Monday, December 25, 2006

Glossary of Kosher Terms for Companies

The following are some non-English kosher terms that you may come across along with their explanations:


Bishul Yisroel (also spelled Bishul Yisrael): Certain foods require increased a Rabbi’s involvement in the cooking process.
The OU requires Bishul Yisroel on all of those products deemed to be included in the requirements for Bishul Yisroel under Jewish law.


Cholov Yisroel (also spelled Chalav Yisroel): Milk and milk products that was supervised by a Rabbi from the time of milking.
The OU does not require products to be Cholov Yisroel, but will certify a product that is Cholov Yisroel as such.


Glatt: Literally “smooth”. An animal whose lungs contained no questionable adhesions that could pose potential Kosher problems.
It is now commonly used to describe a higher level of Kosher supervision.


Kosher L’Pesach: Kosher for Passover; containing no leaven and no legumes and manufactured with Mashgiach Temidi.


Mashgiach Temidi: A manufacturing production with continuous supervision by a Rabbi. This is often called a “Special Production”.


Pareve: A food item that is neither meat or dairy (and can therefore be eaten with either) and was not manufactured on meat or dairy equipment.


Pas Yisroel (also spelled Pat Yisroel): Bakery products that were baked by a Rabbi. This can be fulfilled by having a Rabbi turn on the oven.
The OU does not require products to be Pas Yisroel, but will certify a product that is Pas Yisroel as such.


Yoshon: Grain products that are made from certain types of “winter” grains as defined by Jewish law.
The OU does not require products to be Yoshon, but will certify a product that is Yoshon as such.

Friday, August 22, 2008

At Twin Rivers Technologies, OU Kosher Glycerin Is Now in Production

Twin Rivers Technologies was founded in 1994 by Jim Ricci. With his background in energy, Mr. Ricci had built and owned “waste to energy” incinerators for several years in the North Shore area of Massachusetts. In 1994, Mr. Ricci was looking to expand his involvement in the energy industry with biodiesel production. The technology at time was already well developed in Europe but was still in its infancy in the United States.

That year, several laws were established requiring state and local government vehicles to comply with the same emissions standards that were in place for the general public. This provided an opportunity and a market, which combined with a determination by Mr. Ricci that a 20 percent blend of biodiesel into diesel fuel will meet and exceed the new emissions standards, provided an economic solution.

With this technology in place, Mr. Ricci now needed a facility in Massachusetts to produce and transport the product. It happened that at that time P&G was closing its Quincy plant, one of its largest fats and oils refinery and soap/detergent packaging facilities, to consolidate operations in Cincinnati. In November 1994, Twin Rivers Technologies had a home in Quincy, Massachusetts. The name Twin Rivers Technologies was chosen because the facility is at the point of two rivers, the Fore and the Town. The plant sits on 22 acres, and includes a fats and oils refinery with splitting, fractionation, hardening, distillation and crystallization capability. It has a dock to receive ocean going vessels, as well as warehouse, tank storage, rail service and full boiler operations.

Paul Angelico, who was P&G’s chief engineer responsible for shutting down the facility, came onboard as Vice President of Operations. Mr. Angelico, now President of Twin Rivers Technologies, together with Ken Thode, Executive Vice President, were key in transferring and starting up Twin Rivers Technologies.

The first two years of operations were extremely challenging. Biodiesel was a developing business and fatty acids manufacturing was done to base load the plant. The turning point for the company came in 1997, when in a strategic move to obtain all of P&G’s coconut business, P&G in turn asked Twin Rivers Technologies to provide it with all of its fatty acids needs, for internal as well as for merchant market use.

In 1998, the Quincy facility went through a major expansion that nearly doubled its capacity. Since that time, the plant has been near or at capacity, which has provided several expansion opportunities. One is the Cincinnati Natural Ingredients (TNI) facility, purchased from P&G in 2002. This plant produces olestra, omega-3, esters and biodiesel.
To date, Twin Rivers Technologies Quincy is one of the largest producers of fatty acid in North America and Twin Rivers Technologies TNI is the largest single facility producer of methyl esters for the biodiesel industry.

The TNI plant is an all-vegetable kosher facility, while the Quincy plant has the capability of producing kosher and non-kosher products in separate isolated systems.
In 2007, Twin Rivers Technologies was purchased by FELDA, a Malaysian company very interested in expanding its position in the worldwide market. FELDA is a land development company largely involved in palm oil and palm plantations.

The Twin Rivers Technologies-Orthodox Union relationship started at the very beginning. In 1995, as part of the fatty acid manufacturing start up, an entire splitting, distillation and hardening system was separated, isolated and kosherized. This set the foundation for a working partnership with the OU and also laid out how we will approach any kosherization project. All such projects begin with a diagram/graph and explanation of the project sent to the OU for review and feedback, followed by a meeting to lay out the action plan and timetable. This protocol has been very successful and is definitely the reason for the strong relationship and trust.

With the financial support of FELDA, the Quincy plant recently underwent an expansion to include the capability of producing kosher glycerin. With the support and assistance of the OU and Rabbis Abraham Juravel and Avrohom Stone, an entire fatty acid splitting and glycerin evaporation system was taken completely apart, sandblasted, cleaned and kosherized, an extremely large, complex, but successful undertaking. (See the accompanying sidebar.) This provides Twin Rivers Technologies with the capability of servicing the important kosher glycerin market. The kosherization followed the plan developed back in 1995 which has been in existence ever since.

All in a Day’s Work (Actually Many Days): Twin Rivers and Kosherization

The creation and kosherization of a dedicated kosher glycerin system at Twin Rivers Technologies was a formidable task from its very onset. Although Twin Rivers, the largest fatty acid producer in the United States, had been producing kosher laundry grade fatty acids for a number of years, the idea of a kosher glycerin line had always been considered too challenging an operation for the Quincy, MA facility to reasonably undertake. When a combination of factors made the project theoretically feasible, Twin Rivers seized the moment and capitalized on the opportunity.

This extensive project – shepherded from beginning until end by Ken Thode, Twin Rivers Senior Vice President – began with the company’s creation of a plan of action. Ken gathered the Twin Rivers team of professionals – Jeff Palumbo, Director of Operations; Joe Wagner, Director of Quality/Product Development; Jay McNeff, Vice President of Engineering; and Rocky Beck, Logistics Manager -- to devise a strategy to accomplish this goal.

Years of experience with OU Kosher policy in the production of fatty acids had provided them with considerable key insight into the requirements and degree of separation that would be required to produce a reliably, verifiable dedicated kosher glycerin line in the midst of a plant that would simultaneously be processing thousands of pounds of tallow on the plant’s other systems. They painstakingly mapped out the entire route the line would take, identifying the vessels that would need to be dedicated to this product and determining the numerous points where existing lines would need to be cut off and isolated from the rest of the plant. Finally, having presented OU with a detailed proposal – complete with extensive drawings and highly technical descriptions – they awaited a response.

Their answer was not long in coming. In the early hours of a cold, rainy morning in February, Rabbi Abraham Juravel and I boarded a Delta Shuttle at LaGuardia Airport, headed to Boston and a meeting with Twin Rivers to discuss the proposal. Following a harrowing cab ride through bustling Quincy (where we passed John Quincy Adams’s original house, complete with outdoor facilities and what the taxi driver told us was the original aluminum siding), we arrived at the plant. We were immediately spirited up to the third floor “War Room.” This cavernous room had been prepared for our meeting. The walls were decked out with numerous charts, boards and diagrams showing the myriad of details the company had addressed in its planning.

