http://www.earth-friendly.com/tillamook.php3
Look at the label. It clearly says “Kosher vegetarian” in red printing. It does exist!
Not so. If someone sold pork labelled as kosher they would probably be in violation of something. But kosher rules are very complex, as has been noted here, and while religious Jews might consider it approriate to follow this or that ruling, a secular court judge is not in a position to rule in such circumstances on whether something truly is or is not kosher. The courts have enough trouble distinguishing quack science from real science - imagine expecting a court to do this in halacha - let alone distinguishing between respectable views that are “accepted” and those that are not.
Further, because Conservative Jews have their own rulings on what constitutes kosher - as noted by dex above - a court would be hard pressed to settle the theological differences by declaring kosher to be according to one or the other. In fact, NY state law has for many years defined kosher as being according to Orthodox standards, and for this reason, it was recently struck down by the US 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, on SOCAS grounds.
I’m sure some of our Jewish colleagues here can give better info, but one of my friends that keeps Kosher once explained to me something similar about kosher foods and the k thing, telling me that he looked for the circled U (capital U with a circle around it), indicating that it WAS a trademark by a group of Rabbis, and they therefore could ensure that this was only used for foods that met their stricter kosher standards (and get paid every time someone puts it on their label ;))
Correct. That would be the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations.
Well, hey, getting a qualified Rabbi to check out a food processing plant costs money. The O-U is, in fact, a non-profit organization, but they still have expenses to meet.
There are well over 100 different symbols; some organizations are stricter about certain standards than others. Here is a list, although this is not nearly all:
It’s real and it’s out there.
I tried one brand out of curiosity (I am most definitely not a vegan) - it’s a bit like eating salty plasticene.
But you can sell kosher oysters in Louisiana.