When it comes to Kashrut, Jewish law regulating what food is permitted and what is not, those issues have nothing to do with the actual taste* of the product, but rather its origin. It's pork itself that is forbidden.

So, really, it's eating the actual animal that creates a problem, not the flavor. Which is why I can, for example, enjoy a pizza with kosher soy-based fake pepperoni, even though I would be breaking several prohibitions if I ate an actual pizza that was made with both dairy cheese and actual meat. As it is, I am enjoying a perfectly kosher meal within the boundaries of Torah.

I mean, it's not like pork-tasting product anything new, kosher (fake)'bacon-bits' for salads and such have been featured in grocery stores for decades. I suppose that the novelty is that this is actual meat that tastes like pork, and not soy-based or tofu-based or whatever-not-meat-based.

*with the exception of a taste derived from a non-kosher product, which has to do with the transfer of property from a non-kosher product to a kosher product, and not the actual taste.

skinink: That's a filthy animal. I ain't eat nothin' that ain't got sense enough to disregard its own feces.

You know they cut out the meaty bits and cook them first, right? You're not required to kiss it before eating it or anything.

Mushrooms grow in piles of rot. Do you eat them?

urban.derelict: I've got $20 that says the first jew/israeli/'forbidden peoples'/etc tried to catch a pig, couldn't, and then ate 'shrooms instead, tripped balls, and swore off pig meat for his clan because he couldn't catch it to slaughter it.

You're much more kind than me in your theory. I always assumed that early religious leaders owned some livestock other than pigs and declared pigs off-limits to increase sales. Or at best that they had a long tradition of raising sheep and didn't want these new-fangled "pigs" in their town.