is manufacturers of flavors. Flavors, whether artificial or
natural, are components of nearly every product. Flavor production is
highly complex and uses raw materials from every imaginable source. Some
common kosher sensitive ingredients used in flavors are fusal oil (which
may be extracted from grape juice), civet (a cat extract) and castorium (a
beaver extract). Since the ingredient declaration never includes a
breakdown of ingredients used in flavors, food items containing natural or
artificial flavors require reliable supervision.
X. FILLINGS AND CREMES:
All fillings, crèmes, and fudge
bases must be certified kosher because they may contain fats, emulsifiers,
gelatin stabilizers and flavors.
XI. BREADS, ROLLS, CHALLAH, BAGELS AND BIALYS:
These basic household staples
present several kashrus problems and require kashrus certification.
Many types of bread are made with oils and shortenings. Basic ingredients
of specially prepared dough mixes and dough conditioners are shortenings
and di-glycerides. In bakeries, pans and troughs in which the dough is
placed to rise and to bake are coated with grease or divider oils, which
may be non-kosher. These oils often do not appear on the label. There may
also be an issue of other non-kosher products prepared and baked on the
same equipment. These are some of the reasons that bread requires kosher
supervision.
It is Rabbinically prohibited to consume bread with dairy ingredients.
Since bread is frequently eaten at all meals, the Rabbis were concerned
that one might inadvertently eat dairy bread with a meat meal. There are
two exceptions - if the bread is baked in an unusual shape or design
indicating that it is dairy, or if the loaf is so small that it would be
consumed at one meal.
Jewish law requires that a portion of batter or finished baked product be
set aside for what is known as “challah”'. While any size portion is
adequate for challah, it is customary to separate a portion the size of an
olive. After separation, the challah is burned. This ritual is obligatory
only when the owner of the dough at the time of its preparation is Jewish,
and the dough is made from flour of any of the following five grains:
wheat, oats, rye, spelt, and barley. In addition, there is no requirement
to separate challah if the batter contains less than 2-1/2 pounds of
flour. If the batter contains at least 5 pounds of flour, a blessing is
recited before separating challah.
If this mitzvah has not been performed in the bakery, it may be performed
in the home by placing all the baked goods in one room, breaking open all
sealed packaged material, and taking a small piece from any of the baked
goods and burning it.
XII. CAKE, PASTRIES AND DOUGHNUTS
These products generally contain
shortening, emulsifiers, flavors and other kosher sensitive ingredients,
and therefore reliable supervision is necessary.
XIII. DAIRY PRODUCTS
A. Milk:
Rabbinic law requires that there be supervision during the milking
process to ensure that the source of the milk is from a kosher animal.
Following the opinion of many rabbinic authorities, OU policy is that in
the United States, the Department of Agriculture's regulations and
controls are sufficiently stringent to ensure that only cow's milk is
sold commercially. These government requirements fulfill the Rabbinical
requirement for supervision. However, some individuals are more
stringent and only consume milk that was produced with full-time
supervision. This is known as cholov yisroel.
B. Cheese:
All cheeses require kashrus certification, including hard cheeses
(Swiss, cheddar, etc.) and soft cheeses (cottage, farmer, pot, and cream
cheese). Rennet, processed from the stomachs of unweaned calves, is
often used in the production of hard cheese as a curdling and
coagulating agent. Kosher hard cheese is produced with microbial rennet,
which is derived from kosher sources. Because hard cheese is typically
made with animal rennet, the Rabbinic sages decreed that even when
animal rennet is not used, a full-time supervisor must be present to
guarantee the kosher integrity of the product. Hard cheese produced with
kosher ingredients and a full-time supervisor is known as gevinas
yisroel.
Soft cheeses may contain cultures and flavors that
are not kosher. Since these products are pasteurized, the kosher
integrity of the equipment is an issue as well.
XIV. PAREVE FOODS:
The adjective ‘pareve’ means that the
food item does not contain dairy or meat ingredients, and it was not
processed with heat on dairy or meat equipment. Pareve foods are neutral
and may be eaten with meat or dairy foods.
A. OU policy is that dairy or meat items
are labeled OU-D and OU Dairy or OU Meat respectively. An item that is
labeled OU without a suffix can be assumed to be pareve. Nonetheless, we
recommend checking the ingredients listed on the label, since on rare
occasions, the OU-D is inadvertently omitted.
B. Sherbets:
According to government standards, any product labeled 'sherbet' or
'fruit sherbet' must contain milk and is, therefore, not pareve. Water
ices may be pareve or dairy, which will be reflected in the OU
designation.
C. Margarine:
Margarine contains oils and glycerides and requires rabbinic
certification. Margarine may contain up to 12% dairy ingredients, and
some margarines are OU Dairy while others are pareve.
D. Many non-dairy creamers are, in fact, dairy and bear an OU-D. The
government requires that creamers be labeled “non-dairy” if milk
derivatives are used instead of whole milk.
XV. NATURAL AND
HEALTH FOODS
With the proliferation of so-called “Natural” or “Pure” and similarly
promoted health food products in the United States, some clarification is
in order with regards to their kashrus status. There is a mistaken notion
that natural products are inherently kosher. In fact, all non-kosher food
items are natural, and therefore natural has no bearing on the kosher
status.
XVI. WINES AND GRAPE PRODUCTS
All grape wines or brandies must be
prepared under strict Orthodox Rabbinic supervision. Once the kosher wine
has been cooked, no restrictions are attached to its handling. Such
products are generally labeled “mevushal”.
Grape jam (produced from grape pulp) as well as all varieties of jam and
jelly require supervision because they may be processed on non-kosher
equipment and may contain non-kosher additives.
Grape jelly is produced from grape juice and can be used only when
produced from kosher grape juice under proper supervision.
Natural and artificial grape flavors may not be used unless they are
kosher endorsed. Many grape flavors contain natural grape extracts and are
labeled artificial or imitation because other flavoring additives are used
in the formula.
Liqueurs require supervision because of the flavorings used in these
products. In addition, the alcohol base may be wine derived. |