Hot answers tagged hechsher-certification
15
I had an email correspondence with Rabbi Saffra several years ago about the cheese question. His response was very clearly that he did not hold cheese produced with microbial media to be cheese in the traditional understanding, since microbial coagulant did not exist at the time of the Shulchan Aruch. He said it is a different product, so the gezerah was not ...
13
I found a couple of statements about this on ou.org:
"To avoid confusion, the OU has chosen not to use the D.E. categorization. We feel that many people will not be familiar with the ramifications of this halachic status." (from a 1992 article, here)
"The OU doesn’t recognize a DE or “Dairy Equipment” designation, and so all products made on dairy ...
12
Rabbi Sholem Fishbane has a comprehensive article about Slurpees here:
http://www.crcweb.org/kosher_articles/slurpees.php
Regarding the nozzles of the machines, an article by Rabbi Dovid Cohen (http://www.crcweb.org/kosher_articles/fountain_soda.php) describes how the CRC came to the conclusion that it does not pose a kashrus concern.
11
From the O-U website:
It is assumed that instant coffee does not require a hechsher, since coffee plants process just that and nothing else. Although there are forms of flavored instant coffees, the flavors are added at ambient temperatures after the drying process. Nevertheless, it is good and prudent practice to purchase instant coffee with a ...
10
I think the issue is not so much ease of verification as much as it is ease of forgery. It's a lot easier for a restaurant to lie and state on a sign that it is Kosher than it is for them to forge a certificate from a certifying agency and also have someone at the phone ready to lie and give false answers should someone call the number printed on the ...
10
Every Kosher Agency has its own standards that it adheres to. It has its leniencies that it follows, as well as stringencies. If you don't agree with those leniences, then you won't trust that hechsher.
There are many things that must be taken into account. Some examples:
the Kashering process between non-kosher and kosher products run on the same line.
...
9
"and you may correct me if I'm wrong"
You are wrong. No agency is universally accepted. Period.
(If you meant to ask for agencies that are widely accepted, just "not by all", then that is an entirely different question, and depends on many factors, most practically geography, as some of the other answers indicate)
8
In the words of the esteemed sage Jerry Garcia:
Constantly choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil.
I'd advise the individual to get out of the situation as best as he can. There's a similar legend has it regarding Ridbaz, who was a rabbi in Chicago in the early 1900s. He found himself "accidentally" locked into a freezer when ...
8
This can be a loaded question, but here goes:
Different kosher organizations can have different standards; the same organization can have two levels of standards, of which one might be "regular kosher" and another "mehadrin" (super-duper) kosher. E.g. in the page you linked, there are Rabbanut non-mehadrin, and Rabbanut mehadrin.
Often politics can play ...
7
Even if the horn comes from a kosher animal, the shofar could still be rendered non-kosher if non-kosher materials are added during the shaping and polishing process. According to this article (http://www.jdoorpost.com/2010/06/non-kosher-shofars-imported/), there were problems last year with shofars from China and Morocco.
7
The Gemara (Bab. Shabbath 21a) tells us that this practice, on some level, dates way back at least to the time of the Ḥashmonaim. the Kohanim would light the Menorah in the Beith HaMikdash using oil in sealed containers bearing an official seal that, unless tampered with, marked that the oil was pure and usable for the Menorah.
7
"Reliable" is a loaded word. Let's try "accepted among conventional American Orthodox standards as we know them."
A good first place to try is Rabbi Eidlitz's kosherquest list:
http://www.kosherquest.org/symbols.php
It's not necessarily comprehensive, and occasionally people may nitpick with it, but it's a good first-order approximation.
In Israel, ...
7
The OU (Webbe Rebbe) told me in an email that:
"If the ingredients list dairy items it is dairy otherwise you can assume that the product is 'only' made on equipment."
So although they stopped with the OU-DE, it seems that they assume that consumers can read ingredients and figure things out for themselves.
7
I asked this question of the OU when I was beginning to keep kosher -- if it just had an "OU" and not a "D" could I assume it was parve? Their answer was yes. They of course didn't speak for anybody else, but I got the impression that this was normative then and, since then, I haven't seen a case that didn't fit (other than printing errors!). So "D" is ...
