Is Caviar kosher?
No — Caviar is not kosher under Jewish dietary law.
True caviar is sturgeon roe, and sturgeon is not kosher, so its roe is not kosher either. The salmon, trout, or whitefish "caviar" sold in kosher markets comes from kosher species and can be kosher when properly processed and certified. Always check the hechsher and the source species.
About Caviar
Salt-cured fish eggs. "True" caviar comes from sturgeon; other roes are sometimes marketed under the name. ”Sturgeon” is the common name for the 27 species of fish belonging to the family Acipenseridae. The earliest sturgeon fossils date to the Late Cretaceous, and are descended from other, earlier acipenseriform fish, which date back to the Early Jurassic period, some 174 to 201 million years ago. They are one of two living families of the Acipenseriformes alongside paddlefish (Polyodontidae). The family is grouped into five genera: Acipenser, Huso, Scaphirhynchus, Sinosturio, and Pseudoscaphirhynchus. Two species (H. naccarii and S. dabryanus) may be extinct in the wild, and one (P. fedtschenkoi) may be entirely extinct. Sturgeons are native to subtropical, temperate and sub-Arctic rivers, lakes and coastlines of Eurasia and North America. A Maastrichtian-age fossil found in Morocco shows that they also once lived in northern Africa during the Cretaceous. Sturgeons are long-lived, late-maturing fishes with distinctive characteristics, such as a heterocercal caudal fin similar to those of sharks, and an elongated, spindle-like body that is smooth-skinned, scaleless, and armored with five lateral rows of bony plates called scutes. Several species can grow quite large, typically ranging 2...
Kosher ruling
Source: Orthodox Union, Chabad; Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)
