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Kosher Catering
The Hebrew word kosher means fit or proper as it relates to kosher
dietary law. Kosher foods are permitted to be eaten, and can be used as
ingredients in the production of additional food items.
The basic laws of Kashrus (a Hebrew word referring to kosher and its
application) are of Biblical origin (Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 17).
For thousands of years, Rabbinic scholars have interpreted these laws
and applied them to contemporary situations. In addition, Rabbinic
bodies enacted protective legislation to safeguard the integrity of
kosher laws.
The laws of kashrus are complex and extensive. The intention of this
guide is to acquaint the reader with some of the fundamentals of
kashrus and provide insight into its practical application. Given the
complex nature of the laws of kashrus, one should consult an Orthodox
Rabbi whenever a kashrus issue arises.
Though an ancillary hygienic benefit has been attributed to the
observance of kashrus, the ultimate purpose and rationale is to conform
to the Divine Will, as expressed in the Torah.
Not too long ago, most food products were made in the family kitchen,
or in a small factory or store in the local community. It was
relatively easy to ascertain if the product was reliably kosher. If
Rabbinical supervision was required, it was attended to by the rabbi of
the community, who was known to all. Today, industrialization,
transcontinental shipping and mass production have created a situation
where most of the foods we eat are treated, processed, cooked, canned
or boxed commercially in industrial settings, which can be located
hundreds or thousands of miles away from home.
What adds further complication is that it is generally not possible to
judge the kosher status of an item on the basis of the information
provided in the ingredient declaration for a variety of reasons.
First, the product may be made from kosher ingredients, but processed
on non-kosher equipment. Second, the USDA does not require the listing
of certain processing aids, such as pan liners and oils that serve as
release agents. Though not legally classified as ingredients, these
items could nonetheless render the product non-kosher. Third, many
ingredients can be kosher or non-kosher, depending on their source of
origin. For example, glycerin and emulsifiers are made from either
vegetable or animal oils. Finally, many ingredients are listed only in
broad terms, with no breakdown of the many complex components that make
up the actual item. For example, a chocolate flavor may contain 50
ingredients, but the ingredient declaration will list this entire
complex of ingredients as "flavors".
Unless a person is an expert in food production, the average consumer
cannot possibly make an evaluation of the kosher status, which is why
it is important to purchase only those products that have the
endorsement of a reliable kosher agency.
II. KOSHER AND NON-KOSHER MEAT, POULTRY, AND FISH
A. Meat:
The Torah states that kosher mammals are those
which chew their cud (ruminants) and are cloven-hoofed. The following
animal species are among those considered to be Kosher: Addax,
Antelope, Bison, Cow, Deer, Gazelle, Giraffe, Goat, Ibex and Sheep. In
addition, meat and poultry require special preparation, which will be
discussed below.
B. Poultry:
The Torah does not enumerate specific
characteristics to distinguish permitted and forbidden birds. Instead,
it enumerates 24 forbidden species of fowl, while all other birds are
considered to be kosher. Nonetheless, for various reasons, in practice
we eat only those birds which have an established tradition that the
species is kosher.
In the United States, the only poultry accepted by mainstream
kashrus organizations as kosher are chicken, turkey, duck and goose.
C. Fish:
The Torah establishes two criteria to determine
what are kosher fish. The fish must have fins and scales. The scales
must be easily removable without damaging the skin. [Generally, scales
on kosher fish are either thin, rounded and smooth-edged (cycloid) or
narrow segments that are similar to teeth of a comb (ctenoid)]. All
shellfish are prohibited. Unlike meat and poultry, fish requires no
special preparation. Nonetheless, the fish scales must be visible to
the consumer in order to establish the kosher status of the fish.
Therefore, filleted or ground fish should not be purchased unless
properly supervised, or the fillet has a skin tab with scales attached
to the flesh. Furthermore, purchasing fish in a non-kosher fish store
is problematic, even if the scales are intact, because the knives and
tables are not kosher, and Rabbinic guidance should be sought.
Rabbinic law prohibits consumption of fish and meat together.
