So I was looking at the ingredient list of some popular flavored yogurt brands, (like Dannon) and what do I see… but “kosher gelatin” on the list. I looked at several brands and noticed the same thing. As far as I can tell, this is a recent development, I’ve never noticed gelatin in yogurt before. This was a source of some concern for me because I don’t eat beef products, and gelatin is usually made of inedible parts of beef.
Isn’t it impossible to mix gelatin with yogurt and still be kosher?
Could gelatin mixed with a milk product ever be a kosher food?
I understand there are such things as “gelatin substitutes” made from plant or algae sources, but always thought “gelatin” is a very specific animal product.
No. There are many thickening agents past gelatinous beef-related animal products that could permit Kosher consumption of thickened yoghourt. You could even have a beef-gelatin thickened yoghourt made of goat’s milk.
A Google search for “kosher gelatin” finds many articles on this: for instance, here. There are a number of ways around the milk-meat problem in this situation. Fish-derived gelatin is one possibility. Another is that (in the view of some authorities) hides treated by correct kosher procedure aren’t considered as meat, therefore hide-derived beef gelatin can be OK.
There is a thickening agent called “agar agar” made from seaweed. It is vegetarian and kosher. I don’t eat it cause anything the texture of gelatin gives me the creeps.