Ind - OU Kosher: Certification and Supervision by the ... for kosher products. The growing popularity resulted in a U.S. kosher market valued at $12.5 billion in 2008, an increase

REACHING 7,000 FOOD EXECUTIVES& OVER 6,000 PLANTS WORLDWIDE

S P R I N G 2 0 1 1

WWW.OUKOSHER.ORG | A PUBLICATION FOR OU CERTIFIED COMPANIES

OU DIRECTYOUR VIRTUALKASHRUT OFFICE

SNACKINGKOSHERIT’S NOT EASY

PASSOVERPRIMERAND ITS SPECIALFOODS

CHILESOUTH AMERICA’SHOTTEST COUNTRY

BEHIND THE

TheCharmofIndia

BY RABBI DR. ELIYAHU SAFRAN

YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE JEWISH TO

buy kosher products

Kosher foods, although based on one ofthe world’s oldest dietary laws, areamong the fastest growing currenttrends in food processing. Here in theUnited States, home to 40 percent of theworld’s Jewish population or about 6.15million consumers, kosher food has al-ways occupied an important marketingsector, but it is not Jews fueling this ex-plosive growth in kosher foods.

More and more, we are seeingthat kosher foods are increasingly at-tractive to the non-Jewish population;the population that now makes up theleading and fastest growing consumerbase for kosher products. The growingpopularity resulted in a U.S. koshermarket valued at $12.5 billion in 2008,an increase of 64 percent since 2003.When in 2010 products as diverse and

renowned as Tootsie Rolls, Gatorade andGlenmorangie Original, Scotland’s fa-vorite single malt whiskey, attainedOU Kosher certification, they were ob-viously seeking to broaden their ap-peal and expand their market.

Which market? That market,which includes vegetarians, vegans,gluten free shoppers, and health buffs.The market, that Mintel, a leading mar-ket research company, reports includes62 percent purchasing kosher for itsquality rather than because of religiousreasons. In other words, three out offive kosher food buyers are not moti-vated by religious influences. Un-doubtedly, all companies committed togoing through the kosher certificationprocess and willing to be governed byrigorous monitoring of every aspect of

production – from ingredients, topreparation, to processing facilities —are happy and eager to have observantJews purchase and enjoy their prod-ucts. They are much more anxioushowever, to be part of the explosivegrowth of the kosher market to thegeneral, all-inclusive market place.

I recall attending my first foodshow in Baltimore in the spring of1994. I had recently begun as an OUKosher New Companies rabbinic coor-dinator. I was accompanying RabbiMoshe Elefant, who then headed OUKosher’s New Companies department.He currently serves as OU Kosher’sChief Operating Officer. I rememberfeeling ill-prepared to attend a majorshow. What might I contribute to itssuccess? Nevertheless, it was an op-

K A S H R U T D I V I S I O NRabbi Menachem Genack RABBINIC ADMINISTRATOR / CEO

Rabbi Moshe Elefant EXECUTIVE RABBINIC COORDINATOR / COO

DIRECTOR, NEW COMPANY DEPARTMENT

Rabbi Yaakov Luban EXECUTIVE RABBINIC COORDINATOR

Rabbi Dr. Eliyahu Safran SENIOR RABBINIC COORDINATOR

VICE PRESIDENT, COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING

Rabbi Nachum Rabinowitz SENIOR RABBINIC COORDINATOR

Rabbi Moshe Zywica SENIOR RABBINIC COORDINATOR

Rabbi Yosef Grossman SENIOR EDUCATIONAL RABBINIC COORDINATOR

Rabbi Yerachmiel Morrison INGREDIENT APPROVAL REGISTRY

Rabbi Abraham Juravel INGREDIENT APPROVAL REGISTRY

Rabbi Howard Katzenstein DIRECTOR, BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

Harvey Blitz CHAIRMAN, JOINT KASHRUT COMMISSION

Rabbi Kenneth Auman CHAIRMAN, RABBINIC KASHRUT COMMISSION

Rabbi Emanuel Holzer CHAIRMAN EMERITUS

O RT H O D O X U N I O NDr. Simcha Katz PRESIDENT

Rabbi Steven Weil EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT

Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, EMERITUS

David Olivestone SENIOR COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER

B E H I N D T H E U N I O N S Y M B O LRabbi Dr. Eliyahu Safran EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Stephen Steiner EDITOR

Yocheved Lefkovits ART DIRECTOR

Batya Graber PUBLIC RELATIONS ASSISTANT

WE WELCOME YOUR COMMENTS & CONTRIBUTIONS FAX 212.613.0775 | E-MAIL [email protected]

BEHIND THE

2 | BEHIND THE UNION SYMBOL

EDITOR’S LETTER

portunity to learn from the master,who had by then perfected the “art ofselling kosher.”

I vividly recall listening to hispresentation before a group of com-panies eager to grasp why it wouldbe propitious for them to “becomekosher.” A phrase he used has re-mained with me ever since, which Imyself have repeated countlesstimes, when it was my turn to pres-ent. Rabbi Elefant said, “Kosher ishot.” How right he was. The NewYork Times’ Karen Barrow concurs.She writes: Kosher food is “…an an-cient diet [that] has become one ofthe hottest new food trends.” Shenotes that more and more super-market shoppers are “goingkosher.” Why? Because these shop-pers are “…convinced that thefoods are safer and better for health.”

Market research indicates thatfully 62 percent of people who buykosher foods do so for reasons of“quality” while 51 percent say theybuy kosher for its “general healthful-ness.” A third buy kosher because theybelieve that kosher food safety stan-dards are better than with traditionalsupermarket foods. Only 15 percent ofrespondents say they buy kosher food be-cause of religious rules.

“The kosher market,” MenachemLubinsky, President and CEO of Lubi-com Marketing and Consulting cor-roborates, “is the beneficiary of ayoung, loyal, and thriving consumerwho appreciates better foods that arekosher certified. Many of these con-sumers have larger families, spendmore than the average customer on foods, entertain more, and areextremely open to creative new ideas in their kosherdiets.”

The kosherfood category isbooming. Reportsindicate that 50percent of food onU.S. supermarket

shelvesin now kosher certified. According tojpost.com “kosher” is the most popularfood label in the United States, havingsurpassed “All Natural” and “No Ad-ditives or Preservatives.”

Logging on to www.koshereye.com, a website showcasing new kosherproducts, one finds that the kosher op-tion has expanded to nearly every cat-egory, including vegetarian, gluten-free, dairy free, organic, wines, spiritsand kosher “copycat” products such askosher sausage, imitation crab andnon- dairy alternatives to cream, but-ter and cheese. Today’s Koshereye’shome page features Yogachips,Healthy, Crunchy Apple-a-Day! Or-ganic Apple Chips. And their descrip-tion: “Yogachips are a tasty, healthy,

convenient and eco-friendlysnack food – an allnatural, fat free,crispy apple in abag! A perfect snackfor the health con-scious, the fruits arefree of the addedpreservatives andare grown without

the use of harmful pesticidesand chemicals. The chips arepeanut/nut free and certified

USDA organic, Vegan, Gluten-Freeand OU Kosher, making them perfectfor anyone with dietary restrictions.We feel they are perfect for everyone!”

Kosher food is available at manybaseball stadiums and was sold atSuper Bowl. Major cruise lines pro-vide kosher options, as have severalleading hotel chains and airlines. Su-permarkets continue to seek koshercertified products while expandingtheir kosher offerings. Wholesalefood buyers would be advised to un-derstand that when two productsare basically equal, the smart choiceis to select the kosher certifiedproduct, a magnet to the shopper

who spends more on food, shopsmore frequently, while preferring astore that will offer the specialty gour-met, gluten-free, organic, healthful,perhaps even locally grown but mostcertainly kosher selections. The“kosher is better” buyers are lookingfor the extra step of cleanliness, purityand transparency, enabling them toraise their ‘eating consciousness.’

