Our special dietary needs series continues with advice from Suzannah Olivier on how nurseries can provide for Jewish children who may follow a kosher diet
Jewish children will make up a significant minority in many nurseries. One of the best known Jewish traditions is to eat kosher food and it is useful for nursery staff to understand this way of eating. Even if they are not practised at the nursery, it is good to know something of the traditions of different cultural and ethnic groups.
Who eats kosher?
The most observant are 'orthodox' and 'conservative' Jews. In practice, nursery staff are unlikely to have to cater for these groups, as these children are likely to attend nurseries which provide strict kosher catering.
Many 'reform' or 'liberal' Jews take a more relaxed view of kosher dietary laws and while they may practise some elements they may disregard others. This approach means that you will need to speak to parents about the religious dietary restrictions they expect their children to follow. For example, they may forbid eating pork or shellfish but not be concerned about eating non-kosher meat or about mixing dairy and meat products.
Your nursery's vegetarian menu will often satisfy the needs of Jewish families (see 'Beanfeast', Nursery World, 18 September). About 25 to 30 per cent of Jews keep kosher to some extent, but only about 17 per cent keep kosher all the time.
Some people think that kosher was established for hygiene or health reasons, but this is uncertain and practices are really a fundamental law of traditional Jewish observance. Some Jewish religious festivals such as Passover demand more rigorously applied dietary laws such as eating special unleavened bread.
What can be eaten?
Kashrut is the law relating to foods that can be eaten and their preparation, which renders them kosher. There is no such thing as 'kosher-style' food.
Chinese or Italian food can be kosher if it follows these laws, yet traditional Eastern European Jewish foods such as latkes, bagels, blintzes and matzo ball soup can all be non-kosher if not prepared properly.
There are many subtleties to the strict laws, but the basics fall into three categories:
1 The ingredients must be kosher. Meat must be from animals with cloven feet who chew their cud - so cows, sheep, goats and deer (and even giraffes!) are fine, but pigs and rabbit are not. Poultry is fine (but birds of prey are forbidden), insects and amphibians are forbidden (so frogs are out). Fish can be eaten if it has scales and fins (this eliminates shellfish). Many foods such as sweets and biscuits are not kosher if they contain gelatine (an animal-product), and bright red-coloured sweets and jellies often use cochineal (E120) made from insects.
2 Meat and poultry must be prepared by a kosher butcher. This does not apply to fish.
3 Meat and milk products may not be eaten together - this is because the Torah (religious law) says we must not 'boil a kid in its mother's milk'. This rule does not apply to fish. Vegetarian cheese must be used to avoid animal-based rennet, and care taken to avoid margarines that might have whey in them. When strictly applied, dairy foods are not eaten for six hours after a meat meal in case meat has not passed through the digestive system. A strict kosher kitchen will maintain two completely separate meat and dairy preparation areas, sets of equipment and serving dishes so there is no cross-contamination. These kitchen and serving utensils take on the restricted nature of the foods and so must not be mixed at all.
Vegetables, grains and fruits, with the exception of grape products, are neutral and can be used in both meat and dairy dishes, though they must not be cross-contaminated by meat or dairy. Grapes are fine, but grape juice (and wine) must be specially prepared kosher products due to a restriction on consuming products of 'idolatry' (which historically were used in many religious practices, and still are). Eggs are neutral but they must not contain blood spots.
Balanced nutrition
There is no reason why those who keep kosher can't have a healthy diet and the same nutritional concerns are true as for all children - that they eat a varied diet, eat plenty of fruits and vegetables and have sufficient high- quality calories and vitamins and minerals for growth.
In fact, focusing on cooking traditional Jewish dishes can mean that balanced meals are regularly prepared in the home. A wide variety of approved kosher foods are available, including organic meat.
There has been concern for ultra-orthodox Jews that the rules for eating dairy foods have led to restricted calcium intakes, and that children do not get enough sun, which lowers vitamin D levels, needed for calcium metabolism. One study found that 25 to 30 per cent of Jewish boys had insufficient bone mineral density and fractures, which is a highly unusual finding in this age group and in males.
