What Does Dairy Equipment (DE) Mean?

What Does Dairy Equipment (de) Mean? Title Image

COR certified kosher products receive a certain designation and fit into five general categories:

D – For dairy
M – For meat
Pareve – For “neutral,” i.e. food that is neither meat nor dairy
P – For Passover, i.e. products which are suitable for consumption on Passover
DE – For dairy equipment

As stated above, the pareve designation demarcates a product as having neither diary nor meat ingredients. The DE designation which stands for “Dairy Equipment” means that a hot product, while pareve in its essence, has been manufactured using equipment that was also used to manufacture hot dairy products where no kosherization occurred in between. It is important to note that a thorough cleaning of the equipment still occurs between production runs and there is absolutely no dairy products contained in an item labeled DE. Thus, from the standpoint of the kosher consumer, if someone has just completed a meat meal, he may then eat a product labeled DE. He cannot however eat something labeled DE during a meat meal. Some rabbis however are stricter in this regard and consulting with one’s own rabbi for personal guidance is always advisable.

For a more thorough explanation see our article here titled But Is It Really Dairy?

As always, if consumers have any questions about the above, they are invited to contact COR at questions@cor.ca or 416 635-9550.