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.