Kosher symbols can be difficult to spot on a food label, and may even appear in non-obvious places. For the most part, kosher symbols are simple to identify. On your kosher cruise, however, you may run into one occasionally that you might not recognize.
Before we get to know them, it's first important to understand what kosher foods are. Koshering is a process through which a rabbi supervises the preparation of meat and dairy products, and supervises the preparation of a group of people before it’s declared as hechsher (kosher certified). It has a lot of complicated rules and labeling, with numerous kosher certification agencies all over the world using different symbols. As of now, the most common labeling is from Orthodox Union.
Here is a list of common kosher symbols that you might run into on your next Jewish travel expedition.
OU - if you see this label on a food product, it is labeled as kosher pareve. This means it contains no meat and no dairy, not even its derivatives.
OU-D - indicates a kosher dairy product. It contains dairy ingredients or dairy derivatives.
OU-DE - this means that the product may not be necessarily dairy, but was processed on the same equipment processed with dairy.
OU-M - can also be substituted with the OU-Glatt symbol. This refers to kosher meat/dairy-free meat. Watch out for this symbol if you’re vegan.
OUT-OF- this symbol indicates a kosher product with fish ingredients.
OU-P - means that this product is kosher for Passover.
There are still a lot more symbols to look out for, but these are the common ones you can find. For a complete list of symbols, you may check these kashrut agencies.
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