Pareve on Dairy Equipment

Does a dairy waffle maker make the waffles dairy? (IT WASN'T USED IN YEARS)

Shalom!

Thank you for your question.

The bottom line is that your pareve waffles (or other pareve food), that are made in a dairy waffle maker that “has not been used for years,” remains pareve.

Allow me to explain.

When a utensil or appliance was not used within the last 24 hrs., it is known as “eino ben yomo,” meaning, “not used today” or “older than a day.” When a utensil has not been used in 24hrs it cannot pass on any significant taste that it absorbed from a previous use (whether kosher or non-kosher, dairy or meat) to the foods it is currently being used with.

So in your case, since the dairy waffle maker was not used in years (more than 24 hrs.) anything kosher pareve remains kosher pareve.

Allow me to add a few words about what would be the case if the dairy waffle maker had indeed been used in the last 24 hrs., but was used now with a pareve product.

The Shulchan Aruch rules that a pareve food that was cooked in a clean dairy utensil may even be eaten with meat. This is true even if the utensil was used for dairy that very day! This is the general practice of Sephardic Jews.

The Rema, however, disagrees and rules that pareve food cooked in a dairy utensil that was used that very day should not be eaten with meat (and vice versa). Nevertheless, if the foods did ultimately get mixed together then they may be eaten. (I.e. someone boiled pasta in a clean meat pot that was used for meat that very day and then mistakenly added the pasta to a cheese dish.) This is the general practice of Ashkenazim but one should never intentionally cause the arrangement.

YD 95:1