Bismillah
I love yogurt. Unfortunately MOST of the (affordable) brands use gelatin. Meaning there could be little piggy parts swimming in my strawberry yogurt. Either I fork over a ridiculous price for the "expensive" kind or forgo my yogurt.
But alhamdulillah the other day I found out that Great Value (Wal-Mart Brand) uses kosher gelatin. Read: no little piggies in my strawberry yogurt!!
YAY!!!!!
16 comments:
I feel like Homer, "Doh!" I never thought to read the label on my yogurt...life is certainly an adjustment currently. Thanks for the tip though!
Alhamdulilah we have an affordable halal import store that we shop at but I never knew this. Thanks for the info.
Salaam Alaikum,
I am also a yogurt lover, especially goat yogurt, which has been impossible to find here in spain =(
The problem I have with yogurt is not just gelatin but finding yogurt with out fructose corn syrup or added chemcals (e-chemicals). I usually have to buy plain yogurt which is fine because then I just add fresh fruit and granola to it and it tastes amazing!
Here´s a link to make your own yogurt
http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/yogurt.htm
Irendi3786: I know... it took me so long to figure out what all had gelatin in it. Here in the states, they use beef and pork gelatin interchangeably depending on the prices, so you just never know what you are getting unless they specifically say "beef gelatin" or "kosher gelatin" etc.
My Getaway: Alhamdulillah that is good. Getting anything imported or halal here is pretty difficult, so you have to do a lot of checking labels and everything. But alhamdulillah for everything :-)
Rene: I've never had goat yogurt, but I do looove goat cheese. Thanks for the link too! That looks like fun :-) And powdered milk is definitely less expensive than the "good" yogurt at the store, lol. She mentioned you can do it with regular milk as well, but does it need to be low/non-fat milk?
as-salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah,
be careful sis and look at the Kosher certification label and/or call to find out for sure-
http://www.muslimconsumergroup.com/Ingredients.do?menu=Ingredients&eventAction=description
click on the "kosher gelatin" link to see which labels accept/don't accept pork gelatin as kosher.
how can there be kosher pork gelatin? pork is decidedly un-kosher, lol.
Thanks for the heads up though, and I will try to check it out inshaAllah :-)
I went to the website of this product and they confirmed that they use beef gelatin and that everything is kosher certified, but I'm trying to figure out who they are certified by.
how can there be kosher pork gelatin? pork is decidedly un-kosher, lol.
get this, some of the more liberal Kosher certification organizations think that gelatin from pork is ok because of something to the effect of--the structure of the pork is broken down so much that by the time its gelatin, its no longer considered pork.
LOL
yeah I think I have even heard a Muslim source try to make this argument before... somewhere online I guess, but I can't remember where it was now.
They are right it isn't pork anymore, it is condensed pork, :-P
yoplait is kosher.
Well, what they are saying is that it is technically no longer pork. Its chemical makeup has been drastically changed. Its like saying vinegar is is still wine. Its not. Its a different chemical compound all together.
I actually read that the chemical makeup doesn't actually change a whole lot. The process isn't so much one of transmutation, but more of extraction. The structure of the chemical is not significantly changed, just brought out of the material and purified. Of course I haven't actually studied the chemical and Allahu 'alem :-)
There was a good description of the process when I googled "Hanafi fiqh gelatin" or something like that.
For those who live on the US west coast, safeway yogurt uses kosher gelatin.
Most US yogurts use kosher gelatin, but I buy veggie yogurt from Trader Joe's when I can afford to/want to feel extra safe. I know Yoplait is kosher, and I'm PRETTY SURE Dannon is, too. Plus various generic brands. You just gotta look.
As I recall, Dannon/Danone does not use gelatin at all (but of course check the label to be sure - don't just take my word for it :D ). I know I only use yogurts that do not contain any gelatin (hard to find, but possible). My favorite (a hint for those located in Europe) is Jogobella, made by the German firm Zott. If you should happen to be located in Poland, Bakoma plain yogurt is a very fine yogurt with superior consistency, without using gelatin. Their fruit yogurts, however, are not as nice as Zott's. Probably the best option is to use Bakoma or other plain yogurt without gelatine, and put fruit and honey in (or veggies, mint and cumin :D ).
UHG when I found this out I gasped and hoped that Muslims in Canada knew this!!! Fortunately we have good organic slection in our supermarkets and that is all I buy :-) it's free from gelatin and is ALLLL natural! Making it SUPER halal.........lol.
If it is kosher beef gelatin, it is still mixing meat and dairy. That makes the product not kosher, no matter how the cow was slaughtered for it's hooves for the gelatin.
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