[Avodah] Cholov Akum and Cholov Yisroel

[Prof. L. Levine]

>From today's OU Kosher Halacha Yomis

Q. I typically eat only cholov Yisrael products. Accidentally, I bought a cereal that is labeled OU-D. I checked with the OU’s Webbe Rebbe (Kosherq at OU.org) and was told the cereal does not contain actual dairy, but it is made on dairy equipment. I opened the box, and I can no longer return it to the store. May I eat the cereal?


A. This question should be an open and shut case. The Rama (YD 115:1) writes explicitly that if cholov akum was cooked in a pot, the pot must be kashered before it is re-used. Nonetheless, there are various positions among poskim regarding food that was cooked in cholov akum pots in our contemporary times. The issue revolves around the current status of commercial milk. It is well known that Rav Moshe Feinstein, zt”l and other contemporary poskim held that the prohibition of cholov akum does not apply to commercial milk which is regulated and monitored by government agencies. Others reject this leniency. Still a third group are in agreement with Rav Moshe as far as the letter of the law, but nonetheless refrain from drinking unsupervised milk as a stringency. As such, there are the following positions:



  *   Those who disagree with Rav Moshe and consider cholov akum to be halachically prohibited treat food cooked in chalav akum equipment as non-kosher, per the Rama quoted above.
  *   On the other hand, those who follow Rav Moshe Feinstein’s lenient position on commercial milk would obviously have no problem cooking in pots used for cholov stam. (Cholov stam is milk that was not supervised by a mashgiach, but was produced in a dairy that is monitored for purity by government inspectors.)
  *   A third group agrees with Rav Moshe Feinstein’s lenient position in principal, but nonetheless refrain from drinking cholov stam as a chumrah (stringency). This position is further split into two camps with respect to cholov stam keilim :

Some are stringent only regarding actual cholov stam, but are lenient with respect to cholov stam keilim. This was the position of Rav Henkin, zt”l (Teshuvos Ivra 43).

Others maintained the same stringency applies to keilim as well. Rav Belsky, zt”l (Shulchan HaLevi 22:5) writes that this was the position of Rav Yaakov Kaminetzky, zt”l.


Nonetheless, one can argue that Rav Yaakov Kaminetzky would allow using a cholov stam pot that may have been unused for 24 hours. The basis for this is the Shach (YD 119:20) who writes that if a person has a chumra that his neighbor does not observe, he may still eat food that was cooked in his neighbors pot, so long as the food was not cooked specifically for him (i.e., the food was also cooked for those who are not strict), and it is not known if the pot was used in the past 24 hours. A similar argument can be made to permit the cereal in our original question, since it was already purchased, and it is not known if the equipment was used for dairy in the past 24 hours.

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