Were I to accompany Rabbi Elefantto a show these days, I am certain thathis catch phrase would now be, “It’s cooland trendy to buy kosher.”

(Note: many of the updated statisticsand information fromSeafood.com News –“Half the food on super-market shelves is nowreported to be Kosher”February 23, 2011.”

Rabbi Dr. Eliyahu SafranEditor-in-Chief/Vice PresidentMarketing, OU Kosher

You may contact Rabbi Safran [email protected]

SPRING 2011 3

From the moment it appeared upon thescene and changed the face of kosher certi-fication forever, OU Direct has been the sub-ject of intense speculation, rampant rumorsand wild conjecture. What can it do? Wheredid it come from? What powers it? Who is

behind it? Why is there grass growing in the ice creamin the picture on the log-in screen?

Details about OU Direct are not Group 1 in-formation (definition: able to be obtained from anysource). Veiled in secrecy and closely guarded, theinner workings of this revolutionary and innovativewebsite have never before been disclosed to thekosher manufacturing public. Until now, that is.

To dispel the myths and address the myriad of mis-information circulating on the kosher street, an un-named but highly placed OU Direct authority with aGroup Six (allowed) clearance has anonymouslyshared the following inside information. What fol-lows will be surprising and, in some cases, shocking.All of it has been independently verified. Here, un-fettered and unedited, are the secret truths about

what OU Direct is, andwhat it is not. V OU Direct IS……

Empowering! Everythingyou could ever need to runyour kosher program, andmore, is right there at yourfingertips! It’s your one-stop shop for managingyour every interactionwith OU Kosher. With asimple, quick log in, youand the personnel you au-thorize in your satelliteplants will have immedi-ate access to:t Your schedules A and B– current as of 30 secondsprior to your request;Your OU invoices – bothpast and current, with up tothe minute status;t Your OU Kosher Let-

ters of Certification – for every label of every product inevery plant;t Your OU Forms and Applications – includingnew plant, new product, new ingredient, privatelabel, product termination, plant termination andprivate label termination forms;

BY RABBI AVROHOM STONE


OU Direct

OU Direct—Everything You Wanted to

Know About

SPRING 2011 | 5

tYour OU symbols – cam-era ready JPG and EPS filesfor every possible OU sym-bol that you can use on yourproduct packaging.

About the only pieceof your company’s OU Kosherprogram that can’t be foundright now on OU Direct isYOU! Log in today to this oasisof sanity in a crazy, confusedand mixed-up world.V OU Direct IS NOT…….

Dairy! Although the OU Direct logo is made up of anOU followed by the word Direct spelled with a capital“D”, this is NOT meant to in-dicate the OU Dairy symbol,and OUDirect.org is notmeant solely for OU Dairycompanies. Not understand-ing this, some OU Meat andOU Pareve companies haveattempted to log on by goingto OUMirect.org andOUPirect.org. This will not work. OU Fish compa-nies are strongly advised not to log on toOUFirect.org, since this is apparently a well-knownphishing site. OU Direct is available to all OU com-panies. Regardless of whether your own kosher sym-bol is OU D, OU Fish, OU Meat, OU Pareve or evenjust plain OU, OUDirect.org is where you belong.V OU Direct IS………. Energy Efficient! No more

sharpening pencils, running to the fax machine, mak-ing phone calls, copying Letters of Certification, orany of the other myriad of previous kosher programmaintenance activities that used to sap your strengthand tire you out! Now, from the comfort of yourleather, padded, executive chair, you can keep yourprogram up to date with just a few mouse clicks.Even the formerly exhaustive task of locating accept-able ingredients has been simplified, with the accessthat OU Direct gives you to the UKD database. With

this amazing tool, you can quickly locate and iden-tify exactly the right raw material you need in yourplant and have the comfort of knowing that it is al-ready approved and accepted in the OU system.Once you have located the item, just click on it andthen put it in your shopping cart. Even if the item is not in the UKD, you can still sub-mit it and attach an electronic copy of the kosher let-ter of certification that your supplier has emailed toyou. As soon as you submit the cart, you will receivea receipt and, in most cases, you will find the item al-ready added to your schedule A! All you need to dothen is sit back, relax and plan what you are going todo with all of your newfound free time.V OU Direct IS NOT……… Taxable! The U.S. Tax

Court, in its landmark IRS vs. Bagel Bob decision, ruledby a 4-to-1 majority that OU Direct is a non-taxablebenefit to OU companies. In the aforementioned

— and Never in Your Wildest Dreams Thought to Ask


OU Direct

case, Bob Bagelberg, Founder and CEO of Bagel Bob’sBakeries, was on OU Direct, creating customized OUKosher letters of certification for the private labels onhis new Boysenberry Bagel product. As each letterrolled perfectly off the printer, he could not containhis enthusiasm, and heloudly proclaimed, “OUDirect is awesome! It’sworth a million bucks!”A customer at the shop,who happened to be anIRS agent, overheard Mr.Bagelberg’s statementand proceeded to auditthe company and chargeit with tax evasion forfailing to disclose$1,000,000 of unreportedincome – the value ofhaving OU Direct!

The court, in itsdecision, reasoned thatthe peace of mind andstate of happiness that re-sult from being able toupdate schedules A andB, create customized let-ters of certification, au-thorize new productsand ingredients, identifyacceptable raw materials, access financial data, andhave what is essentially 24/7 control of a company’skosher program – in short, all the benefits that OU Di-rect offers - are impossible to place a value on since, asthe court stated, “You can’t buy happiness.” Althoughthe IRS appealed, the Court rejected their position, stat-ing that the IRS claim was simply a case of databaseenvy.V OU Direct IS…………. Secure! OU Kosher fully

appreciates the sensitivity of the information that youshare with us and goes to every extent possible to as-sure the confidentiality of your data. OU Direct uti-lizes high levels of security to protect your valuableinformation. Your connection to OU Direct is securely

encrypted with 128-bit encryption. The connectionuses TLS 1.0. The connection is encrypted usingAES_128_CBC, with SHA 1 for message authentica-tion, and RSA as the key exchange mechanism. Youcan sleep well at night knowing that everything you

submit via OU Direct is safe and secure.V OU Direct IS NOT………… a Dating Service.

Granted, one of the main benefits of OU Direct isunfettered access to the UKD (Unbelievable KosherDatabase), which enables companies to find exactlythe right ingredient match that they have beensearching for. And it helps them find it based onOU’s unique 29 (almost) dimensions of compati-bility, such as source company, item description,category, kosher status and kosher certification.But OU Direct cannot help you to find your lifepartner. And the only lonely hearts found lurkingon OU Direct belong to artichokes and palms.Who, incidentally, are just waiting on the UKD for

Shows the actual invoice.

SPRING 2011 | 7

Everything at Your FingertipsEverything at Your FingertipsEverything at Your Fingertips

you to take them to your plant and make themyour own. Log on today and review your ingredi-ent matches for free!V OU Direct IS……………. Liberating! Once you

begin doing all your kosher paperwork using OU Di-rect, you will never go back to pen and paper again.Who wouldn’t become addicted to a system that dis-penses with submitting any forms and enables you totransmit all of your kosher information electronically?

And, with OU Direct, you are no longer tied down toone long, comprehensive kosher letter of certificationfor your company, listing every product that you everdreamed of making and had approved. You can cre-ate your own customized kosher letters. Feel free tomix and match plants and products, in-house and pri-vate label items. As long as it’s on your schedule B,you can put it on whatever kosher letter you need, ina choice of three different formats, of your own design.Let the creative juices flow! V OU Direct IS NOT……….. Illegal! A team of OU

attorneys, based on extensive research and consulta-tion with numerous state and federal justice author-ities, has determined conclusively that “it is not acrime to streamline your kosher program and makeyour life easier”. In saving paper and energy, OU Di-rect is both green and contributes to longevity by re-

moving stress and frustration from your life. And noanimals were harmed in the development, imple-mentation and administration of OU Direct. OU Di-rect – the smart, sensible and safe choice for yourkosher program!V OU Direct IS…………. Free! Unlike other offers

you receive, which try to lure you through the doorwith all sorts of low price, all-inclusive promises andthen “nickel and dime” you for every service, OU Di-

rect is included as part of your OU-provided kosher program absolutelyfree! The cost to your company?Nothing. Zip. Zilch. Nada. It is justanother example of the OU Koshercommitment to providing yourcompany with the quickest andmost efficient tools and systems tomanage your kosher program, sothat you can keep your focus on theimportant business of providingyour consumers with high quality,kosher product.

