In November 2025, three of America’s largest kosher-certifying organizations came together to release new guidance regarding the status of beer, which has long been considered kosher by default. But due to the proliferation of flavorings brought on by craft brewing and other industry changes, the rabbis who declare food products to be in line with Jewish dietary laws now say to check the label before drinking.

“We’ve discovered that companies use many flavors to enhance even the simple beers that they manufacture. Those flavors need to be kosherly supervised,” said Rabbi Moshe Elefant, the head of kosher operations at the Orthodox Union, which released the guidance along with Star-K and OK Kosher. “Some beers have dairy in them. They add lactose, they add milk, so a beer could be dairy, which has serious kosher ramifications.”

“Modern factory production involves long supply chains stretching around the world. Before a product hits the shelves, its ingredients may be the work of a dozen factories that result in a final product, and every step of that process needs to be certified to earn the OU stamp,” Rabbi Elefant said. Today. The Orthodox Union employs 55 rabbis in the New York office, and hundreds more in the field.