Kosher FAQs

KOSHER FOOD

What is Kosher food?
What animals (meat, fish, poultry) can I eat?
Why can't Y'hudeem eat food with blood?
Why can't Y'hudeem drink milk with meat?
What other sources of information are there?

What is Kosher food?

Kosher food is food that is considered to be "fit" or "proper" or "pure" for eating by Y'hudeem (Jews) according to the Torah, or Five Books of Moses (i.e. Hebrew-Jewish Holy Scriptures). These Laws of Kashrut (what is kasher, or kosher) are not 'health laws' in the modern sense of the word, health. They are simply G-d's Commandments, several out of 613 that all Y'hudeem must at least try to follow because He gave mankind "free will." For instance, "And you shall be men of a holy calling unto Me, and you shall not eat any meat that is torn in the field." - (Exodus 22:30). "Treyf" is another word for "torn." Lions and tigers behave like that when they go after, take down their prey and "tear" them apart before eating them. Men are not supposed to act like lions and tigers and other vildeh chayas (wild animals).

NOTE: Kosher-style food is usually not Kosher, but is food prepared in the traditional Jewish manner. A Jewish hoagie is not Kosher because a hoagie (or submarine) is supposed to contain meat and cheese, however if your hoagie has kosher salami and bologna and soy cheese - with washed and clean lettuce, tomato and onions and a kosher hoagie roll, then your hoagie (or submarine) may be kosher... though not ever fit for a person with Celiac Disease. The real, traditional (Italian) hoagie is also supposed to contain ham. There is and never has been any such thing as Kosher ham even if someone tells you that it was "blessed by a rabbi" who used Kosher salt in the process. - Don't believe that bubba minetzah!

NOTE: The following sections deal with each one of the above.

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What animals (meat, fish, poultry) can I eat?

To repeat, as it says in Exodus 20:30, "And you shall be men of a holy calling unto Me, and you shall not eat any meat that is torn in the field."

Besides animals such as four-legged beasts (i.e. cows, sheep), two-legged fowl (i.e. chickens, turkeys) and legless fish (i.e. tuna, salmon) with scales and fins only, all fruits, vegetables, legumes (peas and beans) and grains can be eaten except "chometz," or "leavened (regular) bread" on Pesach (Passover). "Bread" as "chometz" includes cookies, cakes, bagels, donuts and other baked goods made from any of the five, forbidden grains, - wheat, rye, barley, oats and spelt - an older form of wheat. This prohition also includes bi-products of those five, forbidden grains, like ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise, all of which may contain distilled white vinegar that usually comes from wheat. All are not good for Celiacs any way, but neither is matzo, which is usually made from wheat and contains gluten. An exception, if you are a Celiac and can tolerate and find "gluten-free oat matzo, then you are in luck for Pesach. Products that contain hydrolyzed vegetable protein and modified food starch are also derived from wheat. Now, there is Pesach ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, etc. for non-Celiacs. NOTE: Products derived from corn (only good for Celiac Blood Type ABs), rice, legumes, mustard seed, buckwheat (which is not wheat) and some plants like the Biblical kitnyos (?) are prohibited during Pesach too. Eat lots of potatoes (if you are a Celiac Blood Type AB) besides meat, fish, fruits, and vegetables during Pesach? Eat oat matzos if you can and if you are a Sephardic Jew, you probably eat "rice" for Pesach, so if you are Ashkenazic, you can do so, or not.

All animals that are "ruminants" and "have split hooves and chew their cud" such as cows, sheep, goats, deer and buffaloes, or bisons are allowed to be eaten. All Koshered meat and poultry, slaughtered by the rules of Kashrut can be eaten. All fish with scales and fins such as tuna, salmon and flounder can be eaten. - Warning: I would add that you should be aware of your Blood Type when you eat anything.

FOR A COMPLETE LISTING OF WHAT YOU CAN AND CANNOT EAT, GO TO: FOOD GROUPS - ALLOWED-NOT ALLOWED

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Why can't Y'hudeem eat food with blood?

The prohibition against eating 'food with blood' goes back to Torah.

