Kosher Food Culture

As for additional to previous post interesting and thought-provoking information I would talk about individual dietary limits in the course of the meaningful Jewish ritual. During Passover, there are extra restrictions on what foods may be eaten. Jewish law prohibits the consumption of leavened products, and furthermore any product made from the so-called "five species" of grain—conventionally viewed to be wheat, rye, barley, spelt, or oats[3]—which may have been inadvertently briefly moistened sometime after harvest, and thus begun the fermentation process which is key to leavening. The exception to this rule is matza, which has been ritually supervised from harvest to packaging to ensure that no leavening has occurred.

Besides, Ashkenazi Jews are more restricted, by custom, from eating rice, legumes, and corn (en masse called kitniyot) in the course of Passover. Due to the prevalence of corn syrup in American processed foods, many common items are disallowed for Ashkenazic Jews during Passover. In particular, Coca-Cola produces and distributes "kosher for Passover" runs with its corn syrup-free recipe during Passover in the United States.

So as to prevent inadvertent consumption of leaven, observant Jews either maintain an entirely separate set of dishes, cutlery, pots, pans, etc. for Passover (much as they maintain separate sets of kitchenware year-round for milk and for meat), or they kasher their chametz dishes by immersing them in boiling water. For convenience sake, some people who can afford it have individual kitchens for Passover.

Because of the high possibility of chametz being found in food with even a small amount of processing, most commercial products require special Kosher for Passover certification. As you already know, this is by and large marked with a plain letter P on the label, or using the words "Kosher for Passover" or "May be used for Passover."

Kashrut (also kashruth or kashrus) refers to Jewish dietary laws. Food in agreement with halakha (Jewish law) is termed kosher in English, from the Hebrew term kashér, meaning "fit" (in this context, fit for consumption by Jews according to traditional Jewish law). Jews who keep kashrut may not consume non-kosher food, but there are no restrictions on non-dietary use of non-kosher products, for instance, injection of insulin of porcine origin. Food that is not in accord with Jewish law is called treif (Yiddish: טרייף or treyf, derived from Hebrew: טְרֵפָה‎ trēfáh). In the technical sense, treif means "torn" and refers to meat which comes from an animal containing a defect that renders it unfit for slaughter. An animal that died through means other than ritual slaughter (or by a botched slaughter) is called a neveila which literally means "an unclean thing".

Lots of the basic laws of kashrut came from the Torah's Books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, with their details set down in the oral law (the Mishnah and the Talmud) and codified by the Shulchan Aruch and later rabbinical authorities. The Torah does not explicitly state the reason for most kashrut laws, and many varied reasons have been offered for these laws, ranging from philosophical and ritualistic, to practical and hygienic.
In addition, the extra meanings of word kosher are legitimate, acceptable, permissible, genuine or authentic, in a broader sense. The Seventh-day Adventist Church, most well known for their health message, are predominantly vegetarian, vegan, and/or kosher. Islam has a related but different system, named halal, and both systems have a comparable system of ritual slaughter.

The laws of kashrut derive from various passages in the Torah, and are numerous and complex, but the key principles are as follows:

Only meat from particular species is permissible:
- Mammals that both chew their cud (ruminate) and have cloven hooves are kosher. Animals with one characteristic but not the other (the camel, the hyrax and the hare because they have no cloven hooves, and the pig because it does not ruminate) are specifically excluded (Leviticus 11:3-8). (For a comprehensive review of the issue involving the difficulty that neither the hyrax nor the hare are ruminates, see Rabbi Natan Slifkin's "The Camel, the Hare and the Hyrax.") In 2008, a rabbincal ruling determined that giraffes and their milk are eligible to be considered kosher. Mammals and fowl must be slaughtered in a specific style: slaughter is done by a trained individual (a shochet) using a special method of slaughter, shechita (Deuteronomy 12:21). Among other features, shechita slaughter severs the jugular vein, carotid artery, esophagus and trachea in a single continuous cutting movement with an unserrated, sharp knife, avoiding unnecessary pain to the animal. Failure of any of these criteria renders the meat of the animal unsuitable. The body must be checked after slaughter to confirm that the animal had no medical condition or defect that would have caused it to die of its own accord within a year, which would make the meat unsuitable.

- Birds must fit certain criteria; birds of prey are not kosher. There must be an established tradition that a bird is kosher or similar to one that is before it can be consumed. The turkey, for example is native to the New World and would therefore not be found under tradition. However, it is similar to a known bird, the "fowl of India" and is therefore acceptable.

- Fish must have fins and scales to be kosher (Leviticus 11:9-12). Shellfish and non-fish water fauna are not kosher.

