FAQs

Q: My baby is undernourished and unable to tolerate standard infant formula, so my doctor recommend he use special infant formula called “EleCare”. I don’t see any kosher certification symbol and was wondering if I can use it anyhow.

A: EleCare is manufactured by Abbot, an infant-formula manufacturer who is certified by the OU. On their website, http://elecare.com/faq.aspx, Abbot notes that EleCare formulas are also made under kosher certification using all-pareve ingredients but the formula is processed on equipment which also handles dairy formulas. Accordingly, if they were to use the OU symbol on the package they would be required to list it as being OU-D (or something similar). They feel that this would cause too much confusion to some of their customers who know EleCare to be a dairy-free product, and therefore they choose to not print a kosher symbol on the package. We confirmed this information with the OU in October 2013, and are therefore comfortable recommending this important product at this time even though it does not bear the OU symbol. It is worthwhile to recheck this information with the OU every so often to make sure that the status remains the same.