A small but dedicated OUteam of IT professionals has toiledfor days, weeks and years, workingin relative obscurity and total

anonymity, to bring about a system that has revolu-tionized the way true professionals do kosher. Don’tmiss the train before it pulls out of the station! Log onto OU Direct today and be an active participant in thebright new world of kosher!

Rabbi Avrohom Stoneserves as OU Kosher SeniorRabbinic Field Representa-tive visiting with OU certi-fied companies throughoutthe country. His instructiveand entertaining articlesfrequently appear in Behindthe Union Symbol, and al-ways elicit many positiveresponses.

UKD ID#

1

Crystal Head Vodka, created by enter-tainer Dan Aykroyd and Americanlandscape artist and portraitist JohnAlexander, is now certified kosher bythe Orthodox Union, the world’slargest and most respected kosher cer-tification agency.

Crystal Head Vodka is quadruple-distilled and triple-filtered throughHerkimer diamond crystals. Producedfrom water sourced from a deep glacierlake in Newfoundland, Canada, it is aPure Spirit, free of any additives such assugar, glycerin or citrus oil. “AttainingOU certification is exciting news for thebrand because it allows all followers ofdietary laws to enjoy a one of a kind,ultra premium vodka”, says JonathanHemi, Vice President, Globefill Inc.

Crystal Head Vodka is the fastestgrowing ultra premium vodka brand onthe market. In recognition of the brand’sperformance in its first 18 months,

Crystal Head Vodka was named a “Ris-ing Star” by the Beverage InformationGroup, publishers of Cheers magazineand producers of the annual Cheers Bev-erage Conference. According to CharlesForman, Editor of the magazine, “Crys-tal Head Vodka, through its attractivepackaging, product quality and well-timed entrance into the market hasshown that even during a challengingeconomy, consumers are willing to tradeup to the right brand.”

According to 2010 data compiledfrom IMPACT, Crystal Head Vodkareached the one million bottle markfaster than Grey Goose, Belvedere andChoppin vodkas.

Rabbi Eliyahu Safran, OUKosher’s Vice President, Communica-tions and Marketing, was “gratified towelcome Crystal Head Vodka to theever-growing list of the high classvodka and liquor products that have

gained OU certification in recent years.” The striking skull-shaped bottle

celebrates the mystical legend of the 13Crystal Heads possessed by tribal cul-tures such as Aztec, the Mayan and theNavajo and recalls the celebration of theMexican “Day of the Dead” tradition.

Rated 91 by The Tasting PanelMagazine, Crystal Head Vodka contin-ues to gain distribution across thecountry and can be found in restau-rants, clubs and bars as well as wineand spirit shops.

Crystal Head Vodka can be enjoyedin its purest form, shaken over ice with asqueeze of lime, in a classic martini or ina variety of cocktails. For more informa-tion or to contact directly, please visitwww.crystalheadvodka.com

Rabbi Yaakov Mendelson is OrthodoxUnion rabbinic coordinator for CrystalHead Vodka.

Newly Certified!

Crystal Head VodkaAwarded OU Kosher Certification

SPRING 2011 | 9

For the first time ever, kosher Biltongdried beef and Boerewors beefsausages will be broadly available atU.S. retail stores and food service es-tablishments. Delectable and satisfy-ing, these gourmet quality productsare made with a 40-year old recipebrought to the U.S. from Johannesburg,or ‘Joburg,’ by David Libesman,Founder of Joburg Kosher Foods,LLC. “We selected the OU,” saidLibesman, “based on input from cus-tomers and due to its stature as themost widely recognized kosher certifi-cation symbol.”

Rabbi Eliyahu Safran, OU KosherVice President of Communications andMarketing, declared, “The OrthodoxUnion is pleased to certify the ever pop-ular South African Joburg”! Kosher Bil-tong and Boerewors beef products, sothat they may now be enjoyed by theever-growing kosher market place in theUnited States.”

Joburg Kosher Beef Biltong andBoerewors Gourmet Sausages are cur-rently available via the internet atwww.joburgkosher.com and at kosherrestaurants inPhiladelphia, Tea-neck, NJ, New YorkCity, Staten Island,NY, and Skokie, Il. Afull scale rollout tokosher specialtyshops, grocery storesand dining locationsis underway. JoburgKosher products,first sampled to ravereviews in Octoberat Kosherfest 2010,are produced inNew Jersey under supervision of the Or-thodox Union. “We are excited to an-nounce that Biltong, the perfect travelfood, will also be available Kosher forPassover,” Mr. Libesman said.

Joburg Kosher Boerewors, or‘Farmer’s Sausage,’ add a new dimensionto the gourmet sausage category. Theyare marinated and seasoned for a juicy

and succulent tasteexperience whengrilled, fried in a skil-let or broiled. JoburgKosher Boereworsare not pre-cookedlike most othersausages, but areshipped frozen withno nitrates or nitrites,and contain only280mg of sodiumper serving. Great asa center plate entrée,in a roll or in a recipe,

Joburg Boerewors are available in Tradi-tional, Garlic and spicy Peri-Peri flavors,in 4-pack/3oz links and 2.5 lb packs.South Africans love “Boeries on the braai(bbq grill)” all year round.

Joburg Brings KosherUsing Recipes from South Africa

Delicacies to American Tables

Newly Certified!

> > C O N T I N U E D O N P A G E 1 0


Biltong is a staple in South Africathat is available in stores, butchershops and roadside stands throughout

the country.While kosherbeef jerky hasbeen availablein the U.S.m a r k e t ,kosher Biltongoffers an excit-

ing, new taste experience. Made frompremium cut beef, Joburg Kosher Bil-tong is marinated and seasoned, thenslowly dried for days. The result is asavory and satisfying snack or mealthat is low in calories, 97 percent fat

free, has only 150mg sodium per serv-ing, with no preservatives. Biltong,which requires no refrigeration and isa great travel companion, comes inTraditional, Black Pepper and spicyPeri-Peri flavors. It is available in in-dividual 3oz servings as well as one-pound packs and slabs.

About Joburg Kosher Foods, LLCDavid Libesman, the son of a

South African butcher, arrived in theUSA in 1998. For 11 years he searchedhigh and low for Biltong and Boere-wors with the taste and texture that hegrew up with. He then decided tomake them himself using recipes and

techniques perfected over 40 years.The overwhelming response from fam-ily and friends led to the creation ofJoburg™ Kosher Foods, LLC. Thecompany’s mission is to be the firstkosher food manufacturer to makehigh quality, authentic South Africanfoods widely available through retailshops and foodservice channelsthroughout the U.S., as well as the In-ternet. For more information and consumer comments, see the videos at http://www.youtube.com/JoburgKosher.

Rabbi Seth Mandel is Orthodox Unionrabbinic coordinator for Joburg Kosher.

Island Abbey Foods Ltd™, specialtyhoney manufacturer, announced thatthey have attained kosher certificationthrough the Orthodox Union (OU). Thisannouncement will allow the innovativehoney products produced by IslandAbbey Foods Ltd™ under theirHonibe™ (pronounced hon-ee-bee)brand to be sold with a new level of ac-creditation of quality, health, and safety.

