Jewish or Kosher food is very interesting in terms of its specific rules and preparation. Before examining of what Kosher food is, at first the word “Kashrut” (Jewish, n.d.). is going to be investigated. So, according to the official source of information that is focused on the laws of Kosher food, “Kashrut is the body of Jewish law that deals with what foods can and cannot be eaten and how those foods must be prepared” (Jewish, n.d.) In Hebrew, kashrut means “fit, proper, or correct” (Jewish, n.d.).Therefore, the word kosher came from the word kashrut. Kosher means that kind of food that “meets the standards of kashrut and is used to describe ritual objects” (Jewish, n.d.) that are made based on the Jewish law and “are fit for ritual use” (Jewish, n.d). In this paper, common practices of Jewish dietary laws, health benefits and significant meaning are going to be researched and discussed.
Avoiding pork products is one of many common practices in Jewish dietary laws. This paragraph is focused on the most common practices in kosher foods. Eating together meat and dairy products is not acceptable (Hutt, 1994). The reason why is because in Torah it is prohibited more than three times (Hutt, 1994). Some parts of the animal such as “special kind of fat called heleb and blood” (Hutt, 1994) are forbidden to be eaten, because eating those parts of animals is strictly prohibited by the religion Judaism. Also, based on Jewish dietary laws, any consumption of birds or animals must not be started unless it was “slaughtered in a ritual manner known as shehitah” (Hutt, 1994). The most common practice in Jewish dietary law is that it is allowed to eat only specific “species of four-legged animals, birds and fish” (Hutt, 1994). The reason why, is because according to Tora that is known as Jewish bible, some animals, birds and fish are considered as clean, while others are not (Hutt, 1994).
Jewish dietary laws were written according with the life rules of Torah, as well as based on some historical and law context. Based on the historical context, at first, people were only allowed to eat vegetable food, and from the law context, “even if animal is of permitted species, it will not be acceptable under Jewish law unless it is slaughtered in accordance with Jewish law” (What, n.d.). Based on this, there are many regulations in Jewish dietary laws that affect the way they allow people to consume animals and birds meat, and forbids blood consumption.
Regarding the health benefits, nowadays kosher food is seen and perceived as very healthy food by many people, because of many reasons. First, most of the shoppers perceive “Kosher food as safer food especially after mad cow disease and peanut butter recalls”(Wolf, 2010), as people nowadays want to know what is inside their food. All kosher food is carefully examined by special people and all ingredients are carefully examined. Kosher food is proven to have health benefits for those people with who have food allergy, or are “lactose intolerant” (Wolf, 2010), because in kosher food every ingredient is carefully examined and the person who has allergy will know for sure about the contents of the food he/she is going to eat.
In terms of FDA regulations, they do have significance because FDA carefully regulates meat and dairy products including eggs (What, n.d.). However, most Jewish food has special packaging, high level of quality and product check that is different with FDA regulations.
Nowadays more people do not go kosher because there are a lot of rules and regulations to follow. Despite that, it has more health benefits, it is more time consuming, and in the 21st century, more and more people spend less time on food.
In the conclusion, it was very interesting to work towards this paper and to find out many interesting facts about kosher food, such as its foundation, do’s and don’ts , background, possible health benefits and why they were created.
References
Jewish Dietary Laws (Kashrut). (n.d.). Retrieved February 21, 2016, from
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/kashrut.html
Hutt. (1994). THE JEWISH DIETARY LAWS AND THEIR FOUNDATION. Retrieved
February 21, 2016, from
https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/8889478/dsilber.pdf?sequence=1
What is "Kosher" (n.d.). Retrieved February 21, 2016, from https://www.kof-
k.org/Industrial/WhatIsKosher.aspx
What does FDA regulate? (n.d.). Retrieved February 21, 2016, from
http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/Transparency/Basics/ucm194879.htm
Wolf, B. (2010, September 4). Safer For Your Soul, But Is Kosher Healthier, Too? Retrieved
February 21, 2016, from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129649433
