Thursday, January 9, 2020

halacha - Milk-free cheese: Is it kosher? Parve?


So according to this article, scientists have created cheese by inserting DNA blueprints into a yeast. Essentially, the milk proteins are being created outside of any animal, through genetic engineering. The big question is, is it kosher? Would it be parve or dairy? If such a product was kosher, then supermarket cheese might be more approachable for many Jews.



Answer



I emailed the OU with this question. Here's their response:



Likely this cheese would indeed be pareve, but because of confusion (maris ayin) one would need to treat it like cheese. And one would not be permitted to eat it with meat.


Since these products are not yet commercially available, and the OU has not been asked to certify these products, the OU poskim have not yet given psakim. If this ever comes to reality, the entire process will need to be studied very carefully.



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