Guides to Halal and Kosher Foods

Last month, Share’s Delaware County Pantry Program team collaborated with Philly Food Rescue staff and Deputy Chief Program Officer Cat Bartoli to host a nutrition training for Delco pantry partners. During the training, we shared the resources below about culturally relevant foods for people who follow Halal and Kosher practices.

Share pantry partners (and others!) are invited to download these handouts to support volunteers & staff in understanding Halal and Kosher food, or to and share with anyone who may find this information useful!

Halal Food

Halal is an Arabic word meaning “lawful or permitted.” In order for a food to be considered Halal for a Muslim person to consume, the food must fit the following criteria:

– No pork or pork byproducts (Ex: gelatin derived from pork)

– No animals that were dead prior to slaughtering (Ex: roadkill)

– No animals that were not slaughtered properly following Islamic guidelines

– No blood or blood byproducts (Ex: blood sausage)

– No alcohol (Ex: vinegars/wine-based vinegars, alcohol-based extracts like vanilla, kombucha)

Handout content by Onab Bushra, design by Amanda Ruffner

Kosher Food

Kashrut (the Hebrew word for kosher) refers to the Jewish laws that deal with what foods can and cannot be eaten and how those foods must be prepared.

Kosher foods include:

– Animals that chew cud and have split hooves (Ex: cows, sheep, goats, deer)

– Domesticated species (Ex: chicken, duck, turkey)

– Fish with both fins and scales (Ex: trout, tuna, salmon)

– Chuck, rib, shoulder and plate cuts of beef

Handout content by Britt Korn, design by Amanda Ruffner