We try to eat whole, organic foods as often as possible in my house. I find that many foods I pick up tend to have the Kosher and Parve seals.I became concerned recently when some of the ingredients have changed in some of items I buy. For instance, Cheerios (they are Kosher) has Tripotassium Phosphate in it as well as questionable sources of vitamins. Some other food items that are labeled as either both or one (Kosher/Parve) also have questionable additives.Can someone please share any information they have regarding the Kosher/Parve dietary laws regarding whether or not foods are considered clean or not based ALSO on the additives and preservatives which may be in them? Thank you so much!! :)(Put this in Religion Spirituality because that is where I find the best info for these kinds of questions)
because all the smells intertwine when they cook and smell good. it's not hard to make food smell good. it's harder to make food taste good. my neighbors are full chinese i believe doubt they came from America but their house is a total pig sty. theirs crap they bring home from work all over their front yard and back yard and it's all broken things like tables, fridge, washing machines,etc but from time to time when they are cooking it smells really good. but i highly doubt it tastes that good. why? just walk infront of their door step and you will understand why theirs craps everywhere including dead plants/animals decaying like fish. Im sure they don't shop at a real grocery store either but the local china town and everyone in my state knows the china town isn;t very good for groceries as it's been known to carry rats and it isn't even that tasty. that being said don't let the smells fool you.
The issue withKashrut is not how healthy or clean it is- that is a common misconception. The issue with Kashrut is if it adheres to the laws in the torah- and as further defined n the talmud in masechta Chullin and in the Shulkhan Aruch n Hilchot Issur v'Heter. When it comes to additives, the same rules apply as to other foodstuffs- they have to come from a Kosher source or the food into which they are added is considered to be unkosher- the discussion on this issue centered on the issue that if something is only a tiny fraction of the whole, it does not count. However, this is only the case if what is in the minoriy does not have a quantitative or qualitative effect- but as food additives are designed to create specific desired effects even in small quantities such exemption does not apply to them. So, if soemthing has a reliable hecsher on it, then it should not contain any additives from an unkosher source. Where you need to be careful is with Kosher certification from Conservative rabbis. The issue here is that there is a conservative ruling whereby they state that if something has been so heavily processed as to no longer resemble the original it loses its prior designation. One example of this is that they rule gelatine is kosher regardless of origin since it is so heavily changed from the original. Thus you find that in unreliable hechshers and in those from the Conservative movement there are frequently additives that will be from questionable sources.
Parve is not a different state than kosher - it just means that it's neutral without any milk inside. There are quite some ingredients that are not kosher - for example if a produt has flavour on the ingredient lists (natural flavour would be ok), moreover there are E-numbers that are not kosher. Those are: 120,140-141,153,160a,161c/g, 163, 214, 215, 234-235, 253, 261-263, 304, 306-312, 334-337, 353-354, 363, 400-405, 418, 422,430-436, 442, 445, 470-495, 542, 570, 572, 626-635, 637, 640, 904, 910, 912, 920-921, 1105 and 1518. If a product has a kosher label on it, it is kosher no matter what the ingredient lists says. On the other hand does an ingredient list that seems to be okay not say that the product is kosher as ingredients have only be listed from a special quantity on and it might be that there is something not kosher in it. also everything that has Mono- and Diglyceride, Gelatine or stuff like that on it is not kosher - or things with cheese that do not have a Hechscher. Kosher however does not automatically mean that something is healthy (just look at Coca Cola who is kosher) so there might be ingredients that are not healthy but kosher. But maybe Zvi or Allonyoav might explain this better than I can?
