[Avodah] More on OU DE

[Prof. L. Levine]

This morning while shopping I noted that many types of Arnold's bread now bear on OU DE instead of OU Pareve.  The following is from today's OU Kosher Halacha Yomis.


Q. Is one permitted to bake DE (Dairy Equipment) bread? For example, may one bake bread on a baking pan that was previously used to bake cheese danishes?


A. (The OU recently focused on this issue, as a major bread manufacturer certified by the OU requested authorization to produce OU-DE certified bread. Click here<http://links.mkt3536.com/ctt?kn=6&ms=MzEzMTcwOTES1&r=MjM3MTAxNzY3NzIS1&b=0&j=MTY0MzI2MjY1MwS2&mt=1&rt=0> to read Rabbi Genack’s extensive teshuva on this topic.)

The Pischei Teshuva (YD 97:5) rules that bread baked on dairy equipment may be consumed. He reasons that as follows: Chazal (Pesachim 46a) forbade eating dairy bread as a gezaira (a prohibitive measure), lest one forgets the dairy status of the bread and consumes it with meat. This concern is valid when the bread contains actual dairy ingredients. However, when the bread is baked on dairy equipment, the bread is technically pareve according to the Rama, but as a chumra (an extra stringency), the bread may not be eaten with meat. Bidi’eved (after the fact), the Rama agrees that DE bread mixed with meat may be consumed. The possibility that one might not remember the status of DE bread is much less of a concern than for bread that contains actual dairy, and therefore there is no restriction on consuming DE bread.


This reasoning is valid according to the Rama (95:2) who allows DE items mixed with meat bidi’eved. However, the Shach (quoted in a previous Halacha Yomis) rules that pareve items baked or roasted on dairy equipment are fully dairy and may not be consumed with meat even bidi’eved. Accordingly, the Shach would forbid all consumption of DE bread. As previously noted, many poskim, including the Aruch Hashulchan (95:12), are not in agreement with the Shach.


We will now address the second question about bread baked on a cheese danish pan. Are pans used to bake cheese danish treated as dairy? Interestingly, this depends on how the danish was prepared. If the cheese remained inside the dough, the pan would not have the status of actual dairy, and bread baked on the pan can be eaten with pareve or dairy foods. However, if the cheese leaked out of the danish onto the pan, the Shach would consider the pan to be actual dairy even bidi’eved, and bread baked subsequently would be forbidden.

___________________________________________

Let me point out that one must look very carefully at a loaf of Arnold bread to see if it actually has OU supervision (Some Arnold bread does not have OU supervision.), and if it does,  one has to look very carefully to see if after the OU there is a DE  or Pareve. It seems to me that some people may end up making a cold cut sandwich with OU DE bread.

YL
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20200205/b547b882/attachment.html>