Over the course of the next number of hours – including a kosher “working” lunch consisting of a variety of tasty kosher carrot and celery sticks hand-selected by Jeff Palumbo at a local supermarket – the project was discussed in exacting detail, and a timeline was created, establishing target dates for the ultimate accomplishment at each stage. Following this meeting, Rabbi Juravel and I toured the entire length of the proposed line, assessing each piece of equipment and length of pipe. A number of unanticipated issues were uncovered during this walk-through; an open discussion between the rabbis and the plant of each of these issues yielded mutually agreeable solutions to each point of concern. The rabbis’ day concluded with an intense evaluation of the extensive details of the project, over bowls of complimentary kosher popcorn, during a hectic trip on a ferryboat to Boston’s Logan Airport.

Over the next six weeks, emails and phone calls went back and forth between the plant and Rabbis Juravel and Goldberg. I conducted a follow up on-site visit in mid-March, to monitor Twin Rivers’ progress in implementing the plan and to iron out the remaining minutia of the kosherization process that was to take place at the end of the month. I explained that a requirement of the kosherization would be that all lines and equipment be absolutely clean and free of any residue or material that would interfere with the steam and water used to kosherize making contact with any of the surfaces.

In order to verify this, it would be necessary for the rabbis to visually inspect for cleanliness any and all parts of the system that were to be part of the line prior to beginning the actual kosherization. Ken pointed out that this would include the splitter column, which is 15 stories tall, and could only be accessed by climbing a narrow, slippery ladder attached to the outside of the column. It was then that I realized that I had a previous engagement scheduled for the morning of the kosherization, and that I would not be arriving at the plant until later in the afternoon, when the kosherization would already be well underway. To my great dismay, it would have to be Rabbi Juravel who would be making that climb.

No challenge was too great for the innovation, initiative and creativity of the TRT-OU partnership to overcome. It looked like the program might have hit a significant snag when inside parts of the splitter column needed to be verified as clean and then replaced before kosherizing, a process that could take the better of two days and would delay getting the plant up and running. Due to prior commitments, neither rabbi was available to travel to Quincy to sign off in the days preceding the kosherization. No matter! As the saying goes, if you can’t bring the rabbi to the reactor, bring the reactor to the rabbi. Hundreds of internal parts from the splitter column were loaded onto a truck in Quincy and driven by Ken Thode to Rabbi Juravel’s home in upstate New York, where the Rabbi and Ken verified the cleanliness over a cup of coffee and a home cooked meal.

Sunday, March 30, the kosherization began. For two long days, each piece of line and equipment was reviewed for cleanliness and then kosherized with either hot water or steam. The entire length of piping was reviewed and verified to be spotlessly clean; all connections to non-kosher lines were eliminated; blanks and phalanges were installed; red arrows stating “kosher” were affixed to the entire system; different parts of the line and equipment were isolated piece by piece and saturated with boiling water, as the kosherization strategically proceeded, running like clockwork according to the plan that had taken days and weeks to develop. The precision of the plan was amazing, with each new segment ready to go immediately after the previous part had been successfully kosherized.

There were many highlights along the way, from the very beginning. As I sat that first afternoon, awaiting my 1:00 p.m. flight to Boston, I received a call from Ken Thode, reporting that Rabbi Juravel had just reached the top of the column and was looking inside from 120 feet up. My suggestion to Ken that they quickly remove the ladder was rewarded the following day when -- as I lay on my back inside a large storage tank, cleaning away the remaining small spots of tallow residue with a metal brush – I heard Rabbi Juravel’s voice from the outside suggesting they quickly seal the tank shut. Even the overnight hours were enlightening, as Rabbi Juravel skillfully showed me how it is possible to turn a raw chicken into a delicious chicken stew, using only a hotel microwave, a plastic bag and an ice bucket.

The entire kosherization concluded remarkably successfully, without any major glitches. This was due to the extreme professionalism and cooperation of the people of Twin Rivers and their “you need it, Rabbi, we can do it” attitude. I have since returned to the plant to approve some of the ongoing modifications being made to the system and to review the effectiveness of the program, and am pleased to report that everything is running smoothly. The success of a project of this scale proves once again that – working together – Twin Rivers and OU can make great things happen.

Good News for Gluten-Free Consumers – Now You Can Have Your Cake and Eat it Too!

Although it’s a well-known truth that “man cannot live by bread alone,” only in recent years has the food industry discovered that many people can’t even subsist on bread. According to the Gluten Intolerance Group (GIG), over two million Americans (one out of every 133) suffer from celiac sprue disease, an autoimmune disorder marked by an inability to digest gluten from wheat, rye, or barley[1]. Recent studies show that the presence of celiac disease in the US is as frequent as it is in Europe; similar results were obtained in Africa, South America and Asia, where celiac disease had previously been considered a rare disorder. For many years, kosher consumers with celiac disease have had even fewer food choices, making grocery shopping and menu planning a daily challenge. Thanks to the dedication and innovation of a number of manufacturers, all that is changing.

Those affected by celiac disease have no choice but to be vigilant when buying products off the shelf or dining out. “I have to read all the ingredients on the label for any sign of grains,” says Chana, twenty, who discovered she had celiac when she was fourteen. “When I go to restaurants, it’s really a problem; often they use soy sauce (and other products) containing wheat.” Gluten can show up in prepared foods in unexpected (and invisible) ways. Manufacturers use gluten as a stabilizing agent or thickener in products such as ice-cream and ketchup and also in baked products for enhanced elasticity and texture. Consequently it isn’t listed on the ingredient panel, causing consumers with celiac and grain allergies unpleasant and even health-threatening reactions.

Composed of individuals with celiac disease, as well as those interested in improving the quality of life for individuals with gluten intolerance, the Gluten-Free Certification Organization (GFCO), a program of the GIG, launched an independent food processing inspection program in 2005 to verify that food products meet the highest standards for gluten-free ingredients and safe processing environment. The organization turned to the OU to facilitate the project. “As the largest kosher certifying organization, the OU has auditors all over the world,” says Cynthia Kupper, executive director. “Since both manufacturers and consumers recognize the leadership of the OU among certifying organizations, it lends added credibility to our program.” As more grain-sensitive consumers depend on the GF gluten-free certification, companies are realizing the value of signing on.

Farm Experiment Turned Business
In 2003, Seaton Smith, President of Gluten Free Oats a GF-certified product, in Powell, Wyoming, and his son Forrest, 19, both affected by celiac disease, decided to enter a project run by the Farmers of America to encourage young entrepreneurs. Forrest viewed this as an opportunity to find a way to grow and process oats free from any cross-contamination of wheat. According to his dad, he had plenty of incentive to succeed in the venture. “Forrest grew up never having tasted an oatmeal cookie, a slice of pizza, or a cinnamon roll,” says Smith.

They worked with local farmers, clearing fields of all traces of gluten. We walk the fields every day,” says Smith. “If I let one barley head sprout this year, I’m going to have thirty barley plants growing. And the following year, I’ll have thirty times thirty.” Their project led to a small home-based business, which led to a huge demand for their gluten-free oats. “The response has been amazing,” says Smith. “People use our oats for cookies, meatloaf, crepes; it’s very versatile. We’re trying to keep up with the volume.”

Gluten Free Oats currently sells in over one hundred different retail outfits, including Earth Fare and Whole Foods Gluten Free Bake House, which uses their oats to produce oat bread and granola. “It’s not just a business to us,” he says. “We have to be very detail-oriented. If we take one shortcut, a person could end up sick.”

The Smiths weren’t interested in taking shortcuts when it came to quality in kosher certification either. “I knew OU certification was something very worthwhile to offer to our clients,” he says. “It has generated business for us. We’re working on coming up with Passover oats for next season.”

Jim LeCureux, general manager of Heartlands Finest in Hillman, MI, a former high school agriculture teacher, unexpectedly discovered the joy and profit in tilling gluten-free soil. In 2002, while working for Michigan State University as an extension agent, helping farmers enhance their output through the use of herbicides, fertilizers, crop varieties, and irrigation, LeCureux was approached by dry bean farmers seeking advice on finding an alternative market. “They learned that people affected by celiac disease were looking for more protein and fiber (in their diets) and knew that beans could provide those nutrients,” says LeCureux. “We commissioned the University of Nebraska food science staff to create a questionnaire. It was sent nationwide to twelve hundred members of a Celiac Sprue Association. The results showed that they were looking for pastas, snacks and breakfast foods.”

