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Kosher for Consumers
Useful articles and interesting information about Keeping Kosher and Kosher Supervision.
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Is It OU Kosher? Newly Redesigned Product Search Feature On Website Aids Consumer In Finding OU Cert
A newly redesigned feature to help the kosher consumer easily locate OU certified products has just made its debut on http://www.oukosher.org. With more than 400,000 products certified by the OU, the feature uses the OU’s technical wizardry to find just what the consumer is looking for, in categories ranging from acids and acidulants to wrapping materials and paper goods. The website is automatically updated daily to keep up with the OU’s newly certified products.
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Kashruth In the Workplace Webcast
Following success of Kosher Kitchen Webcasts, OU Kosher presents new webcast on “Kashrut in the Workplace,” featuring OU Kosher Authorities, January 27.
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Newly Redesigned Product Search
Is It OU Kosher? Newly Redesigned Product Search Feature On Website Aids Consumer In Finding OU Certified Items
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When Kosher and Allergen Issues Do Not Converge
Rabbi Dovid Polsky, the remarkably patient and knowledgeable managing attendant of the OU’s ever-ringing Kosher Consumer Hotline, does not see a day go by – or even a morning --- without receiving a call that touches on the overlap between kosher certification and allergen concerns. “I see that Miller’s Heavenly Chocolate is labeled OU-pareve. Yet I also see a declaration of ‘may contain dairy.’ How could this be?” “The soy milk I just bought states that there is no dairy or lactose in the product. And yet the kosher label says OUD. I’m confused.” The answer to both of these questions, of course, is that although kosher and allergen considerations often converge, they are not identical.
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Considering the long days that Mashgichim put in and the hundreds of miles that they drive daily, it is no surprise to hear that most mashgichim rely on coffee to keep them going. While caffeine is a plus for those who work in an office, for those out on the roads those 10 minute coffee stops are quite literally life savers. Let us take a moment to understand if there are any kashrus concerns with picking up a coffee while traveling on the road. This question was presented to the OU poskim Rav Schachter and Rav Belsky. The primary ingredients in plain black coffee (water, sugar and unflavored coffee) are all group 1, acceptable from any source.
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In many companies the method for dealing with the issue of bishul akum is to have the mashgiach light the pilot light of the boiler. This is based on the ruling of the Rama (Y.D. 113:7) that if a non-Jew lit his fire from a fire that was lit by a Yisroel, then the food cooked with that fire would not be subject to the issur of bishul akum.
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Remembrance of the Mumbai Kedoshim
Rabbi Martin Grunberg, a rabbinic field representative for OU Kosher, who covers Asia for the OU, knew both Ben Zion Chroman and Rabbi Leibish Teitelbaum, who were murdered in the Mumbai massacre. He has prepared the following remembrance of the kedoshim.
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Rav Moshe Zt’l’s Heter of Cholov Stam Revisited
Halacha states that milk which is produced without hashgacha (r'iyah of a Yisroel) is non-kosher; such milk is termed "cholov akum". This rule is a gezeirah, lest milk from non-kosher animals be mixed into what otherwise could be assumed to be kosher milk. Milk is only permissible when a Yisroel watches the milking, verifying that milk from non-kosher animal species is not incorporated. (Yoreh Deah 115:1, from Maseches Avodah Zarah daf 35b)
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On Sunday February 19th, the Orthodox Union presented a conference on awide variety of subjects pertaining to Mesorah of various “pareve” subjects. The following is a look at the topic I presented, “An Analysis of Kaskeses – Part and Present”.
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An Analysis of Kaskeses – Past and Present
To summarize, fish that have a kaskeses are kosher. The definition of kaskeses is unique to kashrus, and scientific classifications of scales are not halachikly determinative.
