Glatt Kosher

The Torah states that "meat from an animal that has been torn in the field may not be eaten" (Exodus 22:30). Any lesion, rip, broken bone, illness, puncture or defect sufficient to kill the animal usually renders it treif (non-kosher). 

Until about 500 years ago, only meat from animals free of adhesions "glatt" was used. Later, however, there were halachic (legal) authorities who permitted eating meat of animals with small adhesions on particular I sections of the lung in case of dire need. Adhesions are not common in chickens in the USA and Canada, all chicken meat here is considered glatt kosher.

Nowadays, one cannot even be sure that the "glatt kosher" meat one buys is duly "glatt."  Commerce, has circumvented this, to a small degree, because only around 1 in 20 will qualify. Therefore, some suppliers have "watered down" the term "glatt" to include those animals which only have a few small adhesions, and some have diluted the term even more. Even if the glatt label is accurate, that alone does not guarantee the meat to be of the highest kosher standards, since glatt does not, for example, refer to the quality of the shechita itself?

There have been readers, since 20 December 2001