By Rabbi Dovid Bistricer
While we shop, before purchasing a particular item we routinely ask ourselves, “Is it kosher?” The prudent kosher consumer will always check the label to confirm whether a kosher symbol appears on the label. However, due to the vast number of kosher agencies that operate throughout the world, sometimes checking labels for kosher symbols can resemble alphabet soup. Today, the number of kosher symbols internationally exceeds 700, and we often find ourselves in a sea of confusion. If a kosher symbol appears on a product label, we might be tempted to tell ourselves, “It must be fine, isn’t it? I am sure it’s all the same”.
By Rabbi Gavriel Price
In the times of Chazal, honey was the substance that symbolized sweetness. There may have been several reasons for this, but one of them is certainly that honey was the sweetener that was available in those days. In the last few centuries honey was dethroned by sugar as the most popular sweetener in most of the world, and in the last few years even sugar has been challenged as the king of sweeteners. In food science laboratories around the world, chemists are bent on developing sweeteners that have low or no calories, have absolutely no deleterious effect on one’s health, are odorless and, like sugar, taste geshmak . Some of these are natural and some are artificial. A few of them involve real kashrus concerns.
By Rabbi Binyomin Kaplan
Glossaries of computer terms usually explain that a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) is a list of the most commonly asked questions (with the answers) on a certain subject. The original idea was that the author of the FAQ saved himself the trouble of answering the same question over and over again, but the FAQ has become such a popular format, because any given subject usually involves certain obvious information that an interested person would want to know.
By Rabbi Dovid Cohen
Taste, health and convenience are some of the considerations consumers think about when making decisions regarding foods. Of course, kosher consumers also consider the kashrus of products. But one other principle discussed in Cha’zal, chamira sakanta me'isura - laws regarding danger are more stringent than those regarding prohibition -- make food safety a primary consideration. This article will focus on one unique aspect of food safety.- ruach ra’ah.
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