- Insects are not kosher, except for certain species of kosher locust (unrecognized in almost all communities).
- That an animal is untamed does not preclude it from being kashrut, but a wild animal must be trapped and ritually slaughtered rather than killed some other way to be kosher.

- Meat and milk (or derivatives) cannot be mixed in the sense that meat and dairy products are not served at the same meal, served or cooked in the same utensils, or stored together. Observant Jews have separate sets of dishes for meat and milk.

- As much blood as possible must be removed (Leviticus 17:10) through the kashering process; this is usually done through soaking and salting the meat, but organs rich in blood (the liver) are grilled over an open flame.

- Utensils used for non-kosher foods become non-kosher, and make even otherwise kosher food prepared with them non-kosher. Some such utensils, depending on the material they are made from, can be made suitable for preparing kosher food again by immersion in boiling water or by the application of a blowtorch.

- Food that is prepared by Jews in a manner which violates the Shabbat (Sabbath) may not be eaten until the Shabbat is over.

- Passover has individual dietary rules, the most important of which is the prohibition on eating leavened bread or derivatives of this (chametz, Exodus 12:15). Utensils used in preparing and serving chametz are also forbidden on Passover unless they have been cleansed (kashering). Observant Jews often have separate sets of meat and dairy utensils for Passover use only.

Particular foods must have been prepared in whole or in part by Jews, including:
- Wine
- Certain cooked foods (bishul akum)
- Cheese (gvinat akum) and according to some also butter (chem'at akum)
- According to many: certain dairy products (Hebrew: חלב ישראל chalav Yisrael "milk of Israel")
- According to some: bread (under certain circumstances) (Pat Yisrael)

Biblical rules regulate the use of agriculture produce: for produce grown in the Land of Israel a modified version of the Biblical tithes must be applied, including Terumat HaMaaser, Maaser Rishon, Maaser Sheni, and Maaser Ani (untithed produce is called tevel); the fruit of the first three years of a tree’s growth or replanting are forbidden for eating or any other use as orlah; produce grown in the Land of Israel on the seventh year is Shviis, and unless managed carefully is forbidden as a violation of the Shmita (Sabbatical Year).

The following rules of kashrut are not universally observed:

- The rule against eating chadash (new grain) before the 16th of the month Nisan; many hold that this rule does not apply outside the Land of Israel.
- In addition, some groups follow various eating restrictions on Passover which go beyond the rules of kashrut, such as the eating of gebrochts or garlic.

Store-bought foods can be identified as kosher by the presence of a hechsher (plural hechsherim), a graphical symbol that indicates that the food has been certified as kosher by a rabbinical authority. (This might be an individual rabbi, but is more often a rabbinic organization.) One of the most common symbols in the United States is the "OU", a U inside a circle, standing for the Union of Orthodox Congregations (or "Orthodox Union"). Many rabbis and organizations, however, have their own certification mark, and the other symbols are too numerous to list. Many kashrut certification symbols are accompanied by additional letters or words to indicate the category of the food. In common usage is "D" for Dairy, "M" for Meat or poultry, "Pareve" for food that is neither meat nor dairy, "Fish" for foods containing such, and "P" for Passover (not to be confused with Pareve). Note that many foods meet the US FDA standard for "Non-Dairy" while they do not meet the Jewish standard for "Pareve" and are labeled with the "D" next to the kosher symbol.

A single K is sometimes used as a symbol for kosher, but as a letter cannot be trademarked (the method by which other symbols are protected from misuse) in many countries, it only indicates that the company producing the food claims it is kosher. The hechsheirim of certain authorities are sometimes considered invalid by certain other authorities.

Previous to certification agencies, kosher consumers would read the list of ingredients to determine if a product was acceptable to eat. Today, however, this is considered insufficient as many things are not included in this list, such as pan lubricants and release agents (which may be derived from lard), flavorings ("natural flavorings" which are more likely to be derived from non-kosher substances than others), etc. Reading the label can, however, identify obviously unkosher ingredients.

Producers of foods and food additives can contact Jewish authorities to have their products certified as kosher: a committee will visit their facilities to inspect production methods and contents, and issue a certificate if everything is in order. In many cases constant supervision is required. For a number of reasons, such as changes in manufacturing processes, products which were kosher may cease to be so; for example, a kosher lubricating oil may be replaced by one containing tallow. Such changes are often organized with the supervising rabbi or organization to ensure that new packaging, which will not suggest any hechsher or kashrut, is used for the new formulation. But in some cases existing stocks of preprinted labels with the hechsher may continue to be used on the now non-kosher product; for such reasons, there is an active "grapevine", among the Jewish community, as well as newspapers and periodicals, classifying and recognizing which products are now doubtful or under the question, as well as products which have become kosher but whose labels have yet to carry the hechsher.