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Jewish people who do not keep kosher often complain that keeping kosher is difficult.<ref name="difficult">http://www.jewfaq.org/kashrut.htm#Difficult</ref> Actually, keeping kosher is not particularly difficult in and of itself; what makes it difficult to keep kosher is the fact that the rest of the world does not do so.<ref name="difficult"/> In fact, the basic underlying rules are fairly simple.<ref name="difficult"/> If you buy only kosher certified products at the market, the only thing you need to think about is the separation of meat and dairy.<ref name="difficult"/> Keeping kosher only becomes difficult when you try to eat in a non-kosher restaurant, or at the home of a person who does not keep kosher.<ref name="difficult"/> In those situations, your lack of knowledge about your host's ingredients and food preparation techniques make it very difficult to keep kosher.<ref name="difficult"/> Some commentators have pointed out, however, that this may well have been part of what God had in mind: to make it more difficult for us to socialize with those who do not share our religion.<ref name="difficult"/> Products that have been certified as kosher are labeled with a mark called a heksherhekhsher.<ref name="certify">http://www.jewfaq.org/kashrut.htm#Certification</ref> Approximately 3/4 of all prepackaged foods have some kind of kosher certification, and most major brands have reliable Orthodox certification.<ref name="certify"/>The total number of certified kosher packaged food products in the United States has reached close to 100,000.<ref name="crc"/> The most controversial certification is the K, a plain letter K found on products asserted to be kosher.<ref name="certify"/> A letter of the alphabet cannot be trademarked, so any manufacturer can put a K on a product, even without any supervision at all.<ref name="certify"/> For example, Jell-O brand gelatin puts a K on its product, even though every reliable Orthodox authority agrees that Jell-O is not kosher.<ref name="certify"/>

Another misconception about Kosher is that a rabbi is required to bless food, which is false.<ref>http://www.crcweb.org/kosher/industry/whatkosher.html</ref> A rabbi must merely supervise its production.

The term ''kosher'' has entered the popular culture to describe anything or anyone which is considered legitimate, honest or pleasing. This is nearly a derivative of the literal translation of "clean".