OU D

Question

Dear Rav, This sounds silly ( See below). To think that sodium caseinate( even if this stuff is dairy) in the broth, in a can of tuna fish approaches 1.6% of volume is an outrageous claim. The reason they can`t determine the exact amount is because it`s tiny. It`s probably batel in the broth, let alone the whole product. I know it`s moot because they are all marked pareve now, but it does create questions about the OU. From the OU.org website Consumers often call our office to inquire if a dairy ingredient is botel. A case in point are the many brands of tuna that are labeled OU-D be­cause of the presence of sodium caseinate (a milk derivative) which is used in vegetable broth. May one eat OU-D tuna within six hours of a meat meal? The difficulty in responding to this question re­flects some of the issues raised above. We have made numerous attempts to evaluate the levels of sodium caseinate in tuna, but have found it difficult to make conclusive statements. Some companies have had difficulty calculating the volume of so­dium caseinate. Other companies have given us their calculations, but we have found that the formulae change and the levels of ingredients do not remain constant. As such, we are reluctant to make definitive statements about the percentages of casein in tuna