By COLlive reporter
Rejoice, cheese lovers!
Two cheese manufacturers in Italy announced plans to start producing authentic kosher Parmigiano-Reggiano, a cheese produced to ancient Italian food guidelines, Haaretz reported.
The Bertinelli cheese factory said it will have its Kosher parmesan at the end of 2015 and the Caseificio Colla in the town of Cade said its first kosher forms will hit shelves by October, the paper said.
The primary targets are the American and Israeli kosher markets. The last production of such cheese was in 2010.
Products labeled as Kosher Parmesan come in small triangle blocks from Natural and Kosher Cheese of Jersey City, NJ, and the grated Parmesan cheese from Fresh and Healthy in Newark, NJ.
But Haaretz indicated that those products aren’t “the real thing,” explaining that the term “Parmesan” often refers to generic grated cheese. Real Parmesan – a trademark protected both by Italian law and European Union regulations – specifically refers to Parmigiano-Reggiano.
“To make kosher Parmigiano-Reggiano, you need [to take the] rennet from animals that have been slaughtered according to kashrut, because if you use vegetable rennet it’s just not real,” Elena Loewenthal, author of a book on kosher cuisine, told Haaretz.
Since Italy’s Jewish population amounts to less than 50,000 individuals and only a small minority of them keeps kosher, there are few kosher slaughterhouses in the country, which makes the production of kosher Parmigiano-Reggiano complex and its market small, Haaretz reported.
Read more on haaretz.com
VIDEO: Inside the Bertinelli company
I live in Italy and I personally went and see Bertinelli Kosher production in Parma. First: it’s the only producer of Parmigiano Reggiano PDO with a kosher certificate (ok kosher certificate). It’s the only one because I personally cheked with the Consortium ( The Authority that grants PDO to Parmigiano and check every single wheel and every single dairy). I do not know about OU certificate bu I’m sure about OK certificate. secondly: there are not other Parmigiano Reggiano producers with ok kosher certificate. What you find on the market are all fake (parmesan) they proably don’t have the logo… Read more »
see the following OU advisory.
OU Kosher Advisory Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese
Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese
Issue:
Recent media reports stated that there is a new Parmigiano Reggiano cheese made with kosher animal rennet which will be recognized as kosher by the Orthodox Union.
These reports are inaccurate.
The Orthodox Union reviewed the kosher status of animal rennet and determined that currently there is no animal rennet that meets OU kosher standards for the production of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.
Parmigiano Reggiano cheeses made with animal rennet are, therefore, NOT considered kosher by the OU.
I’ve heard many times that Parmesan cheese requires 6 hours of waiting before it is permissible to eat meat (as apposed to the usual 1 hour) now my question is, if the Parmesan I’m eating is not ‘real’, do I need to wait 6 hours? and for the ‘real’ Parmesan… do I need to wait for 6 hours??
(and regarding the foolishness posted before about ain mevatlim issur lechatchilla.. lets see which commentors actually listened to smicha classes 😉 )
This is commenter #8 again – thank you for pointing out my error. I believe we are both wrong (about the location of the source), I went back, dusted off the books and checked; it is Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh Deah, Siman Pay Zayin (87), S’eif Yud Aleph (11) !, – there is no s’eif 12 or 13 in Pay Zayin. The poster deeply regrets the inadvertent error. MR
The Israeli health authorities do not permit the import of products made from non pasturised milk. A real Parmesan cannot be made from pasturised milk.
FYI
in ancient times milk was actually put into the stomachs of the shechted appropriate animals to curdle and become cheese !!!!
Since rennet alone is kosher, and milk alone is kosher – it’s only the combination of milk and meat that is not – then there is a problem only if the cheese actually tastes of rennet (which, I would assume, any decent cheesemaker would know to prevent). In short, it’s not that rennet isn’t meat, it’s that it is subject to the usual rules of nullification (bittul); the same rules would apply if a drop of milk fell into a meat pot, or vice versa. (Commenter 8 referenced Yoreh De’ah 87:13 – a typo; should be 87:12 – where this… Read more »
I’ve heard many times that Parmesan cheese requires 6 hours of waiting before it is permissible to eat meat (as apposed to the usual 1 hour) now my question is, if the Parmesan I’m eating is not ‘real’, do I need to wait 6 hours? and for the ‘real’ Parmesan… do I need to wait for 6 hours??
(and regarding the foolishness posted before about ain mevatlim issur lechatchilla.. lets see which commentors actually listened to smicha classes 😉 )
One is real Parmigiano Reggiano and the other is almost the same also from Italy called Grana Padano.
both MUCH better than anything you can buy made in the US
brand name was gran duca
the garana padano is anoither cheese
Animal derived rennet is not considered meat, it is merely an enzyme derived from the stomach of certain animals. (It doesn’t have a taste and is therefore not subject to Basar B’chalav)
However, it still needs to come from an animal which was shechted and later processed in a Kosher manner. Although it is used in minute amounts in cheese production, as a Dovor Hama’amid (and solidifying agent), it cannot be Botul (nullified) in the usual 1/60th. This is the reason why real Kosher cheese is very expensive.
It has the DOP stamp as does the Grana
I use HaOlam chalav Yisrael Parmesan cheese, aged over 10 months. What’s not real about it?
Can anyone explain how real (animal, not veggie) rennet is parve.
Commonly asked question on “conservative” kashrut, “How is rennet not basar; but sodium caseinate is milk?”
To all those saying they bought genuine parmesan, how do you know it is? The grana padano cheese has been parading as genuine parmesan for a while and fooling people successfully!
is this new product Cholov Yisroel
I bought Parmiggiano Reggianno ( not grana Padano ) at Benz’s on Chol Hamoed….
As a friendly reminder, all Parmesan (and swiss) cheese is 6 hour cheese.
you cant anymore there hasnt been any for a while other than natural & kosher and the cheese guy. There has been grana padana which is close but not the same
1. Kosher chalav yisroel Parmigiano-Reggiano has been on the market for a number of years now.
2. Rennet from kosher slaughtered animals is kosher.
Rennet does not make cheese bosor becholov! How do you suppose our ancestors ate cheese? Rennet is parev. But it must come from a geshochtene animal.
“Real rennet would make it basar vchalav”
That does not appear to be correct.
See Y”D 87:13
That’s not Parmesan. It’s Grana Padano.
I totally don’t understand how they will add animal rennet.. ain m’vatlin issur l’chatchila.
Nowhere does it say that it will be Cholov Yisroel.
Who is certifying this? Most of Anash will not eat stam Rabbanut certified kosher.
According to Haaretz it’s impossible to have real kosher cheese. Real rennet would make it basar vchalav
You can buy authentic Parmigiano Reggiano at Benz’s in Crown Hights
This is the best news to hit the kosher food industry in years!
Made by at least two companies, Gran Duca and Zanetti.
Try The Cheese Guy’s cheese, they are awesome!