Close, but not quite the same?

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By: Rabbi Yaakov Lach

In everyday language it is not uncommon to encounter similar sounding words used for very different items. Food ingredients are by no means impervious to this phenomenon, and there are many similar sounding ingredients that in fact have little in common. For the kashrus professional, it is prudent to be familiar with the instances that have kashrus implications.

The case of lactic acid and lactose is a classic, and well-known, example. Lact- in Latin refers to milk, and indeed lactose is the sugar that naturally occurs in milk. (-ose at the end of a word indicates a sugar, such as sucrose, fructose, etc.) Commercial lactose is derived from milk, or whey, and is certainly milchig (although only m’d’rabanon). Lactic acid, on the other hand, is not dairy. Its name originates from the fact that in nature, lactic acid is produced by the bacteria in milk. These bacteria consume the milk sugar (lactose) and excrete lactic acid. (This acid production is what makes ‘spoiled’ milk sour.) Commercially, however, it is produced by fermentation, as this is much more economical. A culture of these bacteria is introduced to an inexpensive sugar, such as glucose, and they produce the lactic acid from this pareve medium. Theoretically, one could produce lactic acid from dairy feedstock, by feeding the bacteria lactose, but in practice this is generally not done.

Once the issue of lactose and lactic acid has been sorted out, let us now examine compounds such as calcium lactate, often found in vitamin enrichments. Are they from lactic acid (pareve) or from lactose (dairy)? A useful rule to remember is that chemicals with the suffix -ate often are in the chemical category of ‘salts’ . Salts are generally formed by an acid – base reaction . We can therefore conclude that calcium lactate is formed from a calcium containing base (such as calcium hydroxide or calcium carbonate) and lactic acid. Lactose, which is neither an acid nor a base, plays no role in the reaction, and calcium lactate is thus pareve.

Lactose is dairy, and lactic acid, while pareve, at least occurs naturally in dairy products. In contrast, lactones have absolutely nothing to do with milk. Lactone is the name of a general category of organic compounds that are often used as flavor chemicals. While some may have kosher concerns (fermentation products and fatty acid derivatives), they are all invariably non-dairy.

Valerian and valeric acid is a good example of group 1 / group 3 similar sounding ingredients. Valerian is an essential oil extracted from the root of a botanical, and is a group one item. Valeric acid in some of its isomer forms can be derived from fusel oil (an ethanol fermentation by-product), and is not a group one.

Glycerol (glycerin), glycol, and glycine are three similar sounding names with three very different meanings. Glycerin (chemically known as glycerol or 1,2,3, propane triol) is, of course, a very kosher sensitive ingredient, as it can come from animal fat [see R’ Mordechai Kuber’s ‘Glycerine: It Could Be Treif!’ in Daf Hakushrus II:8]. Glycol is a chemical term that refers to a organic compound that has a double alcohol ( ‘OH’ ) group. Many types of glycols are group ones, but as this word refers to a broad chemical catagory, each specific example must be reviewed. Glycine is a sweet tasting amino acid that is produced from innocuous ingredients (formaldehyde, ammonia, and hydrogen cyanide) and is a group one.

Inositol and inositate is another example. Inositol is a specialty sugar derived from molasses, and has little kashrus concerns other than it can contain stearates as a flow agent. Inosine and inositates are fermentation products used in savory flavors and require proper supervision.

The list of examples can go on and on. The underlying theme is that ingredient listings, especially chemical and flavor names, must match precisely. Assumptions can be dangerous!

P.S. Recently, R’ Juravel related a non-chemical case in point. A kosher certified company that produces mozzarella cheese spent a great amount of resources to ensure that their treif mozzarella cookwater is kept separate from their whey. Their whey therefore has a reliable kosher certification. Their sweet cream is also certified, as there are strong safeguards that it is not adulterated. Their whey cream, however, is not certified. It was discovered, however, that some individuals were accepting the whey cream from this company, based on the assumption that if the cream is on the LOC, and the whey is on the LOC, than the whey cream is also acceptable. This is of course untrue! The cookwater, before being disposed of, must have its cream removed, as the fat will foul the septic system. This treif cookwater cream is blended into the whey cream. The whey is therefore indeed acceptable, but the whey cream is not.

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