In 2004, LeCureux launched Heartlands Finest with the aim of transforming beans into all-purpose flour for baking bread, cakes, muffins, cookies and other baked goods. Consumers can also find Heartlands Finest tasty offerings under the “Tree of Life” label.

Heartlands Finest products include spaghetti, linguini, lasagna, dry cereals, navy bean flour and pinto bean flour. The company boasts both OU and GF certifications. “We want to convey that we are concerned about the integrity of our product,” says LeCureux. “We think that the OU kosher program symbolizes that.”

Delectable Without the Discomfort
Josef Lefkowitz of Josef’s Gluten Free offers grain-sensitive consumers some long- denied tasty American mainstays. This former manufacturer of children’s sportswear has become the successful creator and marketer of rice-based recipes for bread, pizza, bagels, cakes, cookies, graham crackers and more.

Around the time Lefkowitz was diagnosed with an allergy to gluten products, an increase of foreign imports caused his clothing business to fall into a slump. His doctor suggested that he think about opening up a business of gluten-free products. Following doctor’s orders, he experimented with allergy-friendly ingredients and formulated recipes for foods he was missing in his regular diet. Word got out in the neighborhood about his home-based bakery; the Lefkowitzes were inundated with calls requesting recipes and products.

Deciding to share his gluten-free goodies with the greater public, he opened “Josef’s Organic,” a small store in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. “(Parents) whose children had allergies to dairy or eggs were thrilled to find an address where they could buy (treats) their children could enjoy,” says Lefkowitz. “The enthusiastic response confirmed the demand for gluten-free products.” His website features a growing portfolio of products and attracts customers from around the country. Many of his online customers requested products with kosher certification; others suggested he sell his baked goods at Whole Foods. Confident that the customer is always right, he promptly pursued both. With an OU prominently displayed on the Josef Gluten-Free label, Whole Foods led to Wegmans, Price Chopper and numerous health food, kosher specialty stores and thousands of appreciative consumers.

Gluten-Free Online Grocery
For those requiring a gluten-free, allergen-free diet, with neither the time nor inclination to bake from scratch, Jay Berger and her husband Roy, owners of Miss Roben’s Mixes, have perfected baking mixes that are OU Kosher Parve, GF certified and made at their dedicated plant. Their products are also free of any open forms of wheat, gluten, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, egg, soy, shellfish, fish, sesame, onion, and latex. The Bergers feature their mixes as well as many other companies’ gluten-free prepared foods on an online Allergy Grocery – a veritable cyber-supermarket for those affected by celiac disease or common food allergies.

“My goal is to help people with food issues,” says Mrs. Berger. “We have about fifty five baking mixes, from the standard fare of cakes, cookies and muffins to the more unique mock graham cracker, goldfish cracker, pastry puff recipe, soft pretzel and bagels. When they take a bite, I want the mouth-chew and texture to be everything they would want from regular bread products.”

She admits that, due to the fragility of gluten-free breads, finding the right combination of ingredients took time. “Add to that the fact we can’t use eggs or dairy to stabilize the blend,” she says. “It’s kind of an art form/chemistry experiment.” Apparently the experiment has been a success. “People email us to thank us when they place their orders.”

While formulating allergen-free mixes, the Bergers chose to get OU Kosher certification. And they’re happy they did. “I’ve seen more people looking at our products because we have kosher/parve mixes,” reports Berger. We wanted to meet the needs of those who are not having their needs met by the mass market.”

American consumers have made one shopping penchant “abundantly” clear and that’s their craving for snacks. No matter what the moment’s preference, noshers have a vast choice of chips, pretzels, sour sticks, cup cakes, cookies, and more. For years, the most the gluten-sensitive population could do was to look at the colorful packages and… imagine.

Thanks to the creativity and gumption of some enterprising individuals, this snack-deprived public can stop pining and start crunching. Carole Honig, COO and founder of Soycrunch in Great Neck, NY, came upon an idea for a crispy snack on her way home from the health food store. Feeling hungry, she opened the package of textured soy protein (for her family’s vegetarian chili dinner) and started munching. “I found that I liked it in its dehydrated form,” says Honig. She also likes sweet things, so she decided to carmelize the batch using sugar – with very delicious results.

Her children took their newfound treats to school and shared it with friends. The crunch was cast; everyone who partook wanted more. “It’s gluten-free, peanut free, dairy free, and vegan. A perfect soy snack,” says Honig. “I realized the product could reach a greater audience.” Honig moved her operation from her kitchen into a small factory in Glen Cove, Long Island, NY. Interested in capturing the kosher market, she sought OU certification, as well as a kosher distributor. Available in five flavors, Soycrunch can be found at Whole Foods, health food stores, airports, Super Sols, Citarella, Fairway, Macy’s, in multiple states from Maine to North Carolina.

Pete Lescoe, CEO and founder of FoodShouldTasteGood, in Needham, MA, sensed a niche for tortilla chips that would not only be “good for you,” but also edible by the greater public (including the gluten-sensitive). The line features seven different types of tortilla chips, including Jalapeno, Olive, Sweet Potato, and even a Multigrain chip made from celiac-safe yellow corn, brown rice flour, flaxseeds, oat fiber, quinoa and soy flour. The products are OU and GF certified and are distributed nationally through Whole Foods. “We’re pleased that the OU is getting behind gluten-free,” says Lescoe. “Over the next few years, the GF certifying mark is going to become more and more recognizable. The OU (symbol) lends credibility and weight to the GF certification.”

fn1. Celiac disease (coeliac is the usual spelling in Europe and Australia) is a condition that may develop in certain genetically susceptible individuals. People with celiac disease cannot eat wheat, rye, or barley. Proteins in these grains (and peptides derived from the proteins during digestion) initiate pathophysiological processes that may eventually lead to severe damage to the absorptive epithelium lining the small intestine.

Gluten-Free Flour Power: Celiac Sufferer Helps Others by Helping Herself

In 1999, Jules Shepard of Catonsville, MD, was diagnosed with celiac disease. An avid baker, she perused gluten-free cookbooks, hoping to return to a nearly normal diet. She found that the recipes relied predominantly on rice flour, often yielding dry and crumbly results. Shepard decided to experiment with other gluten-free flours. She bought a variety of bags, lined them up on her kitchen counter, and went to work. After a full year of baking, she hit upon a gluten-free recipe for scones. “It was really delicious!” she says. “And it didn’t taste gluten-free. I knew I really had something.”

The scone recipe formed the basis for her Nearly Normal gluten-free all-purpose flour, which contains a combination of five flours, as well as corn starch, potato starch, tapioca starch, and xanthan gum as an enhancer. “I baked everything with it,” she says. “I made breads, pizza, muffins, and cookies.” She shared her tasty creations with others on gluten-free diets; they suddenly saw a world of food possibilities they had thought was lost to them. Realizing she could affect the quality of life for many more individuals with celiac disease and grain allergies, Shepard compiled the recipes into a cookbook.

According to Shepard, Nearly Normal Cooking For Gluten-Free Eating: A Fresh Approach to Cooking and Living Without Wheat or Gluten is selling at least a copy a day on Amazon.com. She also puts out a weekly e-newsletter with a new recipe in each edition. At work on another cookbook, due out in 2009, Shepard just completed a book called: The First Year: Celiac Disease and Living Gluten Free, a resource for people diagnosed with celiac disease, taking him/her through the first year of living gluten-free, to be published later this year. The book covers the myriad life situations the recently diagnosed celiac patient must now deal with differently, such as: how to travel nationally and internationally, a birthday party for the child with celiac, socializing on a date, business lunches, and holidays.

