Warning: Bigelow Teas and Dairy

[aprilp_katje]

The other day, I noticed that the packaging for my Bigelow decaf chai tea has the "kosher dairy" designation. I've been using this tea for a while, and somehow I hadn't noticed this. The ingredients are listed as "black tea, spices, natural flavors (soy lecithin)," so I was puzzled as to where the "dairy" designation would even come from. I went

Comments

[aprilp_katje]

How odd--if it's artificial, I wonder why a "kosher dairy" designation would be required.

[darkenedminds]

What I'm guessing, and I'm certainly not Jewish - its against their dietary restrictions to consume dairy and meat (beef and poultry - fish is in a different category) together; perhaps its designated at kosher "dairy" to signify that since its not really from dairy, its OK to have with meat

[aprilp_katje]

No--"kosher dairy" definitely means it's NOT okay to have with meat, because it's considered a "milk" food.

[aprilp_katje]

I've been trying to get more information via Google, and Google Books led me to a book called Advances in Food and Nutrition Research. A passage about milk and milk products has the following: "Note that butter esters, although the name implies dairy, are often mistaken to be a butter product. These esters tend to be those flavor chemicals known to be present in butter."

I'm still unsettled on why the "kosher dairy" label would be needed if these flavors are not derived from a dairy source.

[lickthespoon]

I'm assuming it's because it's possible to have butter esters derived from cows, so the "kosher" label is necessary to distinguish the two. Calling it "kosher dairy" instead of just "kosher" or "artificial butter esters" or something like that is probably just an artifact of bureaucratic food certification guidelines.

[aprilstarchild]

They might be manufactured in a place that also handles dairy products.

Kosher rules are only partially related to whether an food contains dairy. If dairy touches the same equipment, any of that equipment, then by Orthodox standards, any other food made on that equipment, is kosher dairy.

[cloud_atlas]

This.

[emptycages]

Oy vey. Thanks for posting this.

[aprilp_katje]

Sure--I am still trying to get an unambiguous reply from customer service. I straight-out asked if it's a fatty acid or component of milk fat, and the agent wrote back with nothing but "It's a fatty acid." Evasive? I wrote again. Will report back if she actually answers my question!

[socraticomatic]

How annoying!

[yellowsummers]

I know that in chemistry class last year, "ester" meant "mix a bunch of stinky chemicals together and they will smell like something". I think it refers to the chemicals in food that give it its smell, which can be created on their own. So maybe it's not milk-derived, but just smells like butter.

[aprilp_katje]

Weird. I've never found the tea especially butter-smelling. I really wish there were a whole lot more transparency in labeling, so we don't need to be detectives to figure out what we're ingesting.

[robertrabbits]

Perhaps you can contact the Orthodox Union and get an explanation for why that needs to be Kosher Dairy labeled? Might be a clue in there.

[aprilp_katje]

That's a good idea. Thanks. :)