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What are the halachos of swiss cheese? Does it need a hashgocha if you eat cholov stam?
The holes dont need a hashgacha at all.
Millers Cheese is Chalav Stam and a Hashchacha.
The onl;y daily product I would buy without a Hashcha is Milk and thats is 100% Milk and not some milk product or derivitive
Yes, it needs a hashgacha, because of gevinas akum.
DISCAIMER: The following is just my understanding of the issue based on my study. For this and any other halacha l’maaseh issue, consult your own Rav or RH.
It would seem to me that any cheese, like Swiss cheese, that uses a coagulating agent requires hashgacha. The gezeira on gevinas akum is separate from the gezeirah on chalav akum. Although the reason for the gezeira isn’t really clear from Shas and Rishonim, the general consensus is that the rennet used as a coagulating agent is the concern and hashgacha must ascertain that it comes from a kosher animal. In fact, almost all commercial cheese made in the U.S. use microbial rennet (grown from yeast) instead of animal rennet. Nevertheless, most contemporary poskim opine that hard cheese needs a hechsher.
Soft cheeses such s farmer cheese, cottage cheese and cream cheese generally don’t use a coagulating agent at all or use vinegar. As such, many poskim hold that such cheeses do not need a hechsher.
N.B. The reason that many are meikil in this issue is the fact that true cheese only be made from the milk of a kosher animal. The preceding, however, does not apply to “processed cheese foods” and one must be wary.
All cheeses that are made with rennet or whatever it is that is used to make the cheese, need hashgocha.Otherwise, we could all eat Kraft cheeses.
at all or use vinegar. As such, many poskim hold that such cheeses do not need a hechsher
How could it have vinager and not need a hechsher?
The holes do need a Hashgocha because they touched the cheese, but only if you eat them. I never eat the holes. They’re hard to chew.
SL, OOPS! you’re right of course. As a matter of fact, stam vinegar in the U.S. is made from apples but still needs a hechsher.
Butter and Cheese
What about them?
Do some more research.
What do you mean? I always thought that chalav yisrael is not required for cheese and butter.
Machlokes. Haga atzmicha – do you think those of us who are makpid on CY like to waste money for no reason? Yes, there’s room to be more meikil on cheese (and in the past, butter) than on milk. Yet, the majority of those makpid on milk also follow the sticter opinion on cheese.
Even many of those who were meikil on butter are no longer meikil, because they changed the way they produce butter.
Redleg- you got it mostly correct.
– Soft Cheeses may use (microbial) Rennet, but since they don’t “have” to, the hashgacha agencies are lenient.
– Most Vinegar in the USA is actually from Corn based alcohol, or Chemical/gas based. Some from Wheat or Apples, while a minority from Wine.
– Your NB point- Who are those poskim that don’t require a hechsher on regular cheese that contains multiple ingredients including rennet, albeit mostly microbial (- I saw animal based rennet used in cheese production south of the border…)
Jewish Thinker- Shulchan aruch heter is only for Butter, not cheese. Although today you can have 100% cream (churned into butter) which may be 100% non kosher, depending on the cream source [e.g. cook water cream from cheese production, ie. gevinas akum, or whey cream, blended back with pure milk cream]
A complicated “sugya” that we in the kashrus industry have spent lot’s of time on.
Pule, the world’s most expensive cheese, is made from the milk of Serbian donkeys. Really. Google it.
Kasher: Rema 115:2, IG”M Y.D. 3:16.
“Who are those poskim that don’t require a hechsher on regular cheese that contains multiple ingredients including rennet, albeit mostly microbial”
Rav Yoseph Ber Soloveitchik for one.
cherrybim – the wife of Rav Yoseph Ber’s nephew was at my house today and I asked her about this. Her response was, “that’s a new one”
He might have been talking about cottage cheese, and other types which aren’t made with rennet.
It’s a machlokes, so in theory, one could be meikil on cholov stam but be machmir on gevinas aku”m for these cheeses.
Either way, that’s a mainstream shittah, but for hard cheeses, it’s not.
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