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The
word kosher means proper or acceptable,
and it has informally
entered the English language with
that meaning. But kosher laws have their
origin in the Bible,
and are detailed in the Talmud and the
other codes of Jewish traditions.
They have been applied through the
centuries to ever-changing situations, and
these rulings, both ancient and modern,
govern OU Kosher certification.
You may
already be familiar with some of the more
well-known requirements, but you may be
surprised at the extent of the
regulations with which you are not
familiar.
The Bible lists the basic categories
of food items which are not kosher. These
include certain animals, fowl and fish
(such as pork and rabbit, eagle and owl,
catfish and sturgeon), and any shellfish,
insect or reptile. In addition, kosher
species of meat and fowl must be slaughtered in
a prescribed manner, and meat and
dairy products
may not be manufactured or consumed
together. |
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Why do so many foods require
kosher
supervision? For example, shouldn’t cereals and
potato chips be inherently kosher since they are
not made from meat, fowl, fish or insects? The
answer is that all units and subunits in a food
item must be kosher as well. Thus, for example,
a cereal may be non-kosher because it contains
a flavoring, which in turn contains civet, a flavor
enhancer extracted from an African cat-like
mammal. Potato chips can be non-kosher if the
vegetable oil used in the fryer has been
pasteurized and deodorized on equipment used
for tallow production. In fact, equipment used
for hot production of non-kosher products may
not be used for kosher production without
kosherization (a hot purging procedure).
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