QUESTION: Many yogurts contain less than one percent gelatin. Since the gelatin is a small amount, can it be argued that the gelatin is batel b’shishim (nullified in sixty parts), and that the yogurt is kosher?
ANSWER: Gelatin is added to yogurt as a gelling agent to give body and texture to the product. Ingredients that significantly change the consistency of a food item are referred to in halacha as a davar hama’amid (a supporting agent), and are not batel b’shishim. As such, although the percentage of gelatin in a yogurt is very small, the rules of nullification in sixty parts do not apply, and such yogurts are non-kosher.
There is an additional reason that the gelatin is not batel in yogurt. Typically, the gelatin is first dissolved in a premix slurry, where the ratio of gelatin to the premix is greater than 1:60. The premix slurry is then combined into the final batch of the yogurt production. In this case, the entire premix would be forbidden in accordance with the principle of “chaticha na’aseis neveila” (i.e., a piece of meat that absorbed a non-kosher substance becomes a non-kosher entity). Since the ratio of premix to yogurt is generally greater than 1:60, the premix is not batel and the yogurt is not kosher.
This article is too short to be informative.
1. Is the gelatin treif? Or kosher meat?
2. Is there an issur of basar added on to the issur of treif, so that it is a problem of besar bechalav, or just trief???
3. Does everyone hold you say chanan by shaar issurim??? Sephardim don’t…
4. Is this kosher for sephardim???
Even though it is a short response, obviously, the OU holds it’s not kosher and won’t give a hechsher. For those who want to eat the yogurt anyway or want a more lomdish answer, they should speak to their own rabbis.
And more importantly does everyone agree this is called davar hamamed?