J.T. & Dale Robin Lockman wrote:
>
> Friends, there are so many things I want to respond to from recent
> postings, I could spend the day at the computer!  Not advisable, with
> two young boys on the loose!
>  I'll tackle the parve thing first.
>
> Robyn's explanation of the parve desgnation is right on ( as
> always....thank you Robyn!).
>
> In the last months I have been contacting some of the kashrut
> organizations ( and there are many) and have found one, in particular,
> to be extremely helpful (and concerned for the health of my boy).  This
> is the Kosher Overseers, in Los Angeles.  They have a fascinating
> website, (and a remarkably wonderful philosophy and mission) which I do
> not have at this moment, but will locate for anyone who wants it..just
> email me.  In response to a question I posed about the tolerance for any
> amount at all of dairy in a parve food, I received no less than three
> phone calls from several of their Rabbis from various locations around
> the country, AND a couple of emails.
>
> Here is, in a nutshell, what I learned:  There is no tolerance for any
> dairy of any kind intentionally added to any parve food.  (this I
> knew).  If an accidental contamination occurs, and the amount is less
> than 1/60th, it is considered OK.  Once the error is discovered,
> however, it must be corrected, and the area immediately made parve
> again.  The Rabbis are quite knowledgeable about the origins of food
> additives, and are extremely strict.  When I asked one of the Rabbis who
> called me about the possibility of milk protein being present in
> carageenan, as I read about here on this list, he was quite surprised,
> and had never heard that...carageenan is considered to be a neutral food
> (parve) ingredient.  He was going to look into it, and let me know if he
> found anything of interest.
>
> I also inquired about the different organizations and their different
> standards of practice,  I was assured that all of the organizations are
> orthodox-affiliated, and would be the same or similar in their
> interpretations of what a parve food would be.  I felt reassured, and
> continue to happily rely upon the various kosher heckshers for locating
> safe foods for my son.
>
> I have found some really great and fun products in the last couple of
> months, and will try to do a post listing some of these as soon as I can
> get my kids into bed tonight.  In the meantime, good luck to you all.  I
> always appreciate the helpful dialogue on this list.



Please, what is carageenan.