Written by Rabbis Eli Gersten, Yaakov Luban and Moshe Zywica of the Orthodox Union

I only eat Chalav Yisrael. Can I eat parve foods cooked in a dairy pot at a non-Chalav Yisrael home?

Rama (YD 115:2) writes that if chalav akum was cooked in a pot, the pot must be kashered. Although it is unlikely that milk from a non-kosher animal was mixed into the milk, chalav akum is treated like any other non-kosher food, and kashering would be required.

However, there are poskim who permit commercial milk (chalav stam). Rav Henkin, zt”l (Teshuvot Ivra 43), writes that even among those who are stringent to only drink chalav Yisrael, there are many who are lenient to eat foods that were cooked in chalav stam pots, especially when visiting other people’s homes. However, those who do not consider chalav Yisrael to be a stringency, but rather believe it is an absolute requirement, would have no basis to be lenient with cooking in a chalav stam pot.

Still, Shach (YD 119:20) writes that if a person considers a food to be non-kosher and is eating at someone else’s home who is lenient, they may eat the food items that meet their standard of kashrut, provided the food was not cooked specifically for them (i.e. the food was cooked also for those who are not strict), and they do not know if the pots were used in the past 24 hours.