Processed and smoked fish products require reliable rabbinic supervision, as do all processed foods.
III. MEAT & POULTRY PROCESSING
A. Shechita:
The Torah requires that meat and poultry be
slaughtered in a prescribed manner known as shechita. The trachea and
esophagus of the animal are severed with a special razor-sharp,
perfectly smooth blade, causing instantaneous death with no pain to the
animal. Only a trained kosher slaughterer (shochet), whose piety and
expertise have been attested to by rabbinic authorities, is qualified
to slaughter an animal for kosher consumption.
B. Bedika:
After the animal has been properly
slaughtered, a trained inspector (bodek) inspects the internal organs
for any physiological abnormalities that may render the animal
non-kosher (treif). The lungs, in particular, must be examined in order
to determine that there are no adhesions (sirchot), which may be
indicative of a puncture in the lungs. If an adhesion is found, the
bodek must further examine it carefully to determine its kashrus
status. It should be noted that in addition to fulfilling the
requirements of halacha (Jewish law), the bedika of internal organs
insures a standard of quality that exceeds government requirements.
C. Glatt Kosher:
Though not all adhesions render an
animal non-kosher, some Jewish communities or individuals only eat meat
of an animal that has been found to be free of all adhesions on its
lungs. "Glatt" literally means “smooth”, indicating that the meat comes
from an animal whose lungs have been found to be free of all adhesions.
Recently, the term "glatt kosher" is increasingly used more broadly as
a generic phrase, implying that the product is kosher without question.
D. Nikkur:
In some kosher animal species, many blood
vessels, nerves and lobes of fat are forbidden and must be removed.
There are special cutting procedures for beef, veal and lamb known as
“Nikkur” (Hebrew word for “excising”), which must be performed by a
specially trained individual.
E. Koshering:
The Torah forbids the consumption of the
blood of an animal. The two Torah accepted methods of extracting blood
from meat, a process referred to as “koshering”, are either salting or
broiling.
Meat should not be placed in warm water before it has been
“koshered”. Once meat is cooked prior to koshering, it cannot be made
kosher.
1. Salting:
The meat must first be soaked for a half
hour in cool (not ice) water in a utensil designated only for that
purpose. After allowing for excess water to drip off the meat, the meat
is thoroughly salted so that the entire surface is covered with a thin
layer of salt. Only coarse salt should be used. Both sides of meat and
poultry must be salted. All inside loose sections of poultry must be
removed before the koshering process begins. Each part must be soaked
and salted individually.
If the meat or poultry was sliced during the salting process, the
newly exposed surfaces of the cut must now be soaked for a half hour
and salted as well.
The salted meat is left for an hour on an inclined or perforated
surface to allow the blood to flow down freely. The cavity of the
poultry should be placed open, in a downward direction.
After the salting, the meat must be thoroughly soaked, and then thoroughly washed to remove all of the applied salt.
According to kosher law, meat must be koshered within 72 hours
after slaughter so as not to allow the blood to congeal. If meat has
been thoroughly soaked prior to the 72 hours limit, an additional
seventy-two hours time stay is granted to complete the first step of
the salting process.
2. Broiling:
An alternate means of "koshering" meat
is through broiling. Liver may only be koshered through broiling,
because of the preponderance of blood in it.
Both the liver and meat must first be thoroughly washed to remove
all surface blood. They are then salted slightly on all sides.
Subsequently, they are broiled specifically on a designated
liver-broiling perforated grate over an open fire, which draws out the
internal blood. When koshering liver, slits must be made in the liver
prior to broiling.
The meat or liver must be broiled on both sides until the outer
surface appears to be dry and brown. After broiling, the meat or the
liver is rinsed off.
F. The Kosher Butcher:
Years ago, salting of meat and
poultry was performed in the home of the consumer. More recently, the
kosher butcher performed salting in the butcher shop. Today, the entire
process of slaughtering, bedika, nikkur and salting has shifted to the
slaughterhouse. This allows for uniform consistency of high standards.
