Guest Blogger: the Kosher Gentile
48-hours, Mistake Number One
After a weekend of eating out and trying to unpack my belongings, my roommate came back to town to finish helping me and to point out that Gummi Bears are NOT kosher. I can eat them, they just can't go in the kitchen. I didn't even think about the hooves being treyf. But they are... so be warned! Ye lovers of Gummi, look for a hekhsher -- and let me know if you find a gummi product with it!
Blue Artichoke's note: hekhsher, also hechsher, is the formal granting of certification, usually by an authorized Orthodox rabbi, that a product is certified as kosher (meaning "fit" for consumption). The best known hekhsher symbol is the "OU" symbol of the Orthodox Union, based in New York, but there are many others, often followed by a descriptive qualifier, such as Pareve (the neutral food class), Meat, Dairy, or Kosher for Passover.