> From it I understand that OU (without the Pareve) is still OK? I thoguht OU
>meant kosher (not non dairy). Sorry to be so dense, I have been avoicing OU,
>and just getting OU with the Pareve.

My read is that it's both kosher and pareve. It's stated unambiguously:

         OU SYMBOL -The products are Pareve (contains neither milk or meat
ingredients)

I think some food manufacturers add the "Pareve" designation to reinforce
it, but it appears to be unnecessary.

It's from www.ou.org, the official site of the Orthodox union, the agency
responsible for the OU hechsher (mark of rabbinical approval as kosher ).

Other organizations use other symbols. Apparently, there are more than 400
different kosher symbols around the world, with more than 80 rabbis and
organizations that certify foods as kosher (according to kashrus.com).  You
might find OU, Star-K, Circle-K, and a number of others.

A simple "K" does not necessarily mean something's kosher.  Many are, but
there's no guarantee and nobody necessarily watching.  According to
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/judaism/FAQ/11-Miscellaneous/section-20.html, "The
circled-U, circled-K, K-in-a-five-pointed-star, and k-in-a-letter-chaf are
widely accepted nationally-known kosher symbols. Other accepted kosher
symbols are only found in small local areas."

Here's a pretty definitive guide to kosher hechshers (brace yourself!):

         http://www.kashrut.com/agencies/


As with any labeling schemes, there are mistakes made in labeling, and
there are unscrupulous companies that intentionally mislabel their
products. The supervising agencies are quite vigilant, not wanting Jews to
inadvertently break the laws of kashrut (keeping kosher). Obviously,  the
consequences for the dairy allergic are more immediate than those for
people merely eating something not kosher (who's to say that they're more
or less severe :-).

Best thing is to look for pareve foods, and try them *carefully* the first
time - in small amounts and with rescue meds at hand.

We never try something truly risky if we're more than 20 minutes from an
ER, just in case.

Something labeled pareve along with an enforceable hechsher likely is much
lower risk than most other foods.

A long time ago there was a thread on this listserv about just what kosher
pareve means, and that there are procedures that a manufacturer can go
through to render dairy equipment usable for pareve foods. I don't recall
the exact ruling, but I recall that there is a procedure that passes muster
for the rabbis but does not guarantee that there are absolutely no dairy
molecules remaining in the machinery.  For my purposes, I'm willing to
accept the chances of meaningful contamination to be statistically near
enough to zero to be acceptable.

And, since there is the outside chance of mislabeling, there's always risk.
There are no absolute guarantees. Fortunately, this labeling scheme is
around. And it does help us.

Until there's political will (or economic pressure) to have rigorous and
enforced manufacturing and labelling standards, we have to go with what
we've got. Good, responsible manufacturers that label for allergens, and
kosher labeling agencies are the best we can do right now.

Mark