Nonetheless, the kosher butcher plays a critical role in distributing
the product. The butcher must be a person of integrity and the store
should be under reliable Rabbinic supervision.
G. Packaging:
From the time of slaughter, kosher meat and
poultry must be properly supervised until it reaches the consumer. A
metal tag called a plumba, bearing the kosher symbol is often clamped
on the meat or fowl to serve as an identifying seal of supervision.
Alternatively, the meat or fowl is packed in tamperproof packaging with
the kosher logo prominently displayed.
H. Cost:
Because kosher meat and poultry have many
processing requirements (shechita, bedika nikkur and salting), which
must be performed by specially trained individuals, the labor costs
associated with kosher meat and poultry are significantly greater. This
accounts for the higher cost of kosher meat and poultry.
IV. CATERERS, RESTAURANTS, HOTELS:
Caterers, restaurants, and hotels must be supervised by a reputable Orthodox Rabbinic authority.
It cannot be assumed that kashrus is maintained simply because a kosher
impression is created by an advertisement or by a statement, such as,
"we serve a kosher clientele." Too often, 'vegetarian' or 'dairy'
restaurants are assumed to be kosher and beyond the need for
supervision. Unfortunately, this is a prevalent misconception. Fish,
baked goods, cheese, shortening, oil, eggs, margarine, dressings, and
condiments are among the many foodstuffs requiring supervision in
'vegetarian' and 'dairy' restaurants. Even those food items that are
kosher in their raw states could be rendered non-kosher when prepared
on equipment used for non-kosher food. For these reasons, reputable
kosher supervision is required.
V. MEAT AND MILK IN THE KOSHER KITCHEN
The Torah forbids: 1) cooking meat and milk together in any form; 2)
eating such cooked products, or 3) deriving benefit from them. As a
safeguard, the Rabbis extended this prohibition to disallow the eating
of meat and dairy products at the same meal or preparing them on the
same utensils. Furthermore, milk products cannot be consumed after
eating meat, for a period of time. There are different traditions for
how long to wait between meat and dairy, but the most prevalent custom
is to wait six hours.
Meat may be eaten following dairy products with the one exception of
hard cheese that is aged 6 months or more, which requires the same
waiting time as that of dairy after meat. Prior to eating meat after
dairy, one must eat a solid food, either drink a liquid or thoroughly
rinse one’s mouth, and check the cleanliness of ones hands.
A. Utensils:
Unless one is a vegetarian and meat is
totally excluded from his kitchen, a kosher kitchen must have two
different sets of utensils, one for meat and poultry and the other for
dairy foods. There must be separate, distinct sets of pots, pans,
plates and silverware.
B. Washing Dishes:
Ideally, it is best to have two
kitchen sinks, one for meat and the other for dairy. If this is not
feasible, and one uses one sink for both meat and dairy, dishes and
utensils should be placed and washed on a rack, so as not to touch the
sink. Separate racks are to be used for meat and dairy use. Care must
be taken to make sure that the water should not be allowed to rise to
reach the level of the rack, and dishes cannot be soaked in a sink used
for both dairy and meat.
VI. EGGS
The eggs (or other by-products) of non-kosher birds or fish are not
kosher. Caviar, therefore, must come from a kosher fish and this
requires reliable supervision. Commercial liquid eggs also require
supervision. Eggs of kosher fowl, which contain a bloodspot, must be
discarded, and therefore eggs should be checked before use.
VII. SHORTENING AND OIL:
Government regulations concerning the labeling of food ingredients have
undergone strict changes. Not only must the label specify the type of
shortening, i.e., vegetable or animal, but it must declare the actual
source as well. Thus, it is commonplace to find mention of cottonseed
oil, lard, coconut oil, and other oil sources. The result of this
explicit label display is that the consumer can easily detect what is
blatantly non-kosher. However, it is important to be aware that the
kosher status of a product containing even pure vegetable shortening
can only be verified by reliable kosher certification. The reason for
this is that manufacturers of vegetable shortening often process animal
fats on common equipment. Pure vegetable products may satisfy USDA
guidelines for purity, however, in terms of Jewish law, vegetable oil
may be non-kosher because it is processed on non-kosher equipment.