The Honibe™ brand is builtaround a proprietary platform technol-ogy that has enabled the creation of 100percent pure dried honey products in avariety of form factors. The OU certifi-

cation of the Honibe™ line of productsincludes the Honey Drop™- A tastiersugar cube; Honey Lozenges™ withadded Eucalyptus and Menthol for sore

throats; Honey Delights™ - pure honeycandy; and Honey Sprinkles™ - honeygranules for baking and sweetening teaor coffee.

“Having our Honibe™ brand ofhoney products certified as kosher isgoing to open our business to an everexpanding new market,” stated JohnRowe, President of Island AbbeyFoods Ltd™. “The kosher communityis prominent throughout UnitedStates, Canada, as well as throughoutthe world which creates a major op-portunity to market our unique line ofproducts to a segment of the commu-

Instant Management of Your Kosher Account



Instant Management of Your Kosher AccountInstant Management of Your Kosher Account

HonibeTM-Pure Honey JoyNow Kosher Certified through the

Orthodox Union

> > J O B U R G C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 9

nity we haven’t been able to targetuntil now. Kosher certification gainedthrough the highly respected Ortho-dox Union provides an extra level ofquality certification for our productsthat gives consumers additional confi-dence in their purchase decision.”

“We are pleased that IslandAbbey Foods has attained its koshercertification from the Orthodox Unionfor their Honibe™ line of pure driedhoney products,” said Rabbi EliyahuSafran, OU Kosher’s Vice President ofCommunications and Marketing.“Undoubtedly all of the Honibe prod-ucts will be enthusiastically welcomedwithin the kosher community. We areespecially pleased with the certifica-tion of the Honey Lozenges, an impor-tant addition to the growing list of OUcertified health-related products,”Rabbi Safran added. We will now workwith Island Abbey Foods to introducethe Honibe™ line of products to thekosher community.”

The Honibe™ brand has receivedmajor international recognition in re-cent months with the Honey Drop™being named as the Global SIAL d’OrWinner 2010 for the best new foodproduct in the world. The Honey

Drop™ was alsonamed as the bestnew product in the‘Grocery Sweet 2010’and best of Canada‘Country Award 2010’categories. Honibe™was recently featuredon one of Canada’smost popular televi-sion shows, CBC’sDragons’ Den, whereentrepreneurs pitchtheir ideas to savvybusiness investors. Is-land Abbey Foods re-cently entered into amajor distribution deal that will see theHonibe™ brand sold through DutchGold Honey and McLure’s Honey andMaple Products into supermarketsacross the United States.

For more information pleasevisit www.Honibe.com.

About Island Abbey Foods Ltd™Island Abbey Foods Ltd. is a spe-

cialty honey producer based in PrinceEdward Island, Canada. We are a sixthgeneration PEI agricultural familybusiness with our feet firmly planted

in our Island’s bright red soil (ideal forfarming with its high iron and nutrientcontent). Honibe™ (hon-ee-bee) brandhoney is our line of all natural, spe-cialty honey from PEI. Under ourHonibe™ brand we offer innovativeproducts like the Honey Drop™, theworld’s first 100 percent pure, no mess,non-sticky honey, and a better tastingsugar cube. We also have a 100 percentpure honey candy called Honey De-lights™, granular honey called HoneySprinkles™ and Honey Lozenges™ forcough relief.

SPRING 2011 | 11

t

t

WHO ELSE at your company (in management,marketing,production) who should be receiving a copy of

Do let us know at [email protected]. We will gladly add them to our mailing list.

BEHIND THEUNION SYMBOL?

W I N T E R 2 0 1 0 / 2 011

WWW.OUKOSHER.ORG | A PUBLICATION FOR OU CERTIFIED COMPANIES

BEHIND THE

MATZOH, RUGALACH AND MORE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF JEWISH FOOD

CURDS & WHEY HOW TO KOSHERIZE A CHEESE COMPANY

PICKLE-ICIOUS! EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW, PLUS GREAT RECIPES

QUEBEC TALES FROM THE FAR NORTH

FlamingoT H E K O S H E R S TAT U S O F T H E

Newly Certified!

ScentIndia

The

By Bayla Sheva Brenner

of

India’s food industry—on the risewithOUKosher

12

IndiaBy Bayla Sheva Brenner

The next time you’re savor-ing your side of basmati rice,mushrooms in your salad,and vegetables in your in-stant soup —you just mightcatch a scent of sandalwoodincense and sweet flowers.After all, you’re enjoying ataste of India.

13

14 | BEHIND THE UNION SYMBOL14 | BEHIND THE UNION SYMBOL

As high-tech communicationreaches ever higher, OU Kosherreaches ever wider. Prominent In-dian companies such as Global Green,Argo Dutch, Nagar Haveli, Sunstarand Kohinoor are busily producinga vast potpourri of OU-certifiedfoods and raw materials for Amer-ica’s burgeoning OU Kosher foodindustry – and the kosher con-sumer’s worldly palates.

To date, 82 companies and 155

RABBI YOSSI TIRNAUER, THE “MASTER OF INDIA.”

14

15

ALPACA IN THEANDES MOUNTAINS

SPRING 2011 | 15

plants on the Indian subconti-nent have gone OU Kosher.“They come to us because theircustomers require it,” says RabbiYossi Tirnauer, an OU RabbinicField Representative or overtwenty years, whom the rabbis atthe OU Kosher office call ‘theMaster of India.’ “I told the headof Mohini Organics, a companythat makes emulsifiers, it wouldtake a minimum of one year to

prepare the facility for OUKosher certification; if he’s in ahurry, maybe he should go to an-other agency. He said: ‘Rabbi, Idid my research; I know what Iwant. I’ll wait a year; no prob-lem.’ After about eight months,he was OU certified.”

Rabbi Tirnaeur, a native Is-raeli, travels to India twice amonth visiting factories manu-facturing pickles, milk powder,

concentrated mango and pa-paya juices, enzymes, oil, vine-gar, herbal medicines, spicesand IQF, a.k.a. instant quickfreeze foods. “Anything thatgrows from the ground in Indiacan be dehydrated or IQF,” saysRabbi Chaim Loike, OU Rab-binic Coordinator who special-izes in spices. “The dehydratedvegetables in many of thesoups we eat come from India.”Many of the pickles we eat arealso from India. In fact, RabbiGavriel Price, the RC incharge of the Mohini Organicsaccount, refers to India as “thecucumber distributer to theworld.”

Situated near the equator,the country enjoys abundantvegetation. “They do a lot ofherbals, oil extractions frombotanicals,” says RabbiMordechai Merzel, RC, “in-dustrial products that go intofoods, vitamins and otheritems — the possibilities areendless. Spices, peas, gherkinsare also indigenous to the re-gion, as well as from Sri Lanka,which used to be part of India.And they are offering productsat economical prices.”

FARMING GHERKINS IN INDIA

15

16 | BEHIND THE UNION SYMBOL16 | BEHIND THE UNION SYMBOL

Dr. Rakesh Jain, president of NagarHaveli, manufacturer of aromatic andspecialty chemicals for 15 years, attrib-utes much of India’s food industry suc-cess with both raw materials and retailproducts to OU Kosher certification. “Iremember when Rabbi Tirneaur firstcame; he had eight or ten places to in-spect,” he says. “Now, he has more thanone hundred.”

With the Indian food and raw mate-rial industry, as well as the demand forOU Kosher certification growing, RabbiTirnauer delegated some of his kosher su-pervisory work to Rabbi Bezalel Kupchik,a fellow Israeli, and Rabbi MenachemMendel Crombie, originally from Sefat,Israel, who lives with his family in SriLanka, and flies to India four times eachyear to his assigned factories. “(After fif-teen years on the job in India), Rabbi Tir-naeur knows the companies; he knowsthe culture and the people,” says RabbiShaul Gold, an RC who specializes inpickles and rice. “He is also very good atmaking sure the system he put in placecontinues to run optimally.”

