Kosher Gelatin?

Question

i've heard mixed answers. anywhere from "it has to be blessed by a rabbi" to "it comes from fish" to "it can still be from the bones and the hides, because they arent considered meat" (i actually think that "no meat no dairy" should mean nothing made from animal. i guess its just me. :] )

i know that kosher can mean either blessed, or the way the meat/food was prepared. i assume in the kosher gelatin case, that it means the way that it is prepared.

i am a pescetarian. that means that i dont eat meat, but i do eat fish.

i am going camping, and hopefully going to the local whole foods store to pick up some marshmallows. if they do not have veg ones (which i hope they do), the next best thing would be marshmallows made with kosher gelatin.

is kosher gelatin fish? or is it something else(bones and hides)?

and if it can be both, would whole foods be able to tell me which one it is?

Answer 1

There is a lot involved in a product being certified kosher - the type of animal, the way it's slaughtered, and the way the product is prepared from the slaughtered animal.

To a full vegetarian, the type of animal doesn't matter, so I never looked into it.  But I just did a little research, and confirmed what I thought:  Kosher gelatin is usually from beef.

Answer 2

If its make of agar agar, then its vegetable based.  Anything else will be fish or beef.  I don't think it will specify.  If you go to a health food store, the person working there should be able to point out which meets your needs, at the one in my town, the ladies there are all vegan and very knowledgable.

Answer 3

I had my friend talk to her rabbi about this a few years back because I saw kosher gelatin in sour cream and figured it couldn't be "meat" because of the whole meat/dairy combination thing.

What he said was that it is most likely fish-derived because fish is considered parve (neither meat nor dairy) under kosher law.  For me, that was enough to rule it out because I'm vegetarian.  For a pescetarian, it would be acceptable, though.

The other thing he said, though, was that there are some variations in kosher law and that it *could* (under one interpretation) be derived from an animal that was slaughtered kosher.  He asked my friend whether there was a specific kosher designation on the package I was asking about because he might have been able to tell that way, but I didn't have anything specific to refer to.

I would doubt that Whole Foods would know, unless you happen to ask someone who keeps kosher.  There's a possibility, though, that they might be stocking Sweet & Sara vegan marshmallows, which would sidestep the whole gelatin question entirely.

Answer 4

I'm pretty sure kosher gelatin is usually made from fish bones or vegetable products.

But I have also heard that not all rabbis agree on this and that kosher gelatin may contain other animal parts at times.

I'm not Jewish, nor am I an expert on Kosher law. Hopefully, somebody can give you a better answer than mine.