VIII. EMULSIFIERS:
Emulsifiers are complex substances that are used in many types of food
production. They can perform a number of critical functions, among them
acting as a surfactant (reducing the surface tension of a liquid) thus
making oil and water soluble. Emulsifiers are critical components in
many food items, such as margarine, shortenings, cream fillings,
toppings, coffee creamers, whiteners, prepared cake mixes, donuts,
puddings, ice cream, frozen desserts, instant mashed potatoes, peanut
butter, breakfast cereals, chocolates and candies. Emulsifiers may be
listed on the ingredient label as polysorbates, glycerides, mono and
diglycerides, sorbitan monostearates, etc. Emulsifiers are produced
from either animal or vegetable oil, and emulsifiers require reliable
kosher supervision.
IX. FLAVORS:
A critical sector of the food industry is manufacturers of flavors.
Flavors, whether artificial or natural, are components of nearly every
product. Flavor production is highly complex and uses raw materials
from every imaginable source. Some common kosher sensitive ingredients
used in flavors are fusal oil (which may be extracted from grape
juice), civet (a cat extract) and castorium (a beaver extract). Since
the ingredient declaration never includes a breakdown of ingredients
used in flavors, food items containing natural or artificial flavors
require reliable supervision.
X. FILLINGS AND CREMES:
All fillings, crèmes, and fudge bases must be certified kosher because
they may contain fats, emulsifiers, gelatin stabilizers and flavors.
XI. BREADS, ROLLS, CHALLAH, BAGELS AND BIALYS:
These basic household staples present several kashrus problems and require kashrus certification.
Many types of bread are made with oils and shortenings. Basic
ingredients of specially prepared dough mixes and dough conditioners
are shortenings and di-glycerides. In bakeries, pans and troughs in
which the dough is placed to rise and to bake are coated with grease or
divider oils, which may be non-kosher. These oils often do not appear
on the label. There may also be an issue of other non-kosher products
prepared and baked on the same equipment. These are some of the reasons
that bread requires kosher supervision.
It is Rabbinically prohibited to consume bread with dairy ingredients.
Since bread is frequently eaten at all meals, the Rabbis were concerned
that one might inadvertently eat dairy bread with a meat meal. There
are two exceptions - if the bread is baked in an unusual shape or
design indicating that it is dairy, or if the loaf is so small that it
would be consumed at one meal.
Jewish law requires that a portion of batter or finished baked product
be set aside for what is known as “challah”'. While any size portion is
adequate for challah, it is customary to separate a portion the size of
an olive. After separation, the challah is burned. This ritual is
obligatory only when the owner of the dough at the time of its
preparation is Jewish, and the dough is made from flour of any of the
following five grains: wheat, oats, rye, spelt, and barley. In
addition, there is no requirement to separate challah if the batter
contains less than 2-1/2 pounds of flour. If the batter contains at
least 5 pounds of flour, a blessing is recited before separating
challah.
If this mitzvah has not been performed in the bakery, it may be
performed in the home by placing all the baked goods in one room,
breaking open all sealed packaged material, and taking a small piece
from any of the baked goods and burning it.
XII. CAKE, PASTRIES AND DOUGHNUTS
These products generally contain shortening, emulsifiers, flavors and
other kosher sensitive ingredients, and therefore reliable supervision
is necessary.
XIII. DAIRY PRODUCTS
A. Milk:
Rabbinic law requires that there be supervision
during the milking process to ensure that the source of the milk is
from a kosher animal. Following the opinion of many rabbinic
authorities, OU policy is that in the United States, the Department of
Agriculture's regulations and controls are sufficiently stringent to
ensure that only cow's milk is sold commercially. These government
requirements fulfill the Rabbinical requirement for supervision.
However, some individuals are more stringent and only consume milk that
was produced with full-time supervision. This is known as cholov
yisroel.
