Getting Into The Thick of Things--February 2001

Have you ever had a slice of petcha, that spicy globby stuff Bubby used to cook up? How did she manage to make it so thick?

Better yet, open a can of gefilte fish. Look at the stiff gel that comes as its broth. Why, when you cook your own gefilte fish, do you not get that solid jelly from your broth? Did you ever wonder why theirs is so thick and yours is not?

What Makes it Gel?

Collagen is the answer to this thickening question.

Collagen is a fibrous, insoluble protein that makes up a major portion of bone, skin and connective tissue. By cooking animal bones or adding fish bones to the broth of your gefilte fish, you will extract some of the collagen from the bones. This gives you the wobbly jelly in petcha or the gefilte fish that comes in a can.

The most common form that collagen is marketed to us is in its partially hydrolyzed state known commonly as gelatin. The word gelatin comes from the Latin word gelatus, meaning stiff or frozen. Gelatin stiffness is measured in units called blooms (named after a measuring device developed by a man named Oscar T. Bloom). High bloom refers to a higher molecular weight of the gelatin giving a stiffer consistency. Different applications will require different bloom levels.

With the commercialization of food processing, this versatile ingredient has shown its usefulness in a variety of foods. We may be well aware of its use in making jellylike confections from "Jell-O"-type foods to gummy bears. But the usefulness of gelatin goes beyond that. Gelatin is fat free, yet it leaves a smooth feeling in your mouth similar to that from fat. This effect is very useful as an additive to foods that are marketed as low fat. Gelatin also acts as an emulsifier helping to distribute fat and add stability to confections. This is helpful in toffees or in spreadable frostings, creams, yogurts and ice creams.

Adding gelatin can make a candy last longer as gelatin does not break down as quickly as sugars do. This makes the addition of gelatin ideal for throat lozenges. Similarly, hard sugar glazes will stay white and not run when gelatin is added.

Gelatin can hold shape when aerated to create light and fluffy marshmallows. In vitamins and medicines gelatin can be used as a coating to cover a bitter taste or as a capsule to contain the powders. Some use plain gelatin as a protein supplement to their diet.

All in all, gelatin is remarkably versatile and ideal for the manufacture of many processed foods and confections. The only question to the kosher consumer is, can one use foods containing gelatin?

With the commercialization of food processing, this versatile ingredient has shown its usefulness in a variety of foods.

Halachic Concerns

In short, the kashrus of gelatin depends on the source. As mentioned before, gelatin is made by extracting the collagen from the bones and skins of animals and fish. Most commonly, the gelatin made from animal products is not being manufactured from kosher or kosher-slaughtered animals.

There are several questions that must be addressed to understand the halachic status of gelatin. For starters the Torah prohibits eating the meat of those animals or fish designated as tameh (impure). Examples are, pig, horse, catfish and shark. Meat of an animal that is tahor (pure) and is not properly slaughtered is prohibited by the Torah as nevelah.

Do these prohibitions also apply to the bones and skin of the animal as well? If the prohibitions of nevelah and tameh were to apply to the skins and bones, can this status be altered through the processing used in the manufacture of gelatin? Lastly, if the animal source for the gelatin is kosher, does it retain the properties inherent to its source? Is such gelatin considered meat and therefore cannot be cooked or eaten with dairy products? If the source is fish, can it be used together with meat?

The Shulchan Aruch (Yore Deah 116:2) states that one may not eat fish with meat as it is considered unhealthy. This is based on the Gemora which teaches that meat cooked with fish causes disease. Does gelatin extracted from fish carry this restriction?

Yore Deah (87:10) discusses whether the processing alters the status of meat which has become dried out completely, yavesh k'eitz.

Non-Kosher Skins and Bones

Are hides considered meat? Horav Moshe Feinstein, zt"l, addressed the issue in Igros Moshe (Vol 1, #37). He writes that hides are not considered meat (to prohibit its mixture with milk) by Torah Law, but they are prohibited by Rabbinic law. If they are dried and processed, the gelatin that comes out is not included in this Rabbinic prohibition. Therefore, gelatin produced from the hides of kosher-slaughtered animal may be intentionally used with milk, provided that the hides are cleaned to remove any meat residue.

It must be noted that we have not addressed the question of blood in or on the hides. We know that blood is prohibited for consumption by Torah Law: this is why we salt our meats prior to cooking. There is a question regarding animal hides as to whether we assume there is blood absorbed in them which must be removed. To satisfy all opinions, one would have to salt hides prior to processing.