Aside from getting the gluten-free word out, Shepard has also brought her Nearly Normal all-purpose flour and Graham Cracker/Ginger Snaps mixes to the general public. She requested that Heartland’s Finest (featured in the accompanying “Good News for Gluten-Free” article) co-pack her products. All of her flours and mixes carry OU kosher certification and GF certification. For information about Shepard’s latest gluten-free projects, visit her two websites: Nearlynormalcooking.com and Nearlynormalkitchen.com.

This dedicated baker, author, and gluten-free advocate continues to create new recipes, share her flavorful findings, and relay the message: “Gluten-free can (actually) taste good and offer a nutritious and satisfying diet.”

Why Food Matters

You know that what you eat you are,
But what is sweet now, turns so sour--
We all know Obla-Di-Obla-Da
But can you show me, where you are?..

Savoy Truffle
George Harrison
The Beatles


We all eat to live but the vast majority of us truly live to eat. We think about what we will have for lunch while we are still eating breakfast. We conjure up delicious dinners before we’ve digested lunch. While we are enjoying our delicious dinners, our most compelling conversations are about other wonderful meals we’ve enjoyed or what we will be eating the following evening. We imagine scrumptious and outlandish desserts. We think of food between meals.
We even get up in the middle of the night to have a little “snack.”

Our individual and communal lives are centered around “breaking bread.” It is not just that we “are what we eat” – we are the people we are because of what we eat. Family gatherings and even national holidays are defined by the meals we eat. In the Jewish tradition, we celebrate the central event in our history with a Seder meal. What would Thanksgiving be without turkey?

There is a saying in Judaism that if you feed them, they will come. The truth of this is simple, and shared by people the world over – a successful meeting or gathering is guaranteed by providing food. The better the food, the better the meeting. Call people together without food and you needn’t expect them the second time you call.
Food is central to how we live; how we define ourselves and how we associate with our friends and neighbors.
And there is nothing wrong with this. Nothing at all. In fact, the only flaw in this from Judaism’s perspective is that we don’t go far enough in our “love” of food. One would think that our need for and our fascination and obsession with food would prompt us to elevate our relationship with it. Just as the most intimate of human interactions can be reduced to a mere physical act, love of food for food’s sake reduces eating to nothing more than an activity that is shared with every other creature on earth.

One would think that the centrality of food in our lives would awaken our consciousness to something more than its taste or our physical satisfaction after we eat. Too often, it does not.

As a result, food has become as much our “enemy” as our friend. That there is an obesity epidemic in our culture is so sadly obvious that it demands no comment. Worse than our own inability to control our eating habits, danger seems to lurk in food itself. Produce carries salmonella. Meat, e-coli. There’s mad cow disease hiding in the brains of the cattle, cattle that becomes the hamburger meat we consume in such quantities.
Food – necessary, enjoyable, and beloved – can also be dangerous.

However, nothing speaks to our complex relationship with food more than the rise in incidences of food sensitivities and allergies. Is there a school in America that is not a nut-free zone? How many parents fear the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, once a staple of young people’s lunch boxes?

It seems that everyone is either – or knows someone who is – lactose-intolerant, allergic to nuts, or dairy, or wheat or gluten, or… the list goes on and on. The reason for the spike in food allergies is not clear but it has created a real challenge to the food preparation industry – the industry that delivers food to the vast majority of consumers. Robert Powitz, Ph.D, MPH points out in an article, “Allergy Consciousness for the Retail Food Industry,” that unlike food-borne infections that strike without warning, people who suffer from food allergies are generally successful in avoiding the foods that trigger their allergies. In fact, that is the preferred strategy when dealing with food allergies –avoidance.

Avoidance of problem foods is fine – so long as the food delivery system cooperates. But, as Dr. Powitz makes clear, problems with accurate food labeling and cross-contamination – when a product that is “free” of the particular allergen is prepared in factories or on machinery that had been used to prepare other foods which may have contained the allergen – sometimes makes avoidance tricky, or impossible.

How can we ensure that people with allergies will know that the foods they eat do not contain the allergens they need to avoid? In this context and in addressing this question, Dr. Powitz refers to an interesting model – kashrut. As Dr. Powitz notes, “…the model for ‘allergy consciousness’ enforcement has been around for at least six thousand years. It is commonly known as Kashrut: Jewish Dietary Laws. Contrary to popular misconception, rabbis or other religious officials do not bless food to make it kosher. Rather, they examine the foods and how they are processed to assure kosher consumers that the food… complies with dietary laws…”

Yes, kashrut could very easily be a model for how to avoid cross-contamination in foods. Kashrut is rigorous. However, if one values kashrut simply as a method to keep the food supply “clean” one misses the fundamental beauty of kashrut entirely.

Judaism values the physical and the spiritual. They exist hand in hand. It is good to enjoy things in this world – but not if it is done without recognizing the spiritual in it. If eating is merely a physical act, if it is devoid of the spiritual awareness of God’s role in providing the food, then regardless of the quality of the food, or the elaborateness of the table, it diminishes us as people and as God’s creatures.

Eating, like everything else that we do, demands our attention, our care and our self-respect. As it turns out, we really are what we eat. The laws of kashrut make clear that God is central to even our most physical acts – elevating them to the spiritual.

Having just spent three days at New York’s Fancy Food Show, it was gratifying to meet so very many OU certified companies, both big and small, all thriving and growing with many sought-after products and with their coveted OU certification boosting sales and prestige. The number of inquiries and requests from companies seeking OU certification from the U.S., Turkey, India, Egypt, Australia, South Africa and beyond surpassed all past shows I have been to in recent memory. We look forward to servicing them soon.

Best regards and all good wishes. If you need any assistance or service with any aspect of your OU kosher program, feel free to be in touch.

Rabbi Dr. Eliyahu Safran
Editor-in Chief/Vice President,
Communications and Marketing
OU Kosher

