Why is kosher yogurt so hard to find?

Of all the products which are available with kosher certification, yogurt is one of the most difficult to locate. Just like milk and cheese, it is a dairy product which means that it is already partially restricted, but while kosher milk and kosher cheese is fairly accessible, it seems as though kosher yogurt options are much more widely restricted. Anyone who wants to use yogurt as part of a recipe, but can't find kosher or even parve yogurt from their local suppliers, needs to understand why it is so hard to make a yogurt while observing the Jewish laws on the ingredients and preparation of kosher foods.

Yogurt and Jewish law

The history of yogurt suggests that it was first developed thousands of years ago in the lands now known as Iran and Turkey. The original mixture for yogurt involved leaving milk in a sealed container in the heat for some time. This created the conditions which formed the thick, almost creamy mixture. The use of this invention travelled throughout the Middle East, and certainly into the lands now known as Israel. This means that the rabbis of ancient Jewish law would have had just as much trouble with this product as do modern kosher certificate suppliers.

The problem with yogurt is not so much in the milk, which can be obtained through kosher animals, but with the bacterial cultures which are now used to create most yogurt throughout the world. The question of where those cultures come from is what makes the difference between non-kosher and kosher yogurt.

Bacterial cultures and kosher foods

The creation of a bacterial culture which can be used to make yogurt is not something which is done in a food processing plant. Instead, food cultures are likely to be made in laboratories or in specialist culture producers. They are often grown on foods which are not kosher, and according to the rules of preparation, this makes the culture non-kosher, and hence the yogurt, too, is not kosher.

Additives

A second problem lies in the fact that modern yogurt is also made thicker, more stable, with the use of products including gelatine, milk powders and whey. Milk products and whey are often created in equipment which also uses non-kosher foods, tainting the dairy products. Even the ingredients for the colour can include carmine (made from insects which are non-kosher), and may also contain a mix of fruits which are non-kosher according to strict Jewish law. Finding kosher yogurt is therefore extremely difficult, with problems from one end of the production line to the other. Finding a supplier online is one of the best ways to overcome the problem.