B. Cheese:
All cheeses require kashrus certification,
including hard cheeses (Swiss, cheddar, etc.) and soft cheeses
(cottage, farmer, pot, and cream cheese). Rennet, processed from the
stomachs of unweaned calves, is often used in the production of hard
cheese as a curdling and coagulating agent. Kosher hard cheese is
produced with microbial rennet, which is derived from kosher sources.
Because hard cheese is typically made with animal rennet, the Rabbinic
sages decreed that even when animal rennet is not used, a full-time
supervisor must be present to guarantee the kosher integrity of the
product. Hard cheese produced with kosher ingredients and a full-time
supervisor is known as gevinas yisroel.
Soft cheeses may contain cultures and flavors that are not kosher.
Since these products are pasteurized, the kosher integrity of the
equipment is an issue as well.
XIV. PAREVE FOODS:
The adjective ‘pareve’ means that the food item does not contain dairy
or meat ingredients, and it was not processed with heat on dairy or
meat equipment. Pareve foods are neutral and may be eaten with meat or
dairy foods.
A. OU policy is that dairy or meat items are labeled OU-D and OU
Dairy or OU Meat respectively. An item that is labeled OU without a
suffix can be assumed to be pareve. Nonetheless, we recommend checking
the ingredients listed on the label, since on rare occasions, the OU-D
is inadvertently omitted.
B. Sherbets:
According to government standards, any
product labeled 'sherbet' or 'fruit sherbet' must contain milk and is,
therefore, not pareve. Water ices may be pareve or dairy, which will be
reflected in the OU designation.
C. Margarine:
Margarine contains oils and glycerides and
requires rabbinic certification. Margarine may contain up to 12% dairy
ingredients, and some margarines are OU Dairy while others are pareve.
D. Many non-dairy creamers are, in fact, dairy and bear an OU-D.
The government requires that creamers be labeled “non-dairy” if milk
derivatives are used instead of whole milk.
XV. NATURAL AND HEALTH FOODS
With the proliferation of so-called “Natural” or “Pure” and similarly
promoted health food products in the United States, some clarification
is in order with regards to their kashrus status. There is a mistaken
notion that natural products are inherently kosher. In fact, all
non-kosher food items are natural, and therefore natural has no bearing
on the kosher status.
XVI. WINES AND GRAPE PRODUCTS
All grape wines or brandies must be prepared under strict Orthodox
Rabbinic supervision. Once the kosher wine has been cooked, no
restrictions are attached to its handling. Such products are generally
labeled “mevushal”.
Grape jam (produced from grape pulp) as well as all varieties of jam
and jelly require supervision because they may be processed on
non-kosher equipment and may contain non-kosher additives.
Grape jelly is produced from grape juice and can be used only when produced from kosher grape juice under proper supervision.
Natural and artificial grape flavors may not be used unless they are
kosher endorsed. Many grape flavors contain natural grape extracts and
are labeled artificial or imitation because other flavoring additives
are used in the formula.
Liqueurs require supervision because of the flavorings used in these
products. In addition, the alcohol base may be wine derived.
XVII: TRAVELING KOSHER
For the businessperson or tourist traveling across the United States,
kosher certified products are available almost everywhere, even in the
smallest groceries in the most remote towns. However, it is much more
difficult to obtain reliably kosher certified products in most foreign
countries.
A traveler bringing along frozen (T.V.) dinners where only non-kosher
ovens are available for reheating, may use the ovens by covering the
frozen package with two layers of aluminum foil. If a microwave will be
utilized, then the food must also be double wrapped. Kosher meals
should be ordered in advance when traveling by plane, train or ship.
These meals are also heated in non-kosher ovens. The employees of the
carrier are instructed to heat these meals in the same manner that they
were received; totally wrapped in double foil with the caterer's seal
and the Rabbinic certification seal intact. The traveler can ascertain
by the intact seals that the dinners have not been tampered. Any
dinner, which is not properly sealed, should not be eaten. The kosher
certification only applies to the food in the sealed package.
Any other food (rolls, wines or liqueurs, cheeses, and coffee creamers
or snacks) served loose by the carrier is not included in the kosher
endorsement, unless it is sealed and bears its own separate endorsement.
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