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The Talmud says milk is not kosher unless a Jew supervises the milking, to be sure it's just kosher-animal milk.

Assuming one goes by the ruling of R' Moshe Feinstein and others that "knowing" is considered like "seeing", the combination of regulation and economics in the USA is such that we know that commercial milk is 100% cow's milk. (Okay there's added vitamins but they're batel, that's a different topic.) Hence we drink "chalav stam" a.k.a. "chalav hacompanies" a.k.a. "non-chalav yisrael" or call it what you will. (And those who drink only chalav yisrael usually accept R' Moshe at some level and treat their practice as a chumra [a chumra recommended by R' Moshe himself in many cases].)

In other countries of the world: Can you do the same? Or is traditional Jewish supervision required? In which countries?

This is a "moooot" point in Israel as there will be Jews working in the dairy farms; and theoretically you could have a country where the regulation and economics are there, but everyone follows the local rabbi who rejects R' Moshe's argument, though I'm not aware of any such place.

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Even in US/Canada the matter is not so simple with Cholov-Akum aka Cholov-Stam, as seen from book "KOSHER MILK IN JEWISH LAW" w. Askama and a Letter of R. M. Feinstein, that can be found here: holmininternational613.com – Daniel Dec 21 '12 at 11:41
The "haskama" is a "nice-guy" haskama, but he says explicitly he did not review the actual dinim. So I'm not sure why you point it out -- the haskama doesn't indicate that there is anything "not so simple" with Cholov Yisroel. And R. Moshe's tshuvos make it seem like the topic is, indeed, very simple. – Curiouser Dec 21 '12 at 12:13

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For Europe in general, from http://www.koshergermany.com/travellersguide.html :

Milk and Milk Products: In most European countries no "Cholov Yisroel" or its derivatives are available. Those who care should take with them from Israel long-life milk and hard cheese. The following advises are meant for those who use non-Jewish milk (trefa-milk does not exist today!). Even those who use non-Jewish butter in general, should refrain from using light butter, since it is not kosher. Some use non-Jewish cream, others do not. Coffee cream is less problematic than non-Jewish milk. Yoghurt without fruit is allowed. Non-Jewish hard cheese (such as Gouda, Emmentaler etc.) is forbidden, but soft cheese (as Philadelphia) and cottage cheese are not considered as cheese in this respect and are permitted.

It is interesting to compare this with the language in the Kosher product lists of France, the Netherlands and Switzerland, linked from here: http://www.cisonline.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=176&Itemid=176 and here: http://www.irgz.ch/. They, (as well as the Swiss Kosher list) certainly bestow "recommended" status on plenty of non-chalav-yisrael dairy items. Regarding milk, the language in the Dutch list is somewhat akin to the LBD:

Waar in Nederland geen melk, karne- of koffiemelk o. r. t. verkrijgbaar is, kan men noodgedwongen de producten zonder toezicht kopen.

which means "in areas in the Netherlands in which no milk, buttermilk or condensed milk under the O.R.T.'s hechsher is available, one may, out of necessity, buy these products without supervision."

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Interesting; LBD is machmir on cream/cottage cheese. "Trefa-milk does not exist today"? I hadn't heard that before; I thought I'd heard that chalav yisrael was required in some eastern European countries. But I could be wrong. – Shalom Sep 16 '10 at 19:14
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Agreed, "does not exist today" is an oddly-strong blanket statement. – Yosef Sep 16 '10 at 19:28
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It could be that the economics of mass production of milk are such that it would just be too complicated to introduce non-cow milk into the mix to be worth it, and that this is enough to trigger the heter, according to the quoted website. Even if so, the wording is, as Yosef says, oddly-strong. – Isaac Moses Sep 16 '10 at 19:33
IIRC correctly, R' Moshe's main argument is governmental regulation; when someone objected that govt. inspectors could be bribed, R' Moshe responded that no company in its right mind would bribe the govt. to get away with something utterly against economic logic. Is economics alone, without regulation, good enough? I'm not sure. – Shalom Sep 16 '10 at 20:48
IIRC there were opinions in Rishonim that were more lenient in general with chalav yisrael. But we pasken that chalav yisrael is a full requirement; just that it's satisfied by any major US/UK dairy producer. – Shalom Sep 16 '10 at 20:49
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Community wiki, feel free to add:

  • United Kingdom -- London Beis Din prefers chalav yisrael but says regular milk is okay.
  • Canada -- I assume?
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Rav Moshe Feinstein's p'sak was only for U.S.A. and Canada. Being that there was (and still is!) much controversy surrounding his p'sak, and due to the fact that it involves a complex discussion, I have heard from some of his students that it only applies to where he said so.

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R' Yahu, some Chasidim don't accept R' Moshe's heter as halacha, and some are machmir as chumra. (Am I mistaken?) My impression was that basically all Litvaks in America accept the heter at some level, just often demand to be machmir as a chumra. Have you heard otherwise? I occasionally hear of those who require chalav yisrael dishes too, but this seems rare enough. Regardless: in practice, the rabbinates of the UK and the Netherlands feel that the heter applies there as well (at least if you're in a pinch). – Shalom Sep 21 '10 at 14:22
Shalom, Are you sure that the European Rabbis are depending on R' Moshe's authority and not simply ruling similarly on their own authority? – Isaac Moses Sep 21 '10 at 14:51
Shalom, there were plenty of Litvishe Rabbonim who disagreed with Rav Moshe's psak. Among them Rav Yaakov Kaminetsky z"l and Rav Leib Malin z"l. – Yahu Oct 6 '10 at 5:48
Where does R. Moshe say that is only for USA and Canada? Source? – Curiouser Dec 21 '12 at 12:08

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