>Not true.  Many national brands can be found which label their products as
>parve, but do not go through the trouble and expense of having them
>certified as Kosher.
 
This declaration is considerably less reliable than true kosher certification
that an item is pareve.  They may not understand all the rules about what
counts as a dairy product, whereas a competent kashrut organization does.
 
Many companies claim a product is Kosher (and possibly also parve) without
reliable kashrut supervision.  A plain K on a box is a sign of this, or
K Parve without a "real" kosher symbol.  These foods are not considered
kosher by orthodox Jews, and I'd be more wary of their actual parve status,
even if they claim it on the package.  It is possible that such products
are processed on lines that have been used for milk products, and some
residual proteins may be present.
 
I have never seen a product claim to be parve without also explicitly
claiming to be kosher, but that doesn't mean it never happens.  I'd
argue that claiming to be parve includes an implicit claim of kashrut,
but of course that does not make it truly kosher.
 
--Robyn