At Kingsburg Orchards, Kosher Coatings Make Their Fruits Peachy Keen

An OU employee, let’s call him Chaim, recently called me during his recent trip out west. “Rabbi,” he asked, “I’m standing here in the produce section of a Wal-Mart in Nevada. And I see peaches that have a sticker with an OU on it. Is this for real?”   “Yes,” I replied, knowing that we had begun certifying a fruit distributor but startled that they had made it all the way out to Nevada.   “But what are we certifying?” Chaim asked. “Everyone knows peaches are kosher. Why do they need an OU?”  “Of course, of course, peaches are kosher,” I told him. “We’re making sure that the coatings that are on the peaches are also kosher. You’d be amazed at the kinds of ingredients used to make the coatings.”     “Oh,” he said, “Now I understand. Thanks a lot. I was just checking to make sure that the OU symbol was not a mistake.”   “No,” I reassured him. “This OU is supposed to be there.”   Last year a California-based fruit distributor, Kingsburg Orchards, made a commitment to using only OU certified coatings on its top-of-the-line fresh produce, and decided to market that fact with an OU symbol on the small sticker that is applied to the produce.  Kosher coatings means that the coating is guaranteed not to contain any animal fat or protein derivatives, dairy ingredients, or shells from crustaceans. This is not an insignificant statement.  The diversity of ingredients used in coatings manufacture would make anyone do a double-take. Last year, The New York Times (August 27, 2007) reported on research efforts at Rutgers, Oregon State University, and other food science laboratories to develop coatings that extend the shelf-life of fresh produce and, in some cases, make the produce safer. One laboratory cited in the article envisioned that “Strawberries could be dipped in a soup made from egg proteins and shrimp shells. The resulting film – invisible, edible and, ideally, flavorless – would fight mold, kill pathogens and keep the fruit ripe longer.” A 2002 text on coatings (Protein-Based Films and Coatings, CRC Press) features chapters on whey (milk) proteins, gelatin, and fish protein as sources for coatings on fruits and vegetables.   These formulations are not relegated to the dreams of research scientists. Currently, some coatings are produced from crustacean shells (“natural polysaccharides” is how they are often referred to in marketing literature) and others, even when produced using vegetable oil, may contain non-kosher (e.g., animal-fat derived) emulsifiers or plasticizers such as oleates or stearates.  Because of the complexity involved in coatings production, Kingsburg Orchards decided to commit to using kosher certified coatings. The company turned to U.S. Syntec of Yakima, Washington, the only OU certified manufacturer of fruit and vegetable coatings. U.S. Syntec, whose RFR is Rabbi Yitzchak Gallor, developed a product that would be perfect for Kingsburg’s beautiful produce.   Since the summer of 2007 Kingsburg Orchards has been marketing the kosher produce in various demographic centers. "As a company Kingsburg Orchards was motivated to seek OU certification to provide additional benefits to our customers and ultimately the end consumer,” declared Chad Allred, sales and marketing team, Kingsburg Orchards. “We have found that it doesn't matter if you are in a highly populated Jewish community or not, OU certification gives the consumer extra confidence in our products and makes them want purchase ours before those of our competitors. We chose the OU to certify our products due to the fact that it is not only widely known but also highly respected. The reputation of the OU is second to none. We have been very pleased in our relationship with the OU." From a Jewish law perspective, kosher observant consumers are not obligated to limit themselves to kosher certified produce. Although it is not possible to provide a pie chart or any other way of broadly representing the kinds of ingredients that are used in coatings (almost without exception, coatings manufacturers are tight-lipped about discussing what goes into their product) we can establish various presumptions about their manufacture. Based on those presumptions, the OU rabbinic board has stated that it continues to be permissible to purchase fruit without specific knowledge of what went into a specific coating’s production. Nevertheless, it is preferable to be certain about the actual ingredients used in a production. This philosophy underlies the OU’s decision to certify fruit coating. Rabbi Gavriel Price services the transportation, ingredients, and flavors industries at the Orthodox Union. He received ordination from Breuer’s Rabbinical School in Washington Heights, NY, and lives in Passaic, NJ.  In his spare time he plays marbles with his children. 

It’s Anchovy Time

For generations, shoppers used to greet the grocer with the same refrain, “What’s in season?” Season means little to today’s consumer, save for the difference in price. After all, modern technology can keep apples fresh until the next fall; tomatoes on demand in the winter; and who remembers clementines as a December treat anymore?

Well there’s one audience that hasn’t forgotten that some things have a season -- your local neighborhood anchovies. Yes, those unsung heroes of price-sensitive protein, anchovies are (believe it or not) “season aware.” Even those of you pinching your nose and promising yourself that you wouldn’t even threaten your children with anchovies have likely had some recently, or likely will in the near future. Confused? I’ll explain.

The market for canned or pickled anchovies is very limited and has been falling for years as younger generations appear to have lost their taste for pasteurized piscine products (though my six-year-old told me that sardines are his FAVORITE food…after pizza of course), but there is a serious demand for the heart-healthy Omega-3 oil found in anchovies and sardines.

November is prime anchovy season in Peru, where anchovies, sardines and other pelagic ground fish are collected and converted into fishmeal (think dinner for the crops at a tilapia or salmon farm). The oil is removed after the fish are cooked and is then sent to a separate processing area from the meal. Often regarded as a by-product of fishmeal production rather as a primary goal of the production plant, this oil is refined and converted into the fish oil capsules your doctor is having you take every day, as well as the growing number of grocery items enriched with Omega-3 oil.

Every product has its inherent kosher concerns. In a factory processing Omega-3 oil, our main kosher concern in the presence of non-kosher fish species in the catch. Particularly with small fish that are may be caught in a purse seine net, one can find all kinds of predators nabbed in the middle of an all-you-can-eat anchovy buffet in the same nets. Often non-predators can be caught in the wrong place at the wrong time as well. As such, the OU must set up systems to confirm that no non-kosher fish find their way into OU certified oil products.

Typically, that requires the presence of an onsite rabbinic supervisor. The rabbi needs to be on call 24 hours a day during the catch season, as the processor usually does not know much in advance when the boats of fish will arrive. The rabbi often needs to rouse himself in the middle of the night to stand watch on the receiving line, confirming that all non-kosher by-catch is fully removed before further processing. Once the load is secured and loaded into cookers, the rabbi is off-duty until the processed oil needs to be drummed. Then the rabbi must be present to seal each drum of oil and record production codes to confirm the identity of the kosher supervised batches of oil in his final report to the OU office.

Even if anchovies are not your canned fish of choice, you’ll be glad that their health benefits are being made available to you in a wide variety of nutraceutical and food supplement products, and of course, you are now more aware of what it takes to get those Omega-3s OU kosher certified.

Dear Rabbi… What are the requirements to have my tanker trailers OU certified?

Dear ____:

Thank you for your interest in OU kosher certification of your tanker vessels.
Kosher products can potentially lose their kosher status if stored in vessels without kosher status, hence the requirement for kosher verification of tanker transports.

The kosher verification program of tankers involves the designation and dedication of tankers for kosher
use. The OU, together with your company, will establish a protocol to corroborate the usage of tankers for only kosher approved materials. If kosher non-dairy status is required the procedures will also demonstrate that dairy products are not hauled in those tankers. Kosher certificates are issued specific to the tanker ID number which is then approved for kosher hauling.

The kosher program will provide for approved kosher wash procedures and certified wash stations to assist tankers in achieving kosher status.

Should you have any further questions or if I can be of any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact me.

With regards,

Rabbi Nachum Z. Rabinowitz
Senior Rabbinic Coordinator
OU Kosher

OUKosher.org: World-Wide Window to OU Kosher

Now that the Internet has made the expression “information at your fingertips” an ever-present reality, OU Kosher views it as an every-second opportunity. “As the world’s largest and most respected kosher certification agency, we can now educate the world at large about what kosher represents,” says Rabbi Eliyahu Safran, Senior Rabbinic Coordinator and Vice President, Communications and Marketing. “The medium of the web allows us to reach thousands of people whom we otherwise couldn’t.” Since its debut in 2004, the OU Kosher website is doing that and more.

If you find yourself logging onto the site, you most likely fall into one of three main audience categories: an OU certified company (or interested in becoming one), interested in learning about kosher; a kosher professional aiming to gain more specific information about kosher supervision, or a kosher consumer looking to see what’s new on the OU kosher market, checking to see if a particular product is OU-certified, or seeking to expand your kosher knowledge.

Apparently all three OU Kosher website watchers are getting what they come for; they keep coming back for more. “A tour of the website indicates why it’s so useful,” says Rabbi Yonatan Kaganoff, rabbinic coordinator and website supervisor. Through the site, companies can learn the basics of kosher and its requirements. What can make breakfast cereals, cakes, and doughnuts non-kosher? You’ll find those answers and more. With a click of a mouse, you can view comprehensive and entertaining videos about kosher and the OU Kosher standards. Just by perusing the site, you can find out the origin of kosher laws, the basic categories of food items which are not kosher, and why many foods other than meat, fowl, and fish, require kosher supervision.

Companies can also find out how to apply for OU Kosher certification. The site affords online access to Behind the Union Symbol, the OU’s quarterly trade publication now in your hands, which is read by over 6,000 food executives and reaches thousands of food manufacturing facilities worldwide, as well as food industry leaders, editors and analysts. In addition, the website spotlights OU-certified companies and brands on a rotating basis as an ‘OU Featured Company.’ Each item includes a corporate or product image; a description of the company, product, or brand; as well as a link to its website. The “OU Companies Speak” feature draws the diverse array of food companies together, offering them a closer look into each other’s world of kosher operations.

