The Changing Landscape Of Kosher Meat & Dairy Alternatives

Kosher food has made some tremendous advances in the last few decades. Those who keep kosher are now free to choose from practically every ethnic cuisine and culinary style while still maintaining strict kosher dietary laws. Dishes that previously went utterly untouched by adherents to kosher dietary laws are now finding a way into the kosher market.

This shift has been accomplished primarily by substituting the primary ingredients in the forbidden items with foods permitted by kosher laws. Popular choices in the kosher imitation food industry include “facon” in place of bacon and imitation crab. Now, Jews with all sorts of food preferences or an adventurous proclivity can choose from a wealth of options formerly unexplored.

One of the most innovative areas of kosher food is plant-based meat and dairy alternatives. These advancements provide the kosher consumer with historically forbidden combinations. The most obvious of these is the pairing of meat and dairy. Now, these plant-based and related products can be used to make “cheeseburgers” and even enjoyed with milkshakes and other dairy sides, such as cheese fries. A quick search on Amazon for “kosher meat substitutes” or on Instacart for “kosher dairy substitutes” produces a seemingly endless array of options that were non-existent only a decade ago.

In addition to the novelty these products provide to the kosher consumer, they are also appealing to various diets, such as those that follow a strict vegetarian or vegan regime. By using science and culinary expertise, they can now enjoy burgers, chicken, and cheese dishes that, by many accounts, taste quite close to actual animal products.

Kosher Certification Is A Process

Bridging the gap between the vegan world’s innovations and the kosher world’s religious regulations is no simple task. Still, several kosher certification agencies have set out to accomplish this in conjunction with food manufacturers. To ensure that everything involved in manufacturing a kosher product is up to par, a representative from a kosher certification organization must verify that the facility used adheres to the intricate laws of kosher. All ingredients, additives, or processing aids used in its production must be proper. Also, the equipment used must meet exacting specifications. It is a time-consuming and sometimes costly process, but there is no doubt that certifying a product as kosher gives it a unique advantage, opening the product to a whole new audience that shows strong enthusiasm for the latest kosher-certified offerings.

Based on the potential present from a marketing perspective for kosher products, numerous companies specializing in alternative offerings have taken the kosher plunge. Some of the most well-known kosher products used as alternatives to meat and dairy include the Impossible Burger, Beyond Meat, Tofurky, and Lightlife.

The Good Food Institute (GFI) has a comprehensive guide on navigating kosher certification for plant-based foods.

Impossible Foods Innovates

So what’s a burger made of, if not meat? Some of the primary ingredients in this innovative creation are wheat protein, coconut oil, potato protein, and heme, which is responsible for its “meaty” texture and flavor. Potential health benefits include having zero cholesterol and other aspects that some say make red meat unhealthy. The burger also provides some of the protein and iron you can get from regular ground beef. What sets the Impossible Burger apart from its plant-based peers is that its proprietary use of heme causes the “meat” to “bleed” with aromatic extracts, similar to a beef patty.

Fanfare From The Kosher Market

After getting certified in May 2018 by the OU, Impossible Foods got much kosher-specific media coverage.

“Getting kosher certification is an important milestone,” said Impossible Foods CEO and Founder Dr. Patrick O. Brown, Ph.D., M.D. “We want the Impossible Burger to be ubiquitous, and that means it must be affordable and accessible to everyone – including people who have food restrictions for religious reasons.”

As mentioned, the Impossible Burger has garnered plenty of attention on social media and articles. The reaction to the burger is a generally positive one: a BBC Good Food reporter said that “It was simply delicious,” though she could still tell the difference between it and the real thing. An Ars Technica reporter commented that the burger “contributed to a great sandwich that hit great flavor notes I don’t think I’ve tasted since giving up beef,” and while not tasting exactly like the real thing, “it does cook up the way ground beef does” as far as textures and sears.

Impossible Foods offers alternative meat options in addition to burgers. At the beginning of 2020, they announced their alternative take on the most-eaten meat in the world: pork. As of now, though, it is unclear if there are plans for this item to be kosher-certified. 

While the Impossible Burger is relatively new to the kosher world, many other alternative plant-based items for kosher consumers have been on the market for some time now. True, Impossible has arguably created the most innovative and tech-centric creation, but these other items are interesting in a unique way.

Beyond Meat Gets Kosher Certification, Too

Even with relatively higher prices, consumers have shown a willingness to pay for Beyond Meat’s plant-based offerings, which is encouraging for this category’s future trajectory.

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What’s that?
We’re about to make your day?
Thanks to @ryestar who spotted the first @BeyondMeat sausages with that elusive OK Kosher symbol at Wegmans in Niagara Falls, NY.
Go get ‘em 😄🆗#kosher #plantbased #vegan pic.twitter.com/MNm8srn3xs

— OK Kosher (@OKKosher) November 29, 2018

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Many Dairy Alternatives On The Market

In addition to the meat alternatives that get a lot of attention due to their novelty and dairy being the alternative that was on the market first, the dairy alternatives market in the kosher context has grown considerably, too. While soy-based cheeses have been around forever, now there are a host of choices for yogurts and specialty cheeses such these “mozzarella shreds” from Violife, “Parmesan Cheese” from Follow Your Heart, “Mexican Blend Shreds” from Daiya, and “milk mozzarella” from Miyoko’s.These are only some of the options in the rapidly expanding alternative dairy category that are kosher-certified. That said, we do see more enthusiasm among the kosher consumers for meat alternatives than the dairy ones.

