Trendy, Schmendy..Kosher is suddenly hot

[richlevy]

I've been eating kosher foods all of my life. Of course, I haven't been only eating kosher foods. I still prefer Hebrew National hot dogs over other beef dogs.

Who knew that one day I'd be a trend-setter.

From here

In an era of heightened concern over food contamination, allergies and the provenance of ingredients, the market for kosher food among non-Jews is setting records.
Only about 15 percent of people who buy kosher do it for religious reasons, according to Mintel, a research group that last year produced a report on the kosher food explosion. The top reasons cited for buying kosher? Quality, followed by general healthfulness.

The non-Jewish kosher market has been growing in earnest since the 1990s, when the koshering of the Oreo was hailed as a watershed event and ConAgra Foods bought the Hebrew National hot dog brand. Now, 40 percent of the food sold at grocery stores has a kosher imprint, according to the kosher and halal food initiative, a research project at Cornell University.
Recently, the pace has picked up. Major retailers including Wal-Mart, Costco and Trader Joe’s have kosher programs. At FreshDirect, the New York City grocery delivery company, orders for kosher chicken were up 30 percent in 2009. The kosher Tootsie Roll was introduced last month.

Ok, I knew that HebNat was bought by Con Agra. I did not hear about the koher Tootsie Roll, though.

For some shoppers, kosher means purity of ingredients. Vegetarians know a parve label means absolutely no meat or dairy products. (Vegans, though, are out of luck. Parve food can contain eggs and honey.)

....and fish. Parve = Vegan + eggs + fish. I knew honey was parve, but it was only the eggs and fish that always puzzled me. Eggs and fish are animals (or potential animals). I always thought they should have been in the meat category. Since they weren't, and if the whole purpose is to separate dairy from meat, and eggs are parve, then why not make chicken parve? You can't milk a chicken.