The rise in production has alsoprompted lifestyle changes in the popu-lace. “I met an Indian chemist who worksfor Firmenich, a huge multinational natu-ral and synthetic ingredient company, whogrew up in Gujarat, (the state with the

fastest growing economy inIndia),” says Rabbi Price.“When he was younger, thepeople who worked togetherassumed they would workside by side for the rest of theirlives. Now, it’s a fact of life thatthey will most likely moveaway; half the workers em-ployed by the company travel

from Mumbai and fly back. Goods move,people move. It’s a dramatically differentlife from just a few decades ago.”

MOOve Over— Cow Crossing

The RC’s at the OU Kosher office inManhattan welcome the chance to sam-ple the markedly different Indian cultureduring their initial visits to companies.“There are animals all over the place,”says Rabbi Price. “You stop at a red lightand a cow comes right up to your win-dow. In the U.S., if you want to pass a caron the highway, you move to the leftlane and accelerate, then move back tothe right. In India, you honk your hornand the person in front of you has tomove out of the way, then you acceler-ate and he goes back to his original lane.This causes a cacophony of honking.”Rabbi Merzel concurs. “It makes NewYork City seem like a prairie in the mid-dle of Kansas,” he says.

Despite the noise, Rabbi Loike isimpressed by India’s sophisticated pro-duction systems. “There are some reallyhigh-tech processes going on there,” hesays. “Agro Dutch, an OU Kosher com-pany, is the largest integrated mush-room company in the world; due tosuperior standards of cleanliness in

their manufacturing procedure, theirproduct is free of bug infestations, amajor plus, since Jewish law forbids theconsumption of insects.”

According to Rabbi Gold, we haveRabbi Eliyahu Safran, Senior RabbinicCoordinator and Vice President forCommunications and Marketing, tothank for the inroads OU Kosher hasmade in India. “He worked very hardover the years to develop solid, warm re-lationships with the owners of the com-panies in India and they, in turn, broughtother companies to the OU,” he says.“He would meet people at trade showsand developed a long term relationshipwith each of them. It’s about business,but it’s even more about interpersonalrelations.”

Apparently, it’s also about quality.“We have converted many of our non-kosher suppliers to get OU Kosher certi-fication,” says Suma Devassy, whohandles operations at Marcatus QED,one of India’s largest exporters ofgherkin pickled cucumbers. “It is one ofour requisites in our quality manual.People understand, just like any otherquality parameters, they need to havethe OU. The OU’s mechanisms are verystringent, so it has an impact on bring-ing quality systems. It forces the vendorsin India to follow certain protocols andthis helps them to follow such standard-ized practices. The recognition, the ac-ceptance, the quality assurance — weknew OU Kosher certification was theonly way. We have grown exponentially.And it’s only going up and up.”

Bayla Sheva Brenner is senior writer inthe OU Department of Communicationsand Marketing.

WATER BUFFALOS AREUSED FOR FARMINGIN INDIA

16

FALL 2009 | 17

BY RABBI ELI GERSTEN

We have all heard of the dangers associ-ated with artificial colors. With many ar-tificial colors having been found to becarcinogenic, one certainly understandsthat consumers wouldprefer not to see “artificialcolors” listed on the ingre-dient panel, and industryis proud to prominentlydisplay a “No ArtificialColors” disclaimer to winover the health consciousconsumer. This has helpedspur demand forcochineal extract andcarmine (a more purifiedform of cochineal extract).These dyes are made fromcarminic acid which is ex-tracted from the cochinealscale insect and are there-fore natural products.

Although thecochineal is native toSouth America, theprocess of creating dyesfrom insects has alsobeen known to the “Old World” forthousands of years. The Old World ker-mes (kermes vermilio) which inhabitsthe Mediterranean basin was used tomake a red dye in ancient Egypt and isone of the oldest known organic pig-ments. The Bible uses the words TolaatShani to refer to the scarlet threadssown into the coverings of the Taberna-cle and the vestments of the priests. TheHebrew word Tolaat can also meanworm or insect. This has led some Bib-

lical scholars to surmise that these redthreads were dyed with an extract fromkermes vermilio. Whether this is true ornot, we certainly admire these brightdyes. However, since these dyes are ex-tracts of insects they are not kosher.

Even foods that are colored withcarmine are not kosher.

Until recently, FDA labeling guide-lines have allowed these dyes to be listedas “natural red” or even just plain “nat-ural coloring.” However, for a small per-centage of consumers for whom carminecan trigger a severe allergic reaction thisanonymity has been dangerous. There-fore, effective January 5, 2011 new FDAguidelines require declaration by nameon the label of all foods and cosmetics

that contain these color additives. As aresult of the new guidelines some man-ufacturers, who would rather not listcarmine on their labels, have opted to re-formulate their products.

An unintended consequence of thenew legislation is awindfall for the kosherconsumer. Some prod-ucts which were unableto be certified kosher be-cause they had alwayscontained carmine havenow been reformulatedand may be eligible forkosher certification. Ifyou have any questionsas to whether this mightapply to any of yourproducts, please consultyour rabbinic coordina-tor, who can best adviseyou as to the feasibility ofhaving your productscertified.

Rabbi Eli Gerstenserves as OU rabbiniccoordinator – recorder

of OU policy. In that important capac-ity, he works closely with OU’s seniorrabbinic team that reviews and formulates OU Kosher policy. A frequentcontributor to BTUS, his“Dream Team” appearedin the Winter 2010/2011issue.

FDA Guildlines on

Bring a Boon to theCarmine

Kosher Consumer


By Rabbi Aharon Brun-Kestlerotato chips, corn chips, puffed snacks and tortillachips – they all seem so simple – but they aren’t.Today’s snack food industry aims to please a widevariety of tastes. Add in allergen concerns and thenever ending de-sire to “have your

snacks but cut the fat” andthe permutations on a themegrow astronomically. TheOU certifies many of theitems in the snack food isleand is proud to work withmost of the major players inthis industry. Familiar OUcertified brands includeBachman, Cape Cod, FritoLay, Herr’s, Snyder’s ofHanover, Utz and Wise. Ad-ditionally, many regionalplayers like Bettermade,Wyandot, Inventure andCondor are also OU certi-fied. In addition, many pop-ular store brands likeAlbertson’s, Kroger, and Price Chopper all display OU kosher.

Potato chips are deceptively simple. Basically, they are fla-vored, fried slices of potato. Simple and kosher – right? Not sofast. The first question – what are they fried in? True, mostproduct today is in pure vegetable oil, but there are strong re-gional markets for lard fried chips – especially in central Penn-sylvania and the South. I recently visited a facility making alarge number of specialty products for various manufacturers.The same fryers are used for lard chips and those made in a va-

riety of vegetable oils. Just because the label doesn’t mentionlard, it doesn’t mean the fryer is not common.

Moreover, one of this plant’s specialties was a brand of“healthy” chips fried in oils like olive and avocado. All sharedthe same equipment. Many common kosher brands sold inmajor kosher markets have lard fried products. Utz, for ex

ample, has the GrandmaUtz line and Herr Foodssells a product labeled “OldFashioned.” Specialty chips,like sweet potato, may alsobe made on these lines, astheir small production vol-ume complements the nichelard chip production. Onemust be diligent to look forthe OU symbol and not as-sume that “plain” or “veg-etable oil” only chips are notproblematic.

Once fried, most potatochips are salted while stillhot. However, secondary fla-vor applications are usuallyat ambient temperature. Thedays of nothing but plain

and barbecue chips are long gone. Today, someone makes a po-tato chip with just about any flavor one can imagine. Mostplants have both dairy and non dairy seasonings. Many alsohave non-kosher –especially for cheese flavors. The OU worksclosely with manufacturers to insure proper separation of thekosher categories. This is one place where allergen concerns areour ally. Allergen level cleanouts are very thorough and com-panies are careful to remove all residues between high allergencategories like dairy.