“Profit-Plus” Brands

Another player in the alternative meat category is Lightlife. The company began as ‘Tempeh Works’ in a converted car wash in 1979. They soon upgraded to a converted truck depot and changed their name to Lightlife. In 1993, they created the Smart Dog, which is today the best-selling vegan refrigerated product in the United States. They also made all of their products GMO-free eight years before the founding of the Non-GMO Project, of which they are now a member. On the kosher side, all refrigerated Lightlife products are certified by the OK. Like the OU, the OK is one of the largest and most stringent certification organizations.

Lab-Grown Meats

Besides alternative plant-based protein products, there are also fast-moving advancements in a new and fascinating kind of meat production. Animal protein is currently being produced in vats from animals’ stem cells to create a new lab-grown food product. The Good Food Institute (GFI) is an organization working to promote and advance this new industry, entitling the product as ‘clean meat.’ After observing how Americans weren’t cutting down on meat despite the introduction of meat-like substitutes such as the Impossible Burger, GFI decided to create a better market for alternative meat products and break out clean beef onto the scene. It may be available as soon as within the next year.

Kosher certification of the above products, however, is assuredly not a simple matter. One of the primary issues that arise when attempting to make these foods accessible to kosher consumers is the possibility of creating the notion that eating meat and milk together is acceptable when in their native form. Making the paradox of a kosher cheeseburger a reality might seem appealing to Orthodox Jews, but it can lead to significant confusion.

Even while making clear that the “meat products” are not meat, the result is the fusion of two foods that kosher-observant Jews usually keep entirely separate. Likewise, when products like imitation bacon or crab are put on the market, rabbis specializing in kashrut are often vehement that the product must be clearly labeled as imitation only. This is so that no one should be led to assume that the laws of kosher have changed to allow foods from forbidden animals into the kosher landscape.

Israel As A Leader In The Space

Israel is a leader in both vegan foods, such as alternative meat products and lab-grown meats. In 2020, the country was ranked 3rd globally based on Google Trends for veganism. While the Jerusalem Post notes that this is mainly due to the Mediterranean diet and less related to ethical or associated concerns, Israel does have quite a robust vegan ecosystem. In terms of lab-grown meat, Israel is leading in this area as well. Aleph Farms, a leader in the category, has already produced lab-grown steak and plans to launch commercially by the end of 2022. Stressing the leading role the sector as a whole and as a company specifically will play as the world increasingly focuses on ESG, Prime Minister Netanyahu visited Alpeh in December 2020. The Prime Minister was quite impressed with the taste profile of the steak.

Complicated Questions For Certifiers

This issue falls under the category of “marit ayin,” which, literally translated, means “the appearance of a certain thing.” The statute refers to the prohibition against doing an action that looks misleading because it is similar to a forbidden activity.

A controversy has even arisen over meat grown from the stem cells of animals. The question asked is whether products made from animal stem cells, for example, hamburgers made from the stem cells of a cow, constitute real meat and whether such food can be considered kosher. If the cells are considered authentic meat themselves, then we are confronted with the prohibition against eating meat from a living animal with, for example, dairy items. As every non-kosher product is considered non-kosher and every product of kosher is considered kosher, the cells must also be extracted from a kosher animal and slaughtered according to Jewish law.

A Term Of Art

A new issue emerging with these foods, aside from kosher, is how to brand and label these exceedingly meat-like products. Companies worry that the words ‘vegan’ or ‘vegetarian’ may come off as offensive or judgmental towards carnivores. That’s why the term ‘plant-based’ is making its way into the industry as the primary characteristic in alternative burgers, steaks, and turkeys.

“For many people, their notion of a vegan is someone who’s wagging a finger at them if they eat any animal products. I’m vegan. But for a lot of people that term – it’s almost like a cult,” says Pat Brown, CEO of Impossible Foods.

‘Vegan’ refers to what’s not in food and is perceived as the food missing something, whereas ‘Plant-based’ refers to what’s in the food and is more likely to be seen as advantageous. There’s also the hope that using the term ‘plant-based’ will attract a broader market of consumers, including foodies who don’t strictly adhere to vegan or vegetarian diets.

There’s even controversy over whether to entitle fake meats as ‘meat’ at all. In August, a new state law went into effect in Missouri prohibiting vegan meat manufacturers from labeling their products as ‘meat’ or using terms like ‘sausage.’ Tofurky has filed a lawsuit against the state in an attempt to continue branding their products as “meats.” The Missouri Cattlemen’s Association defends the new law by explaining that it concerns lab-grown meat, which is becoming an increasingly imminent reality in the food industry.

A Growing Fan Base

However, these new challenges facing the alternative plant-based protein category are to be expected when embarking on such an innovative way to cut back on meat, protect animals, and create a more eco-friendly way to enjoy the same food items that we have come to love. These items are so ingrained in both our personal lives and the fabric of the country as a whole. Kosher certification is just one more step to expanding the growing interest in these new food offerings and the substantial fan base that these revolutionary foods are quickly gaining. There may be a long way to go before meat consumption in America is significantly downsized, but until then, these companies are advancing plant-based meat to new heights in both the kosher market and beyond.