This posting is not meant to incite conflict but as just a point of
interest regarding diets

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20031030/od_nm/kosher_dc

Kosher Food Festival Looks to Muslim Customers
Thu Oct 30, 8:00 AM ET
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/By Chris Reese/

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The world's largest kosher food showcase might seem
a strange place to make overtures to the Muslim palate, but Jewish food
manufacturers say Muslims make up an increasing number of their customers.

Participants in Kosherfest 2003 in New York on Tuesday and Wednesday
said kosher food, specially prepared to meet Jewish dietary laws, often
also met the needs of pork-free Muslim diets.

"We have been told by supermarkets that there is an increasing interest
from the Muslim community," said Menachem Lubinsky, president of
festival sponsor IMC Events and Exhibitions.

"The easiest way for (Muslims) to make sure that they don't consume pork
or prohibited products is by buying kosher products," Lubinsky said

The kosher diet dictates that meat and dairy products may not be cooked
or eaten together. The animal or fowl must be slaughtered and examined
by someone skilled and trained in kosher slaughtering.

But a wide range of foods carry the kosher label -- from peanut butter
to popcorn -- meaning they have been certified by an authorized observer.

Lubinsky said that of the estimated 11 million U.S. kosher consumers --
people who actively look for kosher products -- in 2002, about 44
percent were Jewish, 19 percent were Muslims, 10 percent were vegetarian
or lactose intolerant, and 27 percent simply felt that kosher products
are of better quality or healthier.

According to IMC studies, the U.S. kosher market was worth $7 billion
last year, Lubinsky said.

"The Muslim food concept is based on many of the same things as the
kosher diet," said Frederic Sonnenschmidt, a retired dean of the
Culinary Institute of America.

The Muslim dietary laws, called halal, share ancient religious
similarities to the rules of kosher foods and kosher can be an option
for Muslims, said Mohammad Sherwani, director of the Muslim Center of
New York.

"Halal is the first choice, but after that kosher food is the second
choice," Sherwani said, adding that although halal food is becoming more
widely available in supermarkets, kosher food is far more prevalent.

Kosherfest features a wide variety of kosher-only cuisine from
Campbell's vegetable soup to wine-flavored nuts to sushi.

"We want to bring authentic Asian cuisine to even the most religious
person," said Daniel Berlin, who sends rabbis around the world from
Iceland to Thailand to prepare fresh fish for his kosher Japanese
catering business.