All Kosher food must be slaughtered according to Jewish Law by a well-trained slaughterer. All allowed animals have to be inspected by Rabbis for various defects. Certain veins, arteries, prohibited fats, blood and the sciatic nerve have to be properly removed after death. Only the front quarter cuts of red meat are generally used. Red meat and poultry are soaked and salted to remove any blood with a specified time period. Many products that might be used in the food industry, according to Professor of Food Science, Joe M. Regenstein in his very excellent, Internet article titled "Kosher Laws Impacting Food Technology," "such as emulsifiers, stabilizers, and surfactants, particularly those that are fat-derived, need careful rabbinical supervision to assure that no animal-derived ingredients are used..." in the Koshering process.

Rabbi Mordechai Becher of the Yeshiva Ohr Somayach, describes this process in his Internet article titled "Soul Food The Jewish Dietary Laws" thusly: "An animal or bird must be slaughtered according to Jewish law (shechita). This involves cutting the animal's trachea and oesophagus (the carotid and jugular are also severed) with a surgically sharp knife. The cut must be swift, continuous and performed by an expert. ..... This method of slaughter reduces the blood pressure in the brain to zero immediately, so that the animal loses consciousness in a few seconds and dies in minutes. ... The animal or bird must be free of treifot, which are 70 different categories of injuries, diseases or abnormalities whose presence renders the animal non-kosher. ... Certain fats, known as chelev, may not be eaten. Blood must be removed from the meat, either by soaking, salting and rinsing or by broiling. The sciatic nerve in each leg and the surrounding fat must be removed."

NOTE: Y'hudeem (Jews) have been falsely accused and murdered by those who called themselves Christians over the centuries for "allegedly" having murdered Christian children and having used their blood to make matzos. Those kinds of lies and slanders, in part, lead to numerous pogroms, the Inquisition and the NAZI German Holocaust as well as today's verbal and physical attacks on Yisrael and Y'hudeem (Jews) everywhere by many Christian, Communist and Islamic groups, which are backed by many U.N. countries! *Christian missionaries like to convince Y'hudeem that 'their lord, Jesus' shed his blood for us and all mankind (on the Cross). This has always, basically been a pagan belief that we Y'hudeem should ignore. G-d (in any form, which is none) does not die for us! He is forever, or we cannot be anything for even a moment. G-d (HaShem) lives! Baruch HaShem!

Equipment for making food and eating utensils must also be made Kosher. Material such as ceramics, rubber, earthenware and porcelain cannot be Koshered according to Professor Regenstein, about I mentioned above.

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Why can't Y'hudeem drink milk with meat?

Mixing milk and meat is forbidden. It goes back to the part in Torah, which says, "You shall not seethe the kid in its mother's milk." This line appears thrice in the Torah. A "kid" is a "young goat." To "seethe" means to "to churn and foam as if boiling" according to an excerpt from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition © 1996 by Houghton Mifflin Company. It literally means "to boil a young goat in its mother's milk." In other words, do not mix milk and meat (beef and poultry) at the same meal. Fish is not considered meat and pork is completely out of the question! If you eat meat (and the meal is over), you should wait at least twenty minutes (for the meat to really begin to digest) before you drink any milk, or dairy product. Soy milk, or rice milk is not dairy unless there are some traces of dairy in the product. Look for a bonafied Kosher label and always read the ingredients on any container.

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READ ALL LABELS CAREFULLY!!!

Check out the Kosher Symbols



What other sources of information are there?

Go to JCN's K-GF Recipes to find information and links to Kosher and Kosher, Gluten-Free web sites.

Go to JCN's Kosher Symbols to see the symbols that are used to represent individuals and organizations that certify food to be Kosher according to the Torah.

Go to JCN's Cool Links to connect with web sites that have to do with Kosher education, certification and the sale of food, some being gluten-free too.

NOTE: If any of the above information is wrong, out-of-date, or any of the links are broken (do not go where they should go), please e-mail me at if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. right away!

Sid Karp, Editor, Publisher & Webmaster

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