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.