SnackingKosher

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It’s harder thanyou thought

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Scheduling is another tool we use. Weekend cleanoutsare generally less pressured – and more thorough. Whenpossible, we implement a series – kosher non-dairy at thebeginning of the week, then kosher dairy, then non-kosher.However, there are many plants where the changeover pres-sures and other concerns like line proximity or the design offlavoring equipment create an environment where kosheracceptable separation cannot be achieved. This is one rea-son why consumers find otherwise non-dairy chips labeledOU-D(dairy).

Tortilla chips, corn chips and similar rolled dough basedproducts (many rice and multigrain chips for example), arealso traditionally fried. Normally seasoned directly after fry-ing, these chips, which are thicker and denser than potatochips, retain their heat. Between the residual heat and the vol-ume of production, the tumblers and belts themselves get hotenough to absorb the flavors and attain their kosher status. Forexample, if the company makes a kosher nacho chip (dairy), allsubsequent chips are considered dairy, unless a kosheringprocess is completed. As koshering can be quite involved,time consuming and messy – usually including boiling wateror even direct fire, companies that make pareve corn and tor-tilla chips split the lines so that necessary equipment never hasdairy or non-kosher contact. The OU works closely with com-panies to design dedicated and easily monitored systems.

Baked chips are commonly also quite hot when sea-soned and present similar issues. Some of these products –like baked potato crisps – are made from shaped dough thatcontains much more than potato flour and water. As theyare not fried, oils and emulsifiers, as well as flavor compo-nents, are incorporated into the dough itself. Many of theingredients are highly kosher sensitive and must be moni-tored carefully. Similarly, many shaped extruded items –some of the fancy vegetable straws and chips for example,start out as a manufactured pellet. These pellets containmany kosher sensitive ingredients and the pellet manufac-turers regularly make a wide variety of items, not all neces-sarily kosher, on the same production lines. The end snackproducer then fries or bakes the pellets andseasons according to customer tastes.

Puffed snacks – includingrice cakes and similar appear-ing items – are increasinglypopular. In essence, theseinvolve popping grains ina mold. When the wholegrain kernels explodeunder heat and pressure,they form a basic platformfor the snack maker. Thefundamental product islow fat and often wholegrain, making these

items increasingly popular with snackers. As the fundamen-tal product is dry, adding seasoning requires a carrier like veg-etable oil. In many applications, the seasoning itself is addedat room temperature. While the equipment itself does not ab-sorb multiple kosher categories through heat, it is much moredifficult to clean properly because of the oil. Therefore, certi-fying multiple kosher categories in these environments takesdiligence on the part of the manufacturer and the OU. Likewith potato chips, a number of strategies are employed andnot all manufacturers are able to comply.

Many times, the application of seasonings is more com-plicated. Chocolate drizzled rice crackers, for example, gothrough a machine called an enrober. Here, chocolate is meltedand drizzled onto the base cracker and/or the cracker itselftravels through a bath of chocolate. While generally a coolprocess, these machines are difficult to clean. As the chocolateis usually dairy, so are the products.

In some applications, seasoning is sprayed onto the un-flavored popped chip which then runs through an oven. Inthese situations, the oven belts absorb through heat and canbecome dairy or non-kosher depending on what the com-pany makes. These belts are difficult to kosher and compa-nies using these systems routinely label all products dairy ornon-kosher. Some do have dedicated belts or chooseto run campaigns of kosher or pareve productwith the OU providing koshering and neces-sary supervision.

Extruded corn snacks like cheese ballsand curls present a somewhat differentproblem. Here, the basic “ball” or “curl”is little more than extruded corn flourand water. Immediately after the ex-truder these look – and taste – some-thing like Styrofoam! They are

flavored with a slurry of oil and the appropriatecheese flavor. Mixing the slurry is generally hot, sothe mix kettle is problematic. The hot mix is thensprayed onto the pellet and tumbled to get the desiredend consistency. If the company uses non-koshercheese, the entire system is non-kosher. Even ifkosher cheese is used, the system is certainly dairy.Hence, companies generally sell the entire category asnon-kosher or kosher dairy, depending on the sea-sonings. Flavored popcorn is very similar.

While many snacks are very simple in their basicingredients, the process of making and flavoring themis more complicated. Because the OU works withsuch a wide variety of snack companies, we are veryfamiliar with the industry and the issues. As such, weare able to work with our clients in responsive and co-operative ways to ensure the best possible service forboth our clients and the kosher consuming public.

Rabbi Aharon J. Brun-Kestler has over 18 years ofexperience working in all aspects of kosher super-vision, from field inspections to directing the Vaadof Greater Seattle. The majority of his career has

been with the OrthodoxUnion in New York where hehas assisted many companiesthrough the certificationprocess. Today, Rabbi Brun-Kestler manages nearly 200OU client portfolios in abroad range of industries.Rabbi Brun-Kestler has hisrabbinical ordination fromRabbi Yisroel Belsky and

holds an MA in English Literature from North-eastern University.


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In the snack food industry, UtzQuality Foods, Inc. has always

been known for freshness and thequality ingredients that it uses inmanufacturing its products. It’sbeen that way since the company’shumble beginnings 90 years agothis year, when Bill and Salie Utzbegan making potato chips in\their Hanover, PA home. Salieused her knowledge of good ‘olPennsylvania Dutch cooking toprovide customers with the high-est quality potato chips in the mar-ketplace and Bill Utz deliveredthem directly to stores andfarmer’s markets in the Hanoverand Baltimore areas.

Salie’s quality cooking tradi-

tion continues to this day, as Utzuses minimal processing which al-lows its products to retain a maxi-mum amount of nutrients presentin the natural ingredients. Over 50percent of its product line is All-Natural and has been that wayfrom the start. Salt and seasoninglevels are controlled to maintain asodium content which is lowerthan many other processed foods.In addition, the nutritional contentof Utz products is regularly testedand printed clearly on the packagelabels. Utz is so certain of the qual-ity of its products, that every pack-age is unconditionally guaranteed.

While its distribution networkand coverage has certainly grown

over the years, the company’s philos-ophy remains the same as Bill Utz’swhen he delivered directly to thestores and farmer’s markets: “If youmanage the process yourself fromstart to finish, then you can ensurethat your customers are purchasingtop quality products.” Their directstore delivery system has more thaneight hundred company-controlledroutes running from Maine to NorthCarolina. In surveys, Utz has foundthat 80 percent of its chips are pur-chased and consumed within a weekof manufacture.

Its long-standing commitmentto quality led Utz Quality Foods, Inc.to become OU certified in 1996.Today, three out of its four manufac-

ChipsOff the Old Block

In its 90th Year, Utz Quality Foods Follows Traditions of its Founders

SPRING 2011 | 21

OU COMPANIESSPEA

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turing plants and over 95percent of its productline is OU certified as ei-ther pareve or dairy.

These kosher prod-ucts range from its manyvarieties of potato chips,with a production of one mil-lion pounds every week, to itslarge assortment of pretzels,with its production of 900,000pounds every week. Utz alsoproduces cheese curls, tortillachips (baked, natural, organic,and restaurant style), popcorn andparty mix, offering more than 90 fla-vors or varieties of snacks in total. Utzalso carries salsas, crackers and spe-cialty items such as chocolate-coveredpretzels, seasonal pretzel barrels andsports mixes.

In 1997, Utz expanded its koshercertification to include two Kosher forPassover chip items (Regular and NoSalt). These items are manufactured toadhere to the strict dietary regulations ofthe holiday.

“Being certified kosher is nolonger simply about following reli-gious dietary law,” says Tom Dempsey,

President of Utz Quality Foods,Inc. “Today, many consumers are turn-ing to kosher certified product for al-lergen and health-related reasons. TheOU symbol represents the use of pureingredients and has become a univer-sal quality seal of approval,”

Kosher certification has opened upnew distribution channels for Utz, ex-panding its territories and bringing onnew accounts such as kosher grocerystores. However, the Utz reputation forquality has spread far beyond its owndistribution area. The Utz Mail Order

division accommo-dates the growing na-

tional and internationaldemand for its products.

