At 01:00 PM 2/2/97 -0500, Steve Carper wrote:
 
>The Jewish dietary laws prescribe a strict separation of meat from milk.
>Therefore a need arose for "neutral" dishes that contained neither that
>could be safely eaten at any meal.  "Parve" is taken from a Yiddish word
>meaning neutral.  One warning: parve is not at all the same as Kosher.
>Parve foods may or may not also be kosher: they do not have to be.  Kosher
>dairy foods abound; just because a food is kosher does not mean it contains
>no milk products.
 
I don't think there are any foods labeled PARVE that do not also claim to be
Kosher.  The Parve category is logical consequence of the Jewish dietary
laws.  Of course, this is of no concern to most of the readers of this
group...
 
>Here's one other source of confusion.  A "U" in a circle indicates that a
>food has been certified kosher by the Union of Orthodox Jewish
>Congregations of America.  A "U" in a circle followed by a capital "D" has
>two possible meanings.  It may mean that the food is kosher and contains
>milk products. It may mean that the food is kosher and has no milk but is
>produced using the same machinery that at other times is used for foods
>containing milk.  Check the ingredients list to be sure.  And the "U" "P"
>symbol means that the food is kosher for passover, NOT that it is parve.
 
        Nowadays one often sees "DE" for "Dairy Equipment" next to some kosher
symbols.  This means the food has no appreciable quantity of milk in it,
and was washed after being used with milk (we hope!), but the Jewish ritual
of changing the kitchen equipment from the milk category to the non-milk
category was not performed.  If you're a Baptist with milk allergies you
can treat kosher "DE" food as non-dairy, and scarf it down in quantity.
Lactose-intolerant religious Jews (like me) must treat it as being dairy
for some purposes and non-dairy for other purposes.  (Religion-intolerant
lactating Jews will have to figure things out for themselves...)
 
 
 
        Warren Seltzer
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