The site covers the latest news and events in the world of kosher, such as, “The Largest Liquor Kosher Certification in U.S.: DeKuyper 60-Flavor Line Liqueurs Receives OU Symbol,” Identifying Opportunities in the U.S. Food Market: A Seminar for Trade Consulates,” and U.S. News & World Report: Is Kosher Food Safer?”

Consumers interested in learning the finer details of the kosher laws can choose from over one hundred “Kosher Tidbits,” online mini audio-lectures presented by the OU’s rabbinic coordinators on a myriad of salient kosher-related topics. “People are listening to Kosher Tidbits from far distant corners of the world,” reports Rabbi Safran.

To make it easier for the Chinese and Spanish-speaking visitors to partake of the plethora of site’s kosher knowledge offerings, the OU hired professional translators. “These are the two biggest markets outside the English-speaking market,” says Rabbi Yaakov Luban, executive rabbinic coordinator. “China is the fastest growing market in the food industry. They are providing more and more of the raw materials used in the foods today.”

Aside from picking up the nuances of kosher in the kitchen and factory, companies, consumers and kosher professionals can also enjoy humorous and informative human interest pieces about the work lives of the OU’s traveling rabbinic field representatives. The website also avails the more kosher-scholarly visitor opportunities to pore over publications such as Daf HaKashrus, by Rabbi Yosef Grossman, RC; The Mesorah Journal, edited by Rabbi Menachem Genack, CEO of OU Kosher, about the thought of the late Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik, renowned Talmudist and Jewish scholar.

Aside from a regular array of recipes, the website’s most popular features include “Kosher Alerts,” announcements informing the public of products bearing an unauthorized OU symbol and “Product Search,” the OU products search engine. “If a consumer wants to know which potato chips are OU certified, he/she could run a search and get 500 different brand names,” says Rabbi Luban. “It’s a powerful resource for consumers to be able to quickly see what’s OU Kosher out there.” The site also offers those interested in dining out the convenience of locating OU-certified restaurants across the New York metropolitan area. And if they have any kosher questions or concerns, they can send an e-mail through the “Ask a Kosher Question” feature, which addresses all matters pertaining to Jewish kosher law.

Drawing from both the Jewish and non-Jewish populations, including consumers, industry people, and the erudite, the site has created an online kosher-conscious community. It even offers “Kosher Kidz,” an educational video, as well as an OU Kosher Contest for the young consumer. Gary Magder, Director of Internet Development, sums up the website’s primary mission and outcome: “We are building an awareness of the value of kosher.”

Thursday, August 21, 2008

OU Kosher’s China Syndrome

“Do you want to go to China?” That is what my colleague at OU Kosher asked me two months before an important ingredients show in which the Orthodox Union participates annually. China, well how could I say no! Having traveled there last summer for vacation, I knew from experience just how long and tiring a trip it was, but I was on an organized tour then and everything was taken care of for us as a group. This would be different. I would be traveling by myself and meeting my colleagues who handle the Southeast Asia region for OU Kosher in Shanghai.

The OU’s China and Far East team of Rabbi Mordechai Grunberg, Rabbi Donneal Epstein and Zhu Yanan handle the OU’s rapid growth in China. China, now the second largest exporter in the world, is becoming the fastest growing supplier of food ingredients to international food corporations. It has been estimated that close to $1.25 billion of kosher certified ingredients are exported annually worldwide. Enter the OU, the world’s largest, most respected kosher certification agency, now certifying over 300 plants in China. As the export industry grows in China, OU kosher certifications are growing right along with it.

I left JFK on a Sunday morning and arrived at my hotel in Shanghai, a very long 24 hours later. The time zone change is exactly 12 hours ahead in China, so as you can well imagine, I was quite disoriented and sleep deprived. I traveled via Korean Airlines, which was simply a wonderful experience, and I connected in Seoul for a two-hour flight to Shanghai. I did doze off at the gate in Seoul, only to awaken abruptly and realize most of the passengers had already boarded, almost missing my connecting flight.

The hospitality of the Asian people is beyond measure. They cannot do enough for you, and the flight attendants were especially sensitive to my kosher dietary needs. Kosher travelers are accustomed to packing our own food just in case the meals served are not edible, or as has sometimes happened, not available. My meals were delicious and the head flight attendant kept checking on me to make sure I was satisfied with the food. There were eye masks, slipper socks and toothpaste and toothbrushes distributed to all the passengers -- what a treat as I settled in for my journey. I was lucky that the seat next to me was empty, and I was able to stretch out a bit.

Fast forward 24 hours later, and I am in a taxi racing through the streets of Shanghai. It is 10 p.m. and the skyline is magnificent but the drivers seem to think of themselves as participants in the Indy 500. My taxi driver makes a left turn from the right lane of a four-lane highway as I hold on for dear life. You have to really see it to believe it. Somehow I arrive safely at my hotel, where my colleague, Zhu Yanan, the OU’s man in China, greets me and helps me check in. He offers to have someone drive me around the next day so I can sight see, as the show we will be attending does not begin for another day. The Chinese people are very courteous and proper, with an obvious curiosity about westerners. As China becomes more westernized the people embrace anything and everything American. College students are eager to practice English which they study in university.

Show Time in Shanghai:
The Food Ingredients China Show opens on Wednesday morning and we meet many manufacturers who are eager to obtain OU Kosher certification for their products, as their customers are demanding kosher certification for export to the U.S. and Israel. The days pass quickly with the exhibition attracting well over 10,000 visitors from all over the world. The OU’s reputation as the most influential kosher certification symbol in the world is reinforced as visitors from all over the globe stop at our booth to discuss their kosher needs. This supports the vast media coverage the OU has received recently nationwide in publications such as USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Financial Times, Newsday, The Miami Herald and Business Week, all positioning the OU as the leader in its category.

Many Chinese ingredient manufacturers requested OU Kosher certification applications and our Chinese representative, Zhu, will oversee the completion of those eager to become OU certified. As the New Business Development/Marketing Associate, I had an opportunity to network with many ingredient brokers and importers who require their ingredient sources to be OU certified. Many emphasized their company’s requirements that all ingredients meet certain specifications, including kosher certification. Their certification of choice unanimously was OU, as one Food Ingredients Manager told me, “We insist on OU certification because of its universal acceptance and undisputed global kosher standard.”

OU Kosher has more than doubled its China kosher certification growth in the last two years. The OU expects to grow its China certification business over the next five years “into the thousands.” Its seal-of-approval can assure Chinese manufacturers that the millions of consumers who buy kosher and trust the supervision behind the OU symbol welcome their products.

Currently, the ingredient and food production markets constitute ninety percent of the marketplace in China and the remaining ten percent on “finished products” such as candy and confections, frozen and canned fish and baked goods. This ten percent includes consumer retail pack and industrial food service items. The OU forecasts a gradual reversal of these percentages beginning in 2008 – at the minimum rate of ten percent a year – until “finished goods” comprise the ninety percent. It’s a matter of record that multinational companies with the OU kosher seal-of-approval have created a surefire way to gain increased market share for a relatively modest investment.
As I travel the world, attending a multitude of domestic and international food and ingredient trade shows, I have the privilege of branding the OU as the leader in the kosher certification industry, established while maintaining no compromise in the highest standards of certification. I do my best to “demystify” the certification process in such a way that makes it easy for a corporation to do business with us. We strive to make certification an easy, open and transparent process, with top quality customer service as one of our most important assets.

Shabbat Shalom:
As the show ends on Friday afternoon, we have no choice but to stay in Shanghai for Shabbat. We change hotels to be closer to the Shanghai Chabad and I look forward to experiencing the day of rest in the beautiful city of Shanghai.
We light candles at the shul and I marvel at the 150 Jewish guests from all over the world who gather together to usher in the Shabbat. Davening is beautiful and everyone is smiling and mingling -- Israelis, Americans, South Americans, Canadian, and Chinese Jews, united by yiddishkeit as the common bond. Dinner is delicious, the rabbi and rebbetzin warm and welcoming, and the people fascinating. I make friends easily and marvel at people I meet who have chosen to live in China for personal as well as professional reasons. They cherish the Chabad as it welcomes everyone who enters its doors as a safe Jewish haven and home away from home. We get to know one another and I even make a few new friends, with whom I promise to stay in touch after my return home. I truly am sorry when Shabbat ends.