In recent years, Utz hasseen an increased interestin its kosher products na-tionally and internationally.Whether customers are pur-chasing for themselves or

as a gift, kosher certifiedproducts continue to be in

high demand.Utz has also created a ded-

icated space within the nutritionalsection of its website where all kosher

products are highlighted, as well as othernutritional data. See utzsnacks. com/nu-tritioninfo.html) for easy reference.

Since 1921, the Utz name has stoodfor quality. With a strong tradition offamily and professional leadership andUtz’s thousands of loyal employees dedicated to providing the freshest, besttasting products, Utz continues to be thechoice of customers everywhere.

Rabbi Aharon Brun-Kestler is OrthodoxUnion rabbinic coordinator for UtzQuality Foods.

Herrd?Have You Herr Snack Foods Have Been OU Kosherfor 30 Years

For over 30 years, Herr Foods Incor-porated has been manufacturing

snack foods with OU certification. A rec-ognized leader in the snack food indus-try, Herr’s is headquartered inNottingham, in Southeastern Pennsyl-vania, about an hour from Philadelphiaand Baltimore. The family-owned and-operated company began 65 years agoand has mastered the ability to continu-ally introduce innovative products and

packaging needed to satisfy ever-chang-ing appetites and tastes of the snack foodconsumer.

The Orthodox Union is the mostwidely recognized kosher certifying agencyin the world. Some of the Herr’s sales mar-ket opportunities are in areas that encom-pass large Jewish populations. Many of thesales accounts request kosher status for theproducts that Herr’s manufactures andsells. Herr’s recognizes that many con-

sumers view the kosher certification as anextra level of product quality supervision.

Tom Chase, Research & Develop-ment Technologist at Herr’s, is the cur-rent kosher coordinator. Tom clearlyrecalls his first visit with Rabbi YitzchakFriedman. “We are predominately gen-tiles in this processing plant and we willnot understand the issues involved withfood laws. However, we at Herr’s havean agreement with the Orthodox Union


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that assures that when an OU or an OU-D symbol appears on our package, theconsumer buying that product will haveconfidence that the product in the pack-age will be what the symbol implies.”Herr’s works closely with the currentrabbinical field representative, RabbiRichard Levine, to do just that.

Phil Bernas, V.P. of Research & De-velopment/ Quality Assurance, ex-plained the manufacturing process forkosher certification. “All of our potatochips are either kosher pareve or kosherdairy. There is a complete cleanup (hotwater and an oil solvent cleaner) afterkosher dairy products are manufactured

before run-ning a kosherpareve prod-uct. We alsorun kosher forPassover chipsusing cotton-seed oil. Wehave one pret-zel line that isdedicated tom a k i n g

pareve pretzel thins andcircle H minis. All otherpretzels lines are kosherdairy.

On the corn linewe did have kosherpareve productsand kosher dairyon the same line.This required a hotwater (180°) cleanup after run-ning a kosher dairy product. Now thewhite corn tortilla line is kosher pareveand the yellow corn line is kosher dairy.All the items (cheese curls, snack friezand baked potato crisps) manufacturedin the new plant are kosher dairy. Allpopcorn items are kosher dairy.”

Herr’s offers a free factory tour atthe Nottingham headquarters. Visitorsare given a guided tour of the factory tosee how all of the Herr’s snacks aremade. A favorite part of the tour is sam-pling the warm potato chips right out ofthe cooker. Many Orthodox schools andfamilies visit the Herr’s Snack Factoryeach year. The tour is fun, educationaland appeals to all ages.

Herr’s hascompany-owned

branches in Pennsyl-vania, New Jersey,

New York, Ohio,Delaware, Maryland,

Virginia and West Vir-ginia. Herr’s nationalsales team has sales in 48states, as well as exportsales and distributors. The

Herr’s online store is an-other way for customers to

purchase Herr’s snacks to be shipped totheir home or to send as gifts to others.Herr’s online is an easy way to sendkosher snacks to your family andfriends. If you have any questions aboutpurchasing online, just call the toll freenumber, 1-800-284-7488 during theweekday business hours of 8:00 a.m. –5:00 p.m. and the staff will be happy tohelp you.

Herr Foods Inc. has been addingflavor to the lives of families for 65 years.From the very beginning, James S.Herr’s commitment to bring the freshest,best-tasting snacks foods has been the

At Wise® Foods, our goal is simple;to make real food for real peo-

ple…great tasting snacks made from thefinest ingredients and backed by excep-tional customer service. From our famil-iar favorites to our newest varieties, westrive to be the snack our customers areproud to share with friends and family.

The Wise® story begins in 1921,when Mr. Earl Wise, Sr, then a younggrocer, had too many potatoes. Being a

frugal businessman, he decided to usethe extra potatoes to make potato chips.He did all of the work by hand and soldthe chips in brown paper bags from hisstore.

Earl’s chips enjoyed instant popu-larity and the company he founded,Wise® Foods, has grown into a leadingregional salty snack manufacturer in theeastern United States. For the past 90years, from small batches in his mother’s

kitchen to a remodeled garage to the cur-rent state-of-the-art facility located inBerwick, PA, one thing has neverchanged: Earl Wise,

Sr., and the company that bears hisname, make terrific, all-natural chips!

It all began with a single variety ofall natural potato chips, but over theyears, Wise® has expanded its product

Wise Foods. . .Snack KosherEncourages Snackers to Snack Loud!

J. S. HERR

SPRING 2011 | 23

Encourages Snackers to Snack Loud!

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offering along with its manufacturingcapabilities. We are now proud to offer awide variety of salty snacks under rec-ognizable brands such as: Wise®, Rid-gies®, New York Deli®, CheezDoodles®, Dipsy Doodles®, andBravos®!

Wise® Foods has long been a pro-ponent of kosher snacks. Our cus-tomers expect high quality snacks andmany of them are looking for thekosher certification for specific dietary,religious, or health reasons. To thatend, Wise® has established a relation-ship with the leading organization forkosher certification, the OrthodoxUnion. Wise® has a strong partnershipwith our OU certification expert, RabbiAharon Brun-Kestler, and is extremely

proud to offer a variety of OU (Dairy)and OU (Pareve) kosher certifiedsnacks. The majority of Wise® processlines in Berwick, PA are kosher. Specif-ically, Wise® product lines which in-clude kosher certified items include:Potato Chips, Tortilla Chips, OnionRings, Corn Chips, Pretzels, and Salsa.

In the past year, the company hasalso invested in new equipment to fur-ther improve our production processesand to make the kosher certificationprocess even easier. Investments weremade in new stainless steel seasoningtubes and seasoning augers, and sepa-rate seasoning lines have been installedfor kosher products within the Wise®plant facility.

There’s no doubt that kosher foodpractices help Wise® to make high

quality products and the

OU kosher certification keeps Wise®Foods competitive in our core market-places, where consumers and retailersalike desire a broad offering of deli-cious, quality kosher snacks!

Our newest product offerings –Wise® Baked Potato Crisps and WiseBravos® Ranch and Sweet & SpicyTortilla Chips - also carry kosher certi-fications. For more information aboutWise® snacks, please visit us online at:www.wisesnacks.com, or contact usdirectly: Phone: 1-888-759-4401 Email:[email protected]; Mail:Wise Foods, Inc, 228 Raseley Street,Berwick, PA 18603-4533

Rabbi Aharon Brun-Kestler is OrthodoxUnion rabbinic coordinator for UtzQuality Foods.

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Cross and Peters company wasfounded in Detroit on August 1,

1930. The company was named after thefounders’ first names, Cross and Peter.Both set goals to make a better potatochip, hence the brand name, Better MadePotato Chips. In 1934, the company wasincorporated by the founders, the latePeter Cipriano and the late Cross Moceri.

