Kosher consumers today are pretty savvy about the products they buy. But there is room for error, even if you read the ingredient labels. Consider, for example, how many of these foods you would assume to be pareve and how many are dairy?

1)  Ices  
2)  Non-dairy creamer  
3)  Tuna  
4)  Margarine  
5) Salad dressing  
6)  Potato chips

Answer: All six of these products could be dairy, though their names or ingredient panels would suggest otherwise. Fortunately, consumers can rely on the OUD printed on the label to tip them off to hidden dairy components. Because we get a good many inquiries from people asking “Why is this consid­ered a dairy product?” it is worthwhile to explain when and why we “D.”

For over a decade, all dairy OU certified products have been labeled OUD to help consumers who may not recognize ingre­dients such as lactose, whey and casein as dairy. To add to the kosher consumer’s confusion, there are dairy products that are labeled by. the manufacturer in a way that seems to imply that they are pareve, when in fact they are not. For example, creamers that contain less than a certain percentage of milk fat must be labeled “non-dairy creamer” to satisfy state and federal regulations. While the government considers these products non-dairy, halachah takes a different view. Accord­ingly, the OU communicates the presence of dairy components through the OUD symbol.

This policy has not been without pitfalls. Once the OU-D became a requirement, the absence of a “D” implies that the product is pareve, which is generally true. Yet, it takes a good deal of monitoring to ensure that every label is accurate. Some manufacturers can have as many as 5,000 different labels! In rare cases, the “D” is temporarily omitted due to a printing error. For this reason we continue to advise consumers not to assume a product is pareve before reading the ingredient panel.

There is a common misimpression that the OU-D is printed on products which have no obvious dairy ingredients listed on their labels because companies are not required to list ingredi­ents that are less than a certain percentage. In fact, this is not true. In truth, there are three main reasons for the “D” designation when dairy ingredients do not appear on the label.

1.  While labeling regulations frequently do require the listing of trace ingredients that are even less than one percent, the law allows the use of certain general terms without itemizing each component. For example, many foods (such as ices, salad dressing, and non-dairy creamers) contain natural or artificial flavors. Flavors contain numerous ingredients that are blended to duplicate a particular taste. The flavor may contain natural dairy derivatives, but the only item appearing on the ingredient panel is the general term “flavors.” Another case in point is hydrolized vegetable protein, typically used in soups and seasonings, which may contain casein, a dairy ingredient. Casein will not be identified separately from the vegetable protein on the label. There are numerous other ingredients that may mask the presence of a dairy component.  

2.  The product may be made from ingredients that are totally pareve, but the item is made on equipment that is used for dairy production (for example, margarine, nuts and potato chips). In many cases, companies clean carefully between one production and the next. Nonetheless, if dairy and non-dairy products are both made with heat, non-dairy items will be labeled OU-D. A product manufactured on dairy equipment has a different set of halachic rules than a product that contains dairy ingredients. The product may be eaten after a meat meal, but it may not be eaten together with meat. Because of this distinction, some kashruth organizations have established a special category of products made on dairy equipment, and have instituted a D.E. symbol. To avoid confusion, the OU has chosen not to use the D.E. categorization. We feel that many people will not be familiar with the ramifications of this halachic status.  

3.  If the dairy and non-dairy products are compatible, the company may produce one after the other on the same machin­ery without any clean up. In this situation, residual dairy material may find its way into an otherwise pareve product. For example, chocolate companies generally do not clean their production lines with water because the presence of even a minute amount of water could ruin the chocolate. A cookie company may run a pareve formula after a butter cookie without doing a cleanup.  

It is important to note that dairy ingredients or dairy residual material often are present in products at very low levels. According to halachah, a dairy component which is less than one part in sixty may be botel nullified. Nonetheless, as a matter of policy, the OU will not imply a product is pareve by printing an OU without a “D” on the label, even though the dairy component is at trace level.

Why have we adopted a policy which seems more stringent than halachah requires? There are a number of reasons:

A.   The halachah measures the ratio between dairy and non-dairy ingredients by volume and not by weight. Generally, in industrial settings, ingre­dients are measured by weight. As a result, it is often difficult to receive an accurate calculation from a manufacturer of the percentage of dairy ingredients by volume, since companies do not measure ingredients by volume.

B.    It is difficult to monitor the levels of ingre­dients used in products. Even if a precise calcula­tion of ingredient ratios is made, how would we know that the company does not change the per­centages in a given product? Because of the complications in overseeing a bitul (nullification) situation, the OU does not wish to rely on bitul.

C.    There are instances when, according to halachah, a trace ingredient is not nullified because of the critical function of the item. In order to decide whether the principle of nullification ap­plies to an ingredient, it is first necessary to fully understand the effect of that ingredient on the food product in question. Because of the intricacy of the halachic principles, as well as the complexity of food technology, the OU requires the OU-D label on all foods containing dairy ingredi­ents, irrespective of the amounts used.

Consumers often call our office to inquire if a dairy ingredient is botel. A case in point are the many brands of tuna that are labeled OU-D be­cause of the presence of sodium caseinate (a milk derivative) which is used in vegetable broth. May one eat OU-D tuna within six hours of a meat meal? The difficulty in responding to this question re­flects some of the issues raised above. We have made numerous attempts to evaluate the levels of sodium caseinate in tuna, but have found it difficult to make conclusive statements. Some companies have had difficulty calculating the volume of so­dium caseinate. Other companies have given us their calculations, but we have found that the formulae change and the levels of ingredients do not remain constant. As such, we are reluctant to make definitive statements about the percentages of casein in tuna.

Of course, if an ingredient panel lists milk, milk powder, cream, butter, whey, lactose, sodium case­mate, calcium caseinate or casein, the product is obviously dairy. But even if there is nothing dairy discernible on the label, the OU-D is there to protect you from a kashruth error.

Rabbi Luban is a Senior Rabbinic Coordinator in the OU Kashruth Division.

This article appeared in the Summer 5752/1992 issue of Jewish Action