Mars Products Still Kosher
The British press recently reported on the use of animal products in candies produced by MasterFoods, a division of Mars, Incorporated. Don’t worry, though (unless you’re a strict vegetarian). Here’s what the London Beth Din says about the situation:
We have been aware for many years that whey can be a by product of cheese-making and that, even today, animal rennet can be used in cheese manufacture.
Since whey derived from this source contains only trace amounts of rennet, it is permitted according to halacha.
There is therefore no problem with any of the Masterfoods products that are currently on the London Beth Din approved list.
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How can it be permitted? Either it’s kosher or it isn’t, how can you have it in trace amounts?
I thought that you have to have kosher cheese because of rennet.
BS”D
Cheese, yes. But not they byproduct of cheese, whey. As far as I know, all of the OU and Star-K and Kof-K, and probably OK whey and whey powder and whey protein, and there’s a considerable amount of the stuff, comes from nonkosher cheese production.
Please elaborate on this apparent condradiction…
BS”D
First of all, I”m probably very much mistaken. The Star-K specifically mentions whey as having potential kashrus problems, both due to cholov Yisroel and otherwise. However, I remember a rabbi associated with a kashrus agency telling me that as long as the rennet was kosher, the whey is kosher even if the cheese itself is not, because while gevinas akum is prohibited, the same is not true of the whey. However, it was a long time ago, and I’m thinking now after reading the Star-K thing that it was a long time ago, and maybe I am mis-recollecting.
I’d really appreciate some follow-up by the OU – unless this is strictly a European change.
I think this is in relation to the fundamental difference between kashrut in Europe and in the US.
In Europe very few products have a “hasgacha”. In the US, a large number of products have a hasgacha, and companies go after getting a hasgacha in order to increase their market (kosher consumer).
In Europe, the local beis din, be it London, or another local community goes and investigates the manufacturer of a product, but doesn’t have a contract w/ the producer, perhaps they have an upaid agreement that if the product formulation changes, the beis din will be notified.
In the US, the OU, Star-K… is contracted out and maintains a watchful policy.
In the US therefore, one has to go according to the l’chatchila position, since the product is being made w/ jews in mind. On the other hand, in europe, where the product isn’t being made with jews in mind (they aren’t paying the beis din anything, don’t expect any increase in market share), they can pasken according to b’diavad position. Namely, if a product is made for a non-jew and it’s kosher b’diavad, then after the fact, it’s 100% kosher.
you can argue that the european position has advantages, yet do you really want to always shop from a limited list? What happens when you’re in the boondocks and have no idea if some generic product is kosher or not? With so many things under the national hasgachot like the OU, it’s generally easy.
I read an article about this years ago, can’t find it online right now though.
Mars are no longer changing their recipe status because so many consumers complained!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6673549.stm
Just seen a really good website providing kosher certification to companies worldwide. I was well impressed.
http://www.badatz.org