Kosher foods facts for kids
Kosher foods are special foods that follow Jewish dietary laws. These laws are called kashrut, and they come mostly from ancient Jewish texts like the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy in the Torah. When a food is "kosher," it means it's "fit" or "proper" to eat according to these laws. If a food isn't kosher, it's called treif, which means "torn" or forbidden.
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What Animals Can Be Kosher?
Land Animals
The Torah says that land animals are kosher only if they have two specific features:
- They must chew their cud (meaning they chew their food twice).
- They must have cloven hooves (their hooves are split in two).
Some animals, like the hare, hyrax, camel, and pig, are not kosher because they only have one of these features. For example, pigs have split hooves but don't chew cud.
Birds
The Torah also lists certain winged creatures that are not allowed. These are mostly birds of prey, birds that eat fish, and bats. However, common birds like chickens, geese, quail, doves, and turkeys are usually kosher.
Fish and Seafood
For fish to be kosher, they must have both fins and scales. This means many seafood items are not kosher, such as:
Even things like seaweed can be a problem if tiny non-kosher crustaceans are attached to them.
Creeping Things
The Torah forbids most "creeping things" or insects. This includes creatures that crawl on the earth, like mice and lizards. It also forbids most flying insects. However, there are four exceptions: two types of locusts, the cricket, and the grasshopper.
Kosher Animal Products
Besides the meat itself, products that come from non-kosher animals are also forbidden. This includes eggs from non-kosher birds or fish roe (fish eggs).
Dairy Products
Milk from a kosher animal is usually kosher. Even if an animal is found to be non-kosher after it's been milked, its milk is still considered kosher because most animals producing milk are kosher.
Cheese
Making cheese often involves an enzyme called rennet, which helps milk turn into curds.
- Traditionally, rennet came from animal stomachs.
- For cheese to be kosher, the rennet must come from kosher animals that were slaughtered correctly, or it must be made in a lab (called "recombinant" rennet).
Jewish law also has a rule that cheese made by non-Jews without Jewish supervision is not kosher. This is because it's hard to know if the rennet used was kosher. Today, many Orthodox Jews require special kosher certification for all cheese.
Eggs
Eggs from kosher birds are kosher. Eggs are considered pareve, meaning they are neutral and can be eaten with either meat or dairy.
Sometimes, a tiny blood spot is found inside an egg. If the egg might have been fertilized, Jewish law says the whole egg is forbidden. However, if the egg definitely wasn't fertilized (like most eggs from modern farms), many rabbis say you can just remove the blood spot and eat the rest of the egg. It's a common custom for people to check eggs for blood spots when they crack them open.
Gelatin
Gelatin is a protein that comes from animal parts, like skin and bones. Because it can come from non-kosher animals (like pigs), whether gelatin is kosher can be a complex question.
Some rabbis believe that because gelatin goes through so many chemical changes, it's no longer considered "meat" and can be kosher. Other rabbis disagree.
To avoid this problem, many manufacturers now use gelatin made from the skin of kosher fish. Also, other plant-based ingredients like tapioca starch, pectins, and carrageenan are often used as substitutes for gelatin.
How Animals Are Slaughtered for Kosher Meat
Ritual Slaughter (Shechita)
Jewish law requires that all meat comes from animals that have been slaughtered in a specific way called shechita. This involves:
- A single, quick cut across the animal's throat.
- This cut must be done by a trained person called a shochet.
- The knife used must be very sharp and perfectly smooth.
- The goal is for the animal to lose consciousness quickly and bleed out completely.
Some people believe this method is humane, but animal rights activists sometimes argue that it can cause suffering.
After slaughter, the animal's body is carefully inspected. There are many checks to make sure the animal was healthy and had no diseases. If it passes these checks, the meat is called glatt, which means "smooth" in Yiddish.
Forbidden Parts of a Slaughtered Animal
Even from a kosher animal, certain parts are forbidden:
- Specific types of fat (called chelev).
- Tendons and blood vessels.
- The gid hanasheh (sciatic nerve).
- Because it's harder to remove these from the back part of the animal, often only meat from the front part is sold as kosher.
Blood
A very important rule in Jewish law is that you cannot eat blood. The Bible says that "the life is in the blood." To remove blood from meat, a special process called meliḥah is used:
- First, the meat is soaked in water for about 30 minutes.
- Then, it's covered thickly with salt and left for 20 minutes to an hour. The salt draws out the blood.
- Finally, the salt is rinsed off the meat.
Organs like the liver, heart, and lungs have a lot of blood, so they are usually roasted to remove the blood, as salting isn't enough for them.
Food Prepared by Non-Jews
Cooked Foods and Wine
Jewish law also has rules about food prepared by non-Jews.
- Historically, rabbis were concerned about food being used for idol worship.
- Because of this, certain cooked foods and especially wine, if prepared entirely by non-Jews, are considered non-kosher.
However, there are exceptions. For example, if wine is heated (pasteurized), it's called yayin mevushal and can be handled by non-Jews. This is why many kosher wines are pasteurized.
Some Jewish groups are more strict about these rules than others.
Mixing Milk and Meat
A key rule in kosher law is that meat and dairy products cannot be cooked or eaten together. This rule comes from the Torah, which says not to "boil a young goat in its mother's milk."
To follow this, kosher foods are divided into three types:
- Fleishig: Meat products.
- Milchig: Dairy products.
- Pareve: Neutral foods that are neither meat nor dairy. These include fish, eggs, fruits, vegetables, and grains.
Fish and insects are considered pareve, so they can be eaten with either meat or dairy. However, birds and wild mammals (like deer) are treated as "meat" by rabbinic law.
Not only are meat and milk not cooked together, but many Jewish people also wait a certain amount of time between eating meat and dairy meals.
Safety and Kosher Food
Saving a Life (Pikuach Nefesh)
The rules of kashrut can be broken if it means saving a human life. For example, if someone is very sick and needs non-kosher food to recover, or if they would starve without it, they are allowed to eat it.
Tainted Food
Jewish law also forbids eating poisoned animals. It also warns against drinking water left uncovered overnight in places where snakes might be, because a snake could have left venom in the water.
Fish and Meat Together
Some Jewish texts suggest that eating fish and meat together might cause a skin condition. Because of this, many Orthodox Jews avoid combining the two, while other Jewish groups might not follow this rule.
Kosherfest: A Food Festival
Each year, a big event called Kosherfest takes place in New York City. About 5,000 people from the food industry, kosher certification groups, and journalists come together. They get to try new kosher foods from around 300 different companies.
At Kosherfest, you might find interesting new products like:
- Plantain croutons from Ecuador.
- Breaded dessert ravioli filled with sweet ricotta and chocolate chips.
- Pareve and vegan "ice cream" cake made from cherry and passion fruit sorbet.
- Butter substitutes made from coconut oil.
- Gluten-free versions of Syrian sambusak dumplings.
