Friends, I just reread my own mail, and I made a boo-boo earlier today,
when I said that Rice Dream could be labelled Parve even if it had no
dairy, if it was made on dairy equipment or there was a chance of other
contamination.  THIS IS WRONG!!  What I meant to say is that the product
could be labelled DAIRY even if there were no dairy ingredients listed.
The Parve hecksher requires stringent separation of dairy (and/or meat)
foods from others.  Parve status means that the food is OK to be eaten
with either meat or dairy.  No cross contamination can occur, so if
there could be a danger of this, the product could be certified Kosher,
but not Parve.  In friends' homes who keep kosher, there are often two
sinks, definitely two sets of dishes and utensils, and I have even seen
two separate refrigerators in large homes with large families.  The
process for rendering equipment and utensils kosher is rigorous, and as
far as I know can be pretty well trusted.  Since discovering my son's
allergy, it is shopping the Parve hecksher that has made my life in the
grocery store even bearable!!

Each of the various organizations who provide kashrut certification have
different criteria for dealing with dairy-derived substances that have
been so processed tha tthey can no longer be considered a dairy item.  I
suggest looking at the home pages of these organizations, found by
searching "KASHRUTH" on your search engine.  The Orthodox Union even has
the Kosher Alerts I mentioned in my earlier posting.  These are updates
each day.  They also have someone called the "Vebbe Rebbe" (Web Rabbi)
who has answered numerous questions for us, and been very supportive and
helpful.

A while back, a fellow no-milk list person named Robin (?) provided the
most eloquent and clear explanation of the various kosher symbols I have
ever read.  I lost it when my computer crashed a few wekks ago, but if
anyone has it, it might be worth posting again.  It was posted around
Passover time in late April.

If I can be of help to anyone in navigatiing the kosher thing, feel free
to e-mail me directly.  I'm no expert, but I do have a lifelong working
knowledge of the basic concepts of this.

Dale Robin Lockman