Is It Kosher?
By Rabbi Eliezer Eidlitz — a comprehensive guide to the kosher status of hundreds of common foods, ingredients, and food categories.
Marshmallows
For over thirty years "Kosher gelatin" has been a substance that the kosher consumer could use as a yardstick to tell if a product was certified by a high or low kosher standard. Up until mid-1993 it was a given that if a product listed "Kosher gelatin" in its ingredients, it meant that the gelatin was definitely derived from non-kosher animals. Those kosher certifiers that adhere to a higher kashrus level, such as the O/U and Star K, categorically rejected this non-controversial "kosher gelatin." In March of 1993, under the supervision of Rabbi Shimon Eider, "Kolatin," a gelatin produced from glatt kosher hides, was finally produced.
Two main questions are asked in connection with gelatin: (1) Must it come from a kosher source? (2) Even when derived from glatt kosher hides, why isn't it fleishig?
- The hide is chemically decomposed and rendered "Nifsal Meachila" (unfit to eat).
- Although unfit to eat, people use it in food — this is called "Achshevay" and reinstates gelatin into a food category.
- Since gelatin is mixed with many other ingredients, it is not fleishig.
- Even though gelatin is only one ingredient, it is a "maamid" (food stabilizer).
- Reb Moshe Feinstein ZT"L and Rav Aharon Kotler ZT"L say that gelatin is "taam kalush" (a weak flavor) and is not fleishig due to the major change it has undergone. However, it must be derived from kosher sources.