I arrive home Sunday night, exactly one week since my journey began, happily exhausted and disoriented again, but this time laden with mementos and wonderful memories. But the part I will remember most is the spiritual and magical Shabbat in Shanghai, a period of delightful rest and renewal following a work week in which I traveled thousands of miles through a dozen time zones to bring the message of OU Kosher to the growing commercial colossus that is China.

The Birds of the Bible, or, Solving the Mystery of Which of the Species Are Kosher and Which Are Not

In the books of Leviticus (Ch. 11) and Deuteronomy (Ch. 14), the Bible discusses the species of animals, fowl, and fish which are kosher and can therefore be consumed. The Bible identifies two characteristics through which kosher mammals can be identified: chewing the cud and having split hooves. The kosher species of fish are likewise identified by two characteristics; fins and scales. While the majority of mammalian species are not kosher, the majority of avian species are kosher. Instead of detailing characteristics through which the kosher avian species can be identified, the Bible lists 24 avian species which are not kosher, indicating that all the other avian species are kosher. Any bird that is not on the list of twenty-four forbidden species is considered kosher. Theoretically, if a person encountered a bird which could not be identified, but the person knew this bird was definitely not one of the forbidden avian species, it would be permissible to consume the bird.

According to the biblical legend, when Moses was explaining to the Jewish people the methodologies through which kosher and non-kosher birds could be identified, he presented each species and, pointing to the representation, told the people that the bird was permitted or forbidden. For thousands of years, since the time of Moses, there was what was known as the mesorah, oral guidelines passed from master to pupil through which the kosher birds could be identified. Over the millennia some of the features through which the kosher and non-kosher birds could be discerned were forgotten. In modern times, there is no one alive who can identify all of the twenty-four avian species identified in the Bible as non-kosher. As a result, when a new species of bird is encountered, it cannot always be declared kosher since there is the possibility that it might be one of these species forbidden in the Bible. All that remains of the mesorah, are the few birds which are known not be on the list of birds forbidden in the Bible.

The Orthodox Union has researched and documented many of the birds which have traditionally been accepted by the Jewish community as kosher. Symposia and conferences have been organized, and numerous articles have been published in this effort to establish which birds can be certified as kosher. Many birds have been certified kosher, at least in name, since ancient times. Goose and duck were probably consumed by the Jews of Egypt prior to the Exodus. Chicken was consumed since the time of the Second Temple. Pigeons, doves, sparrow and quail were consumed by the Jewish people while they sojourned in the Sinai Desert. There are other birds such as partridges and songbirds which have been consumed for thousands of years, their consumption originating in a time when people still recognized the forbidden birds listed in the bible.

It is sometimes difficult to identify the birds described in the bible. It is known that quail were accepted as kosher since ancient times, with two biblical narratives detailing the consumption of the quail in the time of Moses and the Exodus. Before the Orthodox Union was able to determine the identity of the biblical kosher quail, it was necessary to research much more than the name. There are nearly fifty avian species which are called quail; these species are extremely varied being divided among a dozen genus, including Old World quail (coturnix), tree quails (dendrortyx), mountain quail (oreortyx), crested quail (callipepla), banded quail (philortyx), bobwhite quail (colinus), wood quail (odontophorus), singing quail (dactylortyx), ocellated quail (cyrtonyx), tawny faced quail (rhyncortyx), quail plover (ortyxelos) and button quail (turnix).

Throughout the world a number of species of quail have been domesticated. However, the only North American quail which has historically been commercially raised for meat in the United States is the bobwhite quail (particularly Colinus virginianus). This quail is not a true quail, sharing little with the European quail other than size. From a scientific perspective there is no reason why genetically unrelated birds on both sides of the Atlantic should share the name quail. There are a number of theories as to why bobwhite quail and the other North American species of quail were designated as quail. Most likely it was the settlers who longed for memories of the Old World, who named species and lands after those they had left behind. The North American birds which were called quail were similar in size and habit to the quail the settlers had known in Europe. When the North American quail-like birds were first encountered they were called quail, and they have been called by this name ever since.

From a kosher perspective, since the bobwhite quail is known not to be a true quail and it was never certified as kosher, there was no way to classify the bird as kosher because it could be one of the twenty-four avian species specifically forbidden in the Bible. In recent years the coturnix quail began to gain in popularity, being raised by a number of hatcheries throughout the United States. For years it was rumored that the coturnix quail was the biblical quail, the very quail which had been consumed and certified kosher since the time of the bible. There were a number of Jewish communities, which had consumed quail prior to the Second World War. These communities could only consume the quail if they had been able to ascertain that this quail was not one of the forbidden avian species. Of all the rabbis who had ever learned the mesorah how to identify the biblical quail, one survived the Holocaust. This rabbi, Rabbi Zweigenhaft, had been well respected in Europe and considered an authority in Poland and Germany on the identification of numerous kosher species including kosher quail.

Along with Rabbis Protovin and Polachek, I went to visit Rabbi Zweigenhaft and to document which quail were accepted in Europe by the pre-war Jewish communities. More than a dozen breeds of coturnix quail were presented and Rabbi Zweigenhoft explained the methodologies through which the kosher and non-kosher quail could be identified. He also explained that the quail known as the Pharoah quail (coturnix coturnix) was the bird which was consumed by the Jewish people in the biblical narrative of the Exodus. The words of Rabbi Zweigenhaft were documented and then compared to the ornithological accounts of the distribution of coturnix quail in Europe. I visited the American Museum of Natural History, where the curator, Dr. Peter Capainolo, gave a guided tour of the thousands of specimens which the museum had collected (kept in vaults beneath the museum). The anatomy of the birds in the museum’s collection was compared to the information obtained from Rabbi Zweigenhaft. The actual quail shown to Rabbi Zweigenhaft were compared to those in the museum’s collection, with the utmost attention being paid to regional variations and similar species. The Orthodox Union needed to be certain that in addition to being able to identify the kosher quail, the kosher quail once identified would not be confused with any similar, yet non-kosher species.

The final piece of the puzzle was presented by Rabbis Ari Greenspan and Ari Zivotofsky, who discovered archeological evidence that the Pharaoh quail was the quail which the Jews consumed in the two narratives of the Bible. Although the wild populations of the Pharaoh quail have been much reduced, they still migrate from Africa to Europe through the Sinai, as they did in the biblical narrative. Some people refer to the Pharaoh quail as the migratory quail, since they are one of the few species of quail which are migratory. Remarkably well-preserved pictures were found in Egyptian pyramids of migrating quail being harvested by the Egyptians. The clarity of these images left no doubt that the birds were the quail described by Rabbi Zweigenhaft. Once the Orthodox Union was certain which of the coturnix quail species were consumed since biblical times, the bird was certified as kosher. Quail and quail eggs are now found on the menu of some of the finest OU certified restaurants.

The research into the identification of kosher birds is not yet complete. There are other birds which are not certified as kosher, but there is evidence that they were accepted as kosher by some Jewish communities at some point in time. Among the birds currently being researched by the Orthodox Union are species of pheasant, partridge, peacock and guinea fowl (also known as the African chicken). In all of these instances, rabbis in Israel and America are searching for people to conclusively identify the birds which were consumed in the recent past and accepted as kosher by the rabbinic authorities.

