A person who ate meat or poultry must wait a full six hours before partaking of milk, cheese or other dairy products. Must a person wait six hours if he did not eat meat, but ate a parve food cooked in meat? For example, if rice was cooked together with meat, and a person ate only the rice, without the meat, may he eat dairy foods after eating the rice, or must he first wait six hours? This question also arises in the case of soup. If a soup was prepared with meat or chicken, and the meat or chicken was removed from the soup and one ate only the clear broth, must he wait six hours before eating dairy foods?
The Shulhan Aruch (Yoreh De’a 89:3) rules that one is not required to wait six hours before eating dairy in such a case. If a person did not actually eat meat, he does not have to wait six hours, even though he ate food that was cooked with meat. The Shulhan Aruch requires only that a person wash his hands before eating dairy foods in this case. In his Bet Yosef, the Mehaber (author of the Shulhan Aruch) adds that if there are vegetables in the soup, then one should wait six hours after eating the soup, since small pieces of meat can easily become attached to the vegetables. Otherwise, however, if one eats clear meat soup or chicken soup, he may eat dairy foods immediately after eating parve foods that were cooked with meat, and needs to only wash his hands in between.
Despite this ruling of the Shulhan Aruch, all the Halachic authorities after the Shulhan Aruch noted the prevalent practice to act stringently in this regard. These authorities include the Shulhan Gavo’ah, Hid"a (in his Birkeh Yosef), Rav Abdullah Somech (in Zibheh Sedek), the Ben Ish Hai (in Parashat Shelah) and the Kaf Ha’haim. Practically speaking, then, despite the Shulhan Aruch’s ruling, one should follow the accepted custom of waiting six hours after eating parve food that was cooked with meat, even though he did not eat actual meat or poultry. A number of years ago, there was somebody who sought to encourage people in the community to follow the Shulhan Aruch’s view and allow eating dairy food immediately after eating parve food cooked with meat or poultry, such as soup. But this practice, as mentioned, is in opposition to the accepted custom that was upheld by all major Halachic authorities after the Shulhan Aruch, and this custom should not be violated.
Summary: One must wait six hours before eating dairy foods after eating meat, poultry, or food that had been cooked with meat or poultry, such as meat soup and chicken soup. Even though one does not eat any actual meat or poultry, he must nevertheless wait six hours before drinking milk or eating dairy foods.