7
Well, by US law, any manufacturer can put a plain K on its product. That just means "someone says it's kosher." If they put a plain K on a package of bacon, you'd have to sue them for false advertising, unless they could find someone who says bacon is kosher.
As for Jewish law, as new situations come up, rabbis who are regarded as experts on Jewish law ...
7
There are certain foods likely to be taken from live animals and most others would not be. So for example, I'd trust that most chicken or beef available on the market is not eiver min hachai. But snow crab legs are apparently often taken from live snow crabs. So if the ben noach knows what foods are likely to be problematic, they can avoid those or devote ...
6
I thought it was Rabbi Zevulun Charlop who gives the certification. Regardless, yes Pepsi is certified, but no the symbol is not on the label.
Most of the major American brands are certified, but often the mark is not on the label. Here's a list, courtesy of kashrut.com and the cRc.
If a soda is totally uncertified, it's generally not recommended. Too ...
6
The Kof-K gives the hechsher on Pepsi. I have spoken to them and they said the following: the syrup used is all under the certification of the Kof-K. Certain bottling plants have a mashgiach on premises and products which come out from that facility have a kosher symbol on them.
Other plants don't have a mashgiach on premises and the products that come ...
6
Factory products are produced by big companies and are produced in bulk, which are scared to put a trademarked symbol on their product when everyone could see it, because they will be the subject of a huge lawsuit.
Small restaurants may be more willing to take the risk, and may hope that nobody notices their infringement.
6
As of 2010, Australian Vegemite is now
Kosher. However, bottles must be
inspected before purchase for the "K"
symbol above the barcode since Kosher
Vegemite prior to 2010 was only
produced in batches
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegemite
http://www.vegemite.com.au/vegemite/page?siteid=vegemite-prd&locale=auen1&PagecRef=757
...
6
One could dream up some remote possibilities, but in short, it's not:
The OU feels that Ziploc bags need approval
It's:
The Ziploc company decided they'd sell better with OU approval
There's an OU shiur (I believe it was a session for women in professional kashrus, and it featured Rabbi Yoel Schoenfeld) where someone asked about an OU on bottled ...
6
(I hereby authorize myself to quote myself verbatim, and indemnify myself from any and all copyright claim against myself.)
Food-contact.
From the Star-K:
"Quite frankly, we were astonished to learn of the rather extensive use of stearates and other tallow based chemicals in the production of plastic food-contact materials. These chemicals may be added to ...
5
R. Ephraim of Vilna writes (http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=1405&st=&pgnum=94, bottom of left column and on) that "apparently, it appears to say that sometimes we find that it is appropriate to turn over an individual, even to be killed, in order to avoid some damage to the public...to prevent any stumbling block or difficulty for the ...
5
Modern-day kashrus certification hasn't been around for that long. The honors for "first to be certified" under the current system would seem to belong to Heinz Vegetarian Beans, which in 1923 became the first product to carry the OU symbol. The OU is the oldest certifying agency.
5
A partial answer:
I e-mailed the OU, asking:
Does the OU approve the "birchaso X" (e.g. "birchaso m'zonos") claims on labels of OU-certified food products?
They responded that such a claim on a label
does not necessarily represent the OU position.
5
I'm guessing that it's a semi-internal system that you can probably find out more about by contacting the OU. If it's referenced in a book, the OU must have some sort of research library. I couldn't find anything on the OU's website, but a quick google search of "OU Document A-94" led to this PDF, which refers to the document which you mention in footnote ...
5
I know the following two Israeli hechsheirim are widely eaten:
R' Yehuda Leib Landau's Hechsher
The Bedatz Eida Hachareidis.
The following Chutz Laaretz Hechsherim are widely eaten:
Montreal Va'ad Ha'ir
Kedassia
This is just a small list. There obviously are many more.
5
Toothpaste -- If I recall correctly, Adwe had asked Rabbi Schwob (or was it Breuer?) for certification -- he refused to certify it. He explained that toothpaste is inedible and thus does not need certification, and if he certified one brand which might later go out of business, people would think non-hechshered toothpaste was prohibited.
I've recently seen ...
5
I hope this goes some way in answering your question:
When I used to live in New York, I had never before seen such a huge proliferation of Kashrut organisations. I asked different Rabbonim, who all "held by" different hashgachot. Ultimately, I decided to personally check out the few places with hechsherim I had not been advised about.
I went into a Crumbs ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