Yoreh Deah (99) also discusses whether bones of a non-kosher animal carry the same prohibition as the meat of a non-kosher animal. The Shulchan Aruch maintains that bones of a prohibited animal are kosher and would in fact count as part of the permitted food to constitute a majority of sixty kosher parts. The Rema maintains that although the bones themselves are not prohibited, they do not count as part of the kosher percentage when mixed with other kosher food. The Shach quotes the strict view that the moisture in bones of non-kosher animals is not kosher, and only dry bones are kosher. Some rabbinic authorities view collagen as a part of the natural liquid of the bone, which the Shach prohibited.

It should be noted that even the Shulchan Aruch was only talking about the actual bone itself--not the marrow of the bone, which is treated as meat and is prohibited. Furthermore, if the bone was already cooked with non-kosher meat or bone-marrow, it becomes unkosher.

As you may have deduced, if we were to produce gelatin from a non-kosher animal bone, this may only be done with cleaned and dried bone that contains no marrow or soft tissue. Rabbinic authorities note that one cannot assume that the manufacturer's process alone will be pure enough to produce gelatin in a kosher manner. We should also take into account the opinions that the collagen in the bone, considered part of the animals liquids, is prohibited. All things considered, one should refrain from consuming gelatin from a non-kosher animal, and this is the practice of most reputable kosher certifying organizations.

Where the source of the gelatin is a kosher animal, there are still logistical problems to overcome. Aside from the prohibitions of tameh and nevela discussed above, we must also be concerned with the prohibition of treifa, the Torah’s prohibition against consumption of animals that have certain injuries or disorders. Since most of the inspections to determine if the animal is treifa are done after the slaughter and skinning of the animal, the hides must be tracked to be sure that treifa hides do not get mixed up with kosher hides. For this reason, meticulous supervision is needed to oversee production. As with any kosher food, the production must also be done on kosher equipment. If the processing is to be done in a non-kosher plant (as is usually the case), the equipment must be cleaned and kashered before kosher production.

There are several questions that must be addressed to understand the halachic status of gelatin.

Fish Gelatin

Similarly, fish gelatin is not kosher unless produced from kosher species of fish. The use of fish gelatin with meat foods poses an interesting question. As we have mentioned, the Shulchan Aruch (Yore Deah 116) prohibits cooking meat and fish together because of health concerns. When dealing with possible health concerns, we are more stringent than with possible issur (prohibited substances). For this reason there is a question among the commentaries if the nullification-in-sixty rule applies to unhealthy substances as it does with prohibited substances. The custom is that one can nullify unhealthy substances in sixty (see Nekudas Hakesef, Yoreh Deah 116 & Pischei Tshuva).

Today there are many reasons for leniency in the use of fish gelatin together with meat. Many rabbinic authorities are of the opinion that the nature of some foods have changed, making the mixture of meat and fish no longer unhealthy (see Magen Avrohom Orach Chaim 173:1, Tshuvos Chasam Sofer vol:1, #101) In addition there is reason to say that not all fish are dangerous with meat. It may be that only the type mentioned in the Gemora (binita) is unhealthy (see Pischei Tshuvah, Yoreh Deah 116:3). There is also good reason to say that the unhealthy aspects of fish cooked with meat are found in the flesh of the fish, not in their skin and bone (from which gelatin is made). Gelatin does not have fish flavor. As such it may not harbor the harmful effects that fish carry (see Pischei Tshuva, Tshuvos Sride Eish vol. 2 , 67 re: cooking beef in fish oil).

With this same reasoning we can say that gelatin can be batel (nullified) with a majority of other food ingredients and can be mixed with meat. (As stated by R’ Aharon Kotler, zt"l, regarding animal gelatin & milk). Because of these reasons it is acceptable to use fish gelatin with meat. We may use much the same reasoning in the reverse case, to allow animal gelatin with fish.

In summary, gelatin produced from tahor species that are properly processed (slaughter, internally checked and salted in the case of animal source) and made on kosher equipment is acceptable.

Gelatin Substitutes

In today’s market there are reliably kosher gelatins available from both animal and fish sources. There are other gelatin substitutes that are not animal or fish based which have similar properties to gelatin and can serve in its stead. Common among them are Agar Agar and Carrageenan made from sea vegetation. There are also many gums and thickeners now available such as Gum Arabic, Carob, Guar, Karaya, Pectin, Tragacanth, and Xantham.

Gelatin substitutes are also making headway in the field of vitamin and medicinal capsules. Vegicaps™, vegetable based capsules, are now gaining popularity and are being used as a kosher alternative in the vitamin and nutritional industry. KosherCaps™, produced by Glatech productions, derived from glatt kosher hides, is "OU"-certified. It is excellent for use with liquids.

Regarding the taking of medicines and supplements that have non-kosher gel coatings and capsules, see the Summer 1995 Kashrus Kurrents article, Does Over-the-Counter Need to Be Under Hashgacha, by Rabbi Dovid Heber.

So when you want to get into the thick of it or if you want your dessert to gel, there are alternatives that do not compromise good kashrus standards.