Dear Rabbi, I was just wondering, Is one allowed to eat a dairy item after eating a pareve food cooked in a meat pot (that has been used within the last 24 hours). Also, what is the generally accepted halacha about mixing a parevefood cooked in a meat pot with a diary item (for Ashkenazic practice)? Thank you!

Shalom, Thank you for your questions. After eating parve food that was cooked in a meat pot one does not have to wait the standard six hours (or three hours, whatever your custom is), and may eat dairy food straight away. As to mixing such parve food with dairy – the Ashkanazi custom is to refrain from mixing it. However, if it was inadvertently mixed, then the resultant mixture may be eaten with no hesitation. For example, parve noodles cooked in a clean meat pot (which had even been used for meat within the last 24 hours), should not be mixed with cheese. However, if someone made a mistake and did melt cheese over the noodles (in a milk plate of course), then they are kosher and may be eaten. (As you hinted – the law for Sephardim is more lenient, and they are allowed to even mix the noodles with cheese in the first place. Because, as we said, the Ashkanazim may eat such a mixture, if you are a guest at a Sephardi home and are served noodles with cheese, you do not have to worry about what type of pot the noodles were cooked in). Blessings.