If you cooked a Parve food together with meat or dairy, or with any residue of meat or dairy, that Parve food becomes the same status as the food that it was cooked with.
1. CONTAMINATION (NOTEN TAAM)
If a Parve food is cooked together with meat or dairy, or with actual residues of meat or dairy, it becomes that status. This applies when there is direct contact with a forbidden element.
Examples:
- If an egg was cooked in a pot together with a piece of meat or with meat residues, that egg is considered “meat” (BESARI). If you eat that egg, you must wait 6 hours before eating dairy; and it cannot be eaten with cheese.
- Rice cooked with meat gravy → the rice is meat.
- Vegetables cooked in a pan with meat fat → the vegetables are meat.
2. CROSS-CONTAMINATION (NOTEN TAAM BAR NOTEN TAAM)
If a Parve food (rice, vegetables, fruits, water, or egg) was cooked in a completely clean meat or dairy pot, and there are no food residues, the Parve food remains Parve.
There is no need to wait between eating that Parve food and eating the opposite category.
Moreover, according to the Sephardic Minhag, this Parve food may be eaten with meat or with dairy.
Examples:
- If you cook an egg in a completely clean pot that was previously used to cook a dairy food, you may eat this egg with meat because the egg is still considered Parve.
- Rice cooked in a clean dairy pot → may be eaten with meat.
- Vegetables cooked in a clean meat pot → may be eaten with dairy.
This is called NOTEN TAAM BAR NOTEN TAAM, which in the specific case of meat and milk (or Chametz before Pesach) is permitted.
Ashkenazi Jews do not follow that rule of cross-contamination in the case of milk and meat. That is why the Orthodox Union (OU) or other kosher organizations will label this as “Dairy equipment used”, and they will consider it “dairy,” not “Parve.”