Pareve and dairy markings

How to read it

Keeping meat and dairy apart is a key principle of kosher law, so certifiers mark which a product is. OU Kosher labels dairy items OU-D or OU Dairy and meat items OU Meat; an OU with no suffix can be assumed to be pareve. Pareve means the food contains no meat or dairy and was not processed with heat on meat or dairy equipment, and pareve foods may be eaten with either. OK Kosher lists eggs, fish, fruit, vegetables, grains, pasta, soft drinks, coffee and tea among common pareve foods.

Also searched as: dairy kosher, OU-D, pareve, parve.

A D can mean dairy equipment

OU Kosher uses it for products with a dairy ingredient or derivative, and also for products made on equipment used for dairy, so the product itself may contain no milk.

Non-dairy and dairy together

OU Kosher notes that many non-dairy creamers are dairy in kosher terms and carry an OU-D: US rules require the words “non-dairy” on creamers that use milk derivatives instead of whole milk. In kosher law, even a trace amount of dairy can make a food dairy.

P means Passover

OU-P marks a product that is kosher for Passover, and pareve as well. The P does not stand for pareve.