In a recent conversation, a good friend of mine decried the loss of her favorite yogurt. She is a strict vegetarian who won’t eat ‘normal’ gelatin, but was under the impression that kosher gelatin was acceptable. However, she subsequently read somewhere (no cite) that though it is not made with horse hooves or whatnot, it still contains animal products. This struck me as a bit odd, since it appeared that the yogurt was kosher. How could a dairy product that contains animal products be kosher? It was marked with a single “K” if that makes a difference.
So I am turning to the TM – is kosher yogurt made with kosher gelatin kosher for a vegetarian? Thanks, her palette awaits!
Rhythmdvl
kosher does NOT mean vegetarian. There are many kosher meat products.
I would like to point out though that contrary to the above posts claim PORK of any kind is never kosher.
Sure, kosher certainly doesn’t mean vegetarian. But many vegetarians rely on Kosher dairy products to be sure that they don’t contain meat (the whole no mixing thing). This is why it struck me as odd that meat products could be used as ingredients of a dairy product and remain kosher.
Which does beg the next question. If kosher gelatin can contain animal products that are so attenuated from their animal self such that they can be mixed with dairy, why don’t pork products fall into that same category?
“Gelatine”, if it’s really gelatine, is animal protein. Can’t get away from that. It’s the clear rubbery stuff that forms on the top of your cold chicken soup.
If it’s a plant-based thickener (agar, carrageen) then it’s not called “gelatine.”
Most kosher yoghurts don’t contain kosher gelatin, as the stuff’s pretty expensive and specialized. I think they use seaweed-based products instead. You mostly only see kosher gelatin in kosher marshmallows and jello, and you wouldn’t find those products outside of special kosher shops.
BTW, anything can be marked with a single “k”, since it’s a letter of the alphabet that can’t be trademarked. You can slap a K on a can of pork and beans, and it usually means that nobody outside of the company is monitoring that everything’s kosher, just that the company itself thinks that the product’s alright. Here is a list of kosher symbols, although I can’t vouch for all of them as many are regional and I’m thus not familiar with them. This is an explanation of why supervision and certification are necessary for kosher products.