On Thu, 1 Jul 1999 22:54:47 -0400 Midas Gold <[log in to unmask]>
writes:
>alexs wrote:
>
>> Coffee Mate claims it's "dairy free" but that's either a lie or a
>> damned strange definition of "dairy".
>
>You can say that again.  Ever notice how many so-called "non-dairy"
>products have a great big letter "D" right next to the kosher symbol?


Bear in mind that kosher certification involves a high degree of
technicality.  While many manufacturers wish, for various reasons, to
have their products comply with kosher requirements, there are some
aspects which would incur higher production costs.  This  would include
operating entirely separate production lines for similar products which
differ mainly in that some actually contain dairy ingredients, and some
do not.  Once equipment is used for "dairy," ANYTHING else produced in
that equipment is ALSO considered "dairy" unless the equipment is
specially broken down (at some expense), and ritually cleaned (usually
involving flames) and certified as once again "non-dairy."

Therefore, any "dairy" equipment can NEVER be used for processing "meat"
products unless so cleaned, BUT it CAN be used (with normal, non-ritual
cleaning) for producing products that would otherwise be actually
non-dairy (pareve/parve) for all practical purposes, including paleo.
This means nothing to anyone not following kashrut, and even for those
who do keep kosher, it only creates a small inconvenience in that those
"non-dairy dairy" products must still be treated as dairy, and cannot be
consumed with meat, even there are no actual dairy products in them.

If you want to rely on kosher certification for identification of
non-dairy products, the word "pareve" or "parve" guarantees that there is
no dairy.  However, if you see something marked kosher-dairy, you might
still read the ingredients and decide that there really are no dairy
products in it, and therefore it should still be paleo-legal.



___________________________________________________________________
Get the Internet just the way you want it.
Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month!
Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj.