Title: Kosher Food Regulation and the First Amendment: Irreconcilable Differences? (1995 Third Year Paper)
Author(s): Joshua L. Fogel
Subject & Subject keywords: Food and Drug Law "kosher" "first amendment" "jewish foods" "product labeling"
Abstract:The kosher food market has ballooned in the last decade. Approximately 21,000 kosher foods are now available, amounting to almost one third of the products in our supermarkets. The consumers of kosher goods have also grown: less than one third of the six million American kosher clientele are Jewish. Now, Muslims, Seventh-Day Adventists, vegetarians and the lactose intolerant often rely on kosher labeling in keeping with their dietary restrictions. Further, an increasing number of non-Jewish people purchase kosher food today because they perceive it to be better quality and healthier.

We will discuss some details of kosher food regulation in the United States and the constitutional problems they face. Based on a conceptual understanding of these hurdles, we will outline two new approaches to kosher food regulation, and discuss how they may succeed in overcoming these hurdles where New Jersey had failed. Also, we will predict some of the potential problems that these new programs would face, along with some possible solutions.