In An Absolut World, Most Iconic Vodka Receives The Kosher Seal Of Approval By Orthodox Union

In a significant development in the world of kosher certification, the Orthodox Union and ABSOLUT® Vodka announces that the ABSOLUT portfolio products have received kosher certification from the OU, the world’s largest and most respected kosher certification. As of Spring 2008, the famed “OU” symbol appears on all ABSOLUT products.

ABSOLUT is recognized for both the quality of its all-natural ingredients, and its celebrated advertising campaigns, including its most recent campaign – ‘In An ABSOLUT World.’ This campaign invites consumers to imagine a world where everything is approached with the same ideal as ABSOLUT approaches vodka – bold, optimistic and constantly challenging the status quo. Now, enhancing its own “ideal world,” ABSOLUT expands the size of its base to include the ever growing number of consumers who follow kosher dietary laws.

“We have taken great care to ensure that our ingredients are all-natural and of the highest quality,” said Ian Crystal, Brand Director, ABSOLUT Vodka. “We are honored to continue the partnership with the Orthodox Union, and its Vice President of Communications and Marketing Rabbi Eliyahu Safran, and are proud to say that our products are now labeled with the renowned OU name.”

ABSOLUT products are manufactured at the V&S blending and bottling facility in Ahus, Sweden, using a revolutionary method of distilling called continuous distillation. To ensure consistently high quality, every drop of ABSOLUT is produced with water from the company’s own well, deep down in pristine aquifers, unreachable by pollution and impurities.

ABSOLUT Vodka now produces the following OU certified, all-natural flavors for kosher consumers to enjoy: ABSOLUT®, ABSOLUT® PEPPAR, ABSOLUT® KURANT®, ABSOLUT® RUBY RED, ABSOLUT® APEACH, ABSOLUT® RASPBERRI®, ABSOLUT® CITRON, ABSOLUT® MANDRIN®, ABSOLUT® VANILLA®, ABSOLUT® PEARS and ABSOLUT® 100.

OU and Fortitech: A Mutually Fortifying Relationship

The Talmud teaches us that the more contact a person has with another individual, the knowledge of that individual increases substantially. This certainly applies to an OU rabbinic coordinator’s relationship with a company. As a seasoned RC, I’ve had the privilege of cultivating close relationships with more than 200 companies; Fortitech Inc. is one for which I feel a particular affinity. Due to the almost daily contact with Fortitech, I can personally attest to its expertise, organization, professionalism and commitment to providing the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries with the finest in custom nutrient premixes available.

Not a day or two passes without the OU receiving at least one ingredient application, new product application, or correspondence from Fortitech’s efficient staff, led by Todd Redding of Schenectady, NY (may he have a speedy recovery), as well as Art Darien in Ontario, CA, and Jette Vesterli in Gadstrup, Denmark, with Dr. Ram Chaudhari at the helm. The OU presently certifies two of Fortitech’s plants in Schenectady (RFR, Rabbi Moshe Bomzer); Ontario (RFR Rabbi Yossie Bodenstien); and a European plant in Gadstrup (RFR Rabbi Yitzchok Sterling). Once an application is received, it is carefully reviewed and in most cases a letter of certification is issued the same day.

Food Industry Jumps on Outsourcing Wagon
Situated in lower Manhattan, OU headquarters is just two blocks away from Wall Street. For the past few years, the “buzz word” in the financial arena has been “outsourcing,” a process in which companies contract services – not part of their core business, but necessary for their operation – to businesses that specialize in these services, thereby saving the company time, money and headaches.

Outsourcing also plays a vital role in the food industry. As the world grows more health conscious, government regulations grow more complex and demanding while the number of available nutrients is constantly expanding. Consequently, the need arose for a company that could not only develop but also produce and supply optimum nutrient premixes. Fortitech serves as a first-rate one-stop source, supplying all of the fortifications a company needs, thus allowing the food producer to concentrate on his core business.

Fortitech boasts an experienced research staff, an extensive inventory and an efficient supply system that continually saves companies time and cost. To date, Fortitech offers over 5,000 OU certified products (some having Passover certification), affording the OU and its valued client ample opportunities to increase our knowledge about one another as we fortify our ongoing, mutually-rewarding relationship.

Fortitech Holds the Fort in Providing High-Quality, Kosher Nutrient Premixes for Key Industries

So many people today are looking for food and beverage products that offer health benefits beyond ‘fat-free’ and ‘reduced sugar.’ If you go into any supermarket, almost every aisle is filled with products whose labels claim that they address a variety of health conditions ranging from cardiovascular issues -- ‘heart healthy nutrients’ -- to digestive concerns – ‘promotes regularity.’ In most cases, Fortitech, Inc., based in Schenectady, NY is the company that has fortified those products with vitamins and minerals, which enables manufacturers to make those types of health claims.

Fortitech, Inc. is the world leader in the development of custom nutrient premixes for the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries. Founded in 1986, it is the only international company exclusively dedicated to the development and manufacture of nutrient premixes. And what is a nutrient premix, you might ask? It’s a blend of nutrients in specific amounts that when combined together, create a nutritional mix that is incorporated in a food or beverage manufacturer’s product to achieve a specific nutritional status for either overall health and wellness or one that targets a specific health condition such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease or osteoporosis.

Fortitech premixes integrate functional ingredients from a comprehensive selection of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, nucleotides and nutraceuticals that are used in a wide range of products, including baby formulas, cereals, bars, dairy products, nutrition and sports drinks, juices, snacks, waters, candies, supplements and more. While headquartered in Schenectady, NY (near Albany), this is a worldwide business. The company has a global network of manufacturing and distribution facilities throughout Europe, Asia Pacific, South America, Mexico and the United States (New York and California). All Fortitech nutrient premixes are custom formulated to meet the needs of each customer. In addition to meeting kosher requirements, the company is ISO 9001:2000 and Food Products Association certified, and meets organic, HACCP and Allergen program standards. Operating under the strictest GMPs in the industry, each batch is carefully tested for potency and consistency, as well as labeled with a Certificate of Analysis prior to shipment.

Specialized Services
Fortitech provides dedicated technical support to assist manufacturers with product development to successfully differentiate their products. Throughout each development cycle, Fortitech experts work closely with a customer’s R&D teams to address the specific issues of each product and meet the unique needs of customers. Nutrient premixes offer numerous benefits to manufacturers. They streamline the production process because a nutrient premix is a single source of multiple nutrients. As a result, manufacturers save on labor, cost and testing. They also help meet the nutritional and health interests of markets around the world. More than premixes…Fortitech provides solutions and is expert in delivering multiple nutrients in a single premix while preserving three key elements of successful premixes: taste, stability and texture. Key to our strategy is developing formulations using functional ingredients that serve a dual purpose, i.e., delivering a health benefit while also providing processing advantages such as better distribution for homogeneity. Moreover, Fortitech’s premixes provide manufacturers with a competitive edge by which to drive sales.

Fortitech.com Capabilities
Fortitech.com is the focal point of fortification knowledge, offering a global view of nutrition trends, solutions and opportunities. The online R&D Center enables users to conduct research on markets, nutrients, applications and health conditions—finding the latest information for developing a healthier consumer product. The site also features downloadable technical papers and Podcasts; offers easy access to information on breaking industry news on regulations and market trends, an online formulation worksheet to initiate product development with Fortitech’s premix experts, and other resources to help manufacturers create the optimum product solution.
OU Certification

Having OU certification is a crucial component to Fortitech’s ongoing success. “Both our current as well as potential customers know that by seeing the OU symbol, our premixes incorporate only the finest, purest ingredients,” said Sam Sylvetsky, Vice President of Global Sales for Fortitech. “We knew right from the start in 1986 that this certification would be a tremendous benefit to our reputation as a superior quality service provider to the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries.” Rabbi Moshe Bomzer oversees Fortitech’s kosher production parameters at our Schenectady, NY plant.

Food, Beverage and Pharmaceutical manufacturers interested in learning more about nutrient fortification can visit http://www.fortitech.com or send an email to .