I am a new practicer of kosher law and I had some questions on commercial foods. I know the U and K symbols indicate kosher but do they have different meanings? For example i have a bag of the Swedish Fish candies but they do not seem to have any kosher markings on them. On the back their is nothing obvious like gelatin or animal extracts.

Also there is a very small jewish community in my hometown. Where can i find kosher meat? Since there is a small demand im concerned that i wont be able to find any.

Thanks for the help in advance. This is a great community and has helped me more than you will know

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Shalom- I am no expert but just a plain k does not mean that something is kosher, it has to have a special design or a circle around it, I think. My rabbi advised me that even when kosher meat is unavailable there is never any excuse not to eat kosher, because nowadays there is a wide variety of other foods such as fish, eggs, dairy and beans. When you can't eat kosher you eat vegetarian.That is what Queen Esther did. And use disposable plates and utensils. In the remote part of the world that i am living in now I can only get Kosher hot dogs for meat. Sometimes you have to go the distance to get kosher meat, so even a hundred miles is lucky. I knew someone who went about fourhundred miles. Don't be shy and ask someone in your community where you can buy kosher meat. I think you can also buy it over the internet.Try kosher.com,as advertised on this website. I bought kosher pizza over the internet once.

This information is OK, but it doesn't replace being taught by a rabbi.

Fish has to be kosher too. That which has fins and scales.

Of course.

I was responding in reference the "swedish fish candy".

Very funny.

Oh, I'm sorry is that candy made out of real fish? I thought it was just a gelatin like candy that is shaped like fish.,that I have seen before.

If the fish candy doesn't have a kosher heksher then you can't trust it to be kosher.Anything processed should have a kosher heksher on it. Better to eat fruit.

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Also there is a very small jewish community in my hometown. Where can i find kosher meat? Since there is a small demand im concerned that i wont be able to find any.

Unless you tell us where you live, how can we help you?

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Originally posted by Raybin:
Very funny.

I was being serious, I guess I wasn't clear enough.

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Oh, I'm sorry is that candy made out of real fish? I thought it was just a gelatin like candy that is shaped like fish.,that I have seen before.

If it is made of gelatin, then the gelatin has to be from a kosher fish/animal too. Gelatin can also be made from synthetic materials too.

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If the fish candy doesn't have a kosher heksher then you can't trust it to be kosher.Anything processed should have a kosher heksher on it. Better to eat fruit.

100 percent. And even with a kosher symbol, one has to be up to date with recalls and other issues with kashrus. There are a number of kashrus websites. Here are a few of the better known kosher symbol websites.

Kashrus Magazine Online - The Guide for the Kosher Consumer

OU - The World's Best Known Kosher Trademark

Organized Kashrus Laboratories

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If it is made of gelatin, then the gelatin has to be from a kosher fish/animal too. Gelatin can also be made from synthetic materials too.

There is a debate among the Poskim about gelatin. There are Rabbis (some major authorities like the Rav Yechezkel Abramsky z"tzl) who hold that gelatin from any animal is kosher, period, as it is made from dried bones that have no taste whatsoever. That is, I believe, the position held by the Rabbanut in Israel. Others hold that it must be from a properly shechted kosher animal and this is the position of most, if not all, kashrus authorities in the USA and also of the London Beis Din (even though Dayan Abramsky was once the Rosh Beis Din in London).

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Originally posted by Sam-:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Raybin:
Very funny.

"I was being serious, I guess I wasn't clear enough."

That is why I apoligized.

I do not eat anything without a heksher unless I absolutely know every ingredient. Because of chemistry, modern products can contain all types of things. The best thing to do is to contact the closest orthodox Rabbi. He will which local heksher is truly kosher and where to get meat. If you can find an orthodox Rabbi contact me and I will try to find a good Rabbi in your area.

Yes, I was wondering about that. It seems that there are simple products with few ingredients, that you don't need to be a chemist to figure out, that are indeed processed without a heksher that are still kosher. An example would be spaghetti sauce.But what if the same company makes a different flavor of spaghetti sauce with meat in it? Should you avoid buying the product that seems to be kosher? It is probably better to buy plain tomato sauce? Also, I think that most supermarket chains have kosher bakeries, don't they? When I read the ingredients on bread I get totally lost. Better to bake bread.

I suppose meat or dairy can be disquised under "natural flavoring."

As Rabbi Mitterhoff says, processed foods can be very problematic. According to law, manufacturers only have to include ingredients that are over a certain percentage (here I think it is 2%) so there can be non-kosher ingredients within a product that is not included in the ingredients.

For example, we recently found out that some confectioner's sugar here is made with margarine and therefore it can be problematic. Similarly, garlic and onion powder can include lactose, which is chalav akum, however if one uses it with meat it can make your kitchen (oven, dishes etc.) non-kosher! It is complicated and your best bet is to speak to a kashrus authority in your area as they will know the issues there.

It seems that you are in the USA, so you can rely on the OU and OK symbols, so you're better off than over here

It seems that there are different levels of Kosher. I am not on that high of a level.

If you get right down to it milk doesn't have a heksher on it because once someone sold pigs milk instead of cow's milk. And cheese has rennet in it, unless you can buy rennetless cheese. And I have no clue what is in all of the bread products I buy. Does someone have a list of kosher chemicals?

Raybin, can you also say that there are different levels of poison? NO!!!

Poison is poison and it will hurt a person, even if the person does not realize it at all. Sometimes, it won't just hurt the person, but kill!

Samething with eating non-kosher foods, a person might not think that there is any harm in doing so, however, the body/soul is being hurt in the process in ways that one may not be aware of at all.

Here's an article from Aish Hatorah's Rabbi Kalman Packouz:

http://www.aish.com/literacy/mitzvahs/Why_Kosher$.asp

Today there are many different kosher symbols out there, that there is practically no excuse not to eat kosher today. (Unless one is forced due to outside infulences beyond one's control.) There are so many different foods available today, and a number of websites that will deliver non perishable food items to your door.

Here is a list of kashrus symbols which one community compiled about 10 years ago.

Montefiore Synagogue community standards of kashrus

Surely in other communities there are other local symbols to also be trusted... any trustworthy symbol not listed here should not be held against that symbol in any way.

Thankyou, Sam, I completely agree. Especially in America, there's no excuse. Keeping kosher is far more than obstaining from cheeseburgers (and kosher living is not limited to foods either). I read an interesting book called Kosher Living that broughy up some good points on this.
Yocheved

Yocheved, exactly, as you mention, there is no excuse today at all as there are so many books and magazines on the topic of keeping Kosher.

The book you mentioned, who is the author and publisher?

An Orthodox Jew once told me that a Jew can eat anything. At times, I have lived by that.