On Wed, 3 Dec 1997, Judith Murray Griffiths wrote:

> Would you mind telling me what "pareve" means?

Not at all.  This is a HUGE topic though, so I am just going to tell you
about food labelling.

The "pareve" designation is related to the kosher dietary laws, which do
not permit milk and meat to be eaten at the same time.  Foods which are
pareve contain neither meat nor milk.

In the US, the most common symbol indicating kosher status of food is the
letter U with a cirle around it.  You may see "pareve" or "parve" after
the U.  That means (for our purposes) that the food is completely
non-dairy and safe for us to eat.

The word "dairy" or the letter D after the heksher means that you do not
want to eat it.  Sometimes you may see the abbreviation "DE".  That stands
for "Dairy Equipment" and means that the food was prepared using
equipment which had been exposed to dairy products or to foods containing
dairy products.  The letter P means that the food is kosher for passover.
That is not the same as pareve.

If you are interested in a more detailed treatment of this topic, I think
we have a pareve FAQ for this mailing list. I am not sure how to access it
though.

Amanda