Better Made became not only abrand name but a way of doing business.Even in the early days of the company,only the best ingredients and methodswere used. At first, production was sim-ple. Burlap-bagged select potatoes werecooked in the best oil available, weighed,and hand packed into crude greaselessbags. Distribution was chiefly throughthe company’s own store outlets, whichlater grew into small delivery routes.

Today, however, BetterMade uses over 50 millionpounds of choice potatoesevery year and the entireprocess is a little morecomplex. The pota-toes arepurchased inbulk (45,000 to 85,000pounds per truckload) and un-loaded froms e m i - t r a i l e r swhich are raisedby a hydraulic lift.The potatoes are then transported byconveyors to storage bins. When needed,the potatoes are automatically conveyedto the fryers where they are washed,peeled, sliced, and inspected. Next, thepotato slices are conveyed to high-tem-perature controlled cookers, where only100 percent cottonseed oil is used.The cooked chips arethen lightlysalted andautomati-cally ad-vanced by anoverhead vibrat-ing conveyor sys-tem to automaticpackaging machinesthat weigh, form, fill,and seal the finishedbags. Better Made’sOriginal Potato Chipsuse all natural resourcesand are untouched byhuman hands from thetime the potatoes leave

the farm until you bring thecrunchy chips to your mouth.

Through the years BetterMade has expanded its pro-

duction to include Po-tato Sticks andAir-Popped and Ket-tle-Popped Popcorns.

Also the company’ssales force hasevolved into over175 route sales peo-

ple servicing over10,000 customers

throughout most of Michigan, Toledo,OH and Chicago.

All of Better Made’s potato chipand potato stick products are certifiedkosher by the Orthodox Union. BetterMade chose OU certification because it

is the best known and mostwidely accepted kosher certifi-cation in the world. In addi-tion, many consumersconsider OU certified prod-ucts as having better qualitythan products without the cer-tification. From a marketingperspective, having the OUsymbol on your packageadds another layer of cred-ibility to your products.Currently, Better Made isworking on obtaining

OU certification for itspopcorn items.

Rabbi AharonBrun-Kestler is Orthodox Union

rabbinic coordinator for Better Made.

Better MadeSnack FoodsCelebrates 80 Years

OU C

OM

PAN

IES SPEAK>>

Snack Foods

SPRING 2011 | 25

By Rabbi Eli Eleff

ommunications, the back-bone of commerce andhuman civilization sincetime immemorial, hastaken huge leaps over thepast two decades. With the

advent of the World Wide Web and Inter-net protocol, what once took much timeto dispatch information can now be ac-complished almost instantaneously withthe click of a button. The global economyhas rapidly shrunk because of this, andthe amount of information readily avail-able for access is mindboggling. How-ever, what has become the center ofattention in this era of the InformationAge is the portal that allows access to allthis information, the website.

At the Orthodox Union, we are noexception and like most other organiza-tions and companies throughout the globewe have developed numerous websitesand applications for our clients and con-sumers. Primarily, the main web page atwww.oukosher.org, serves as the gatewayto a vast array of information regardingour kosher certification services. Recently,the home page went through a redesign toallow for a more user-friendly, eye-pleas-ing informative experience. The page wasdesigned to bring together both consumers

and companies, so that each may explorewhat the OU has to offer. With a wide col-lection of articles and audio-visual presen-tations, vast amounts of kosherinformation are easily accessible.

Additionally, as a service to OU cer-tified companies, we have a FeaturedCompanies section on the home page,which displays the logos and informationabout various OU companies. Further-more, the page now has scrolling infor-mation such as Newly Certified productsand establishments, OU News, andKosher Alerts. Especially important toconsumers is our new Product Searchfunction, which helps verify for them if aproduct is indeed certified kosher by theOrthodox Union. For industrial applica-tions that require an actual letter of certi-fication, we have a link (called LOCLetters) on the top right of our homepage,which will allow interested parties toview and print kosher certificates of non-confidential OU certified products.

OU companies can garner tremen-dous exposure from their placement onour website. As described above, eachtime consumers log on to our homepage,they will automatically view the profile ofvarious companies with links to theirwebsite. These profiles constantly refresh,exposing a wide range of OU Kosherclients to a vast array of food production

corporations. Additionally, companiescan find out the latest trends in kosherfood production, as well as articles relat-ing to kosher law. For companies andproducts requesting additional exposure,newly certified companies, products, andbrands are periodically refreshed.

This is but the beginning of a con-stant redesign, redevelopment, and up-grades to our website. Essentially, in thedigital era the World Wide Web serves asthe main street of commerce, and homepages as the storefront. Featured else-where in this issue is information regard-ing oudirect.org, the powerful websitethat allow OU companies to manage andview their kosher programs and accounts.Coupled together with some specialtysites such as oupassover.org – ourPassover site – and ou.org the site of OUKosher’s parent organization, we are em-barking on an ambitious plan to makeOU Kosher information available to all.

Rabbi Eli Eleff is rabbinic coordinatorand website administrator for OUKosher. He graduated from the MirYeshiva in Jerusalem and received hisrabbinic ordination from the prestigiousYeshivas Ohr Hachaim in Kew GardensHills, NY. Rabbi Eleff also earned bothhis BA and MS from Touro College inNew York City.

>> Post the OU logo — one of the world’s best-known symbols of added attention to quality — on your website. Ask Suzanne Beck at [email protected] to send you a beautiful, hi-res OU logo

POST THEOU LOGOOn Your Website

OUr TechnologyInternet Presence: It’s All About

ChileSouth America’s Hottest Country is

Ah, Chile !This incredible country has been in the

spotlight recently. Last year’s terrible8.8 magnitude earthquake that rattledthe southern and central parts of thecountry, and the spectacular miraculousrescue of the Chilean miners and thentheir emotion-filled visit to Israel haveplaced Chile firmly in the world’s spotlight. The truth is that Chile has beenthe model country economically and po-litically for the entire South Americancontinent for the last two decades.

By Rabbi Shoshan Ghoori

FALL 2009 | 27

ChileSouth America’s Hottest Country is

FALL 2009 | 27


Chile is physically isolated from theworld. The Atacama Desert in the north;the gorgeous snow-capped Andes Moun-tains in the east that separate Chile fromArgentina and that can be seen from al-most any point in Chile; and the stunningLake Region leading to Antarctica, makeChile a traveler’s dream . The country is afew thousand miles from north to southyet only a hundred or so miles from east towest – it’s that long skinny country you seeon the map.

Although Chile is known as theworld’ largest producer of copper and oneof the biggest exporters of wood, the foodindustry is its most dynamic and quicklygrowing industry. That is why in close to15 years in Chile working with the OU, Ihave travelled from the north to the southof Chile and seen so much growth in somany diverse climates with many different products comingout of each specific climactic region.

From anchovies, salt and delicious olives in the north, tothe fruity center of Chile that produces some of the world’sbest quality fruits and wines, to Southern Chile wheresalmon and trout reign in the waters this country is a feastfor the eyes and an opportunity for those who can use thecountry’s great economic climate to produce high-qualitykosher products.

Chile’s Jewish population of 15 thousand, based mainlyin Santiago, has benefited from kosher certified products, as

the main supermarkets such as Lider and Jumbo now havekosher sections and many products bearing the OU Koshersymbol on them.

Starting in the north with the anchovy companies,there’s always a very friendly reception from Me. SergioTaboada, one of the owners of Agropesca, and Mr. AgustinCataldo, who works for the company. If I take a taxi fromthe airport to visit this company it’s an insult to them.They show so much respect and caring and not only driveme to their company and give me some delicious samples,but they also drive me to their competitors’ plants and to

ATACAMA DESERT FOX INCHILEAN DESERT. BELOW, VOLCANO PARINACOTA

SPRING 2011 | 29

other companies in the area. The anchovies are fished lo-cally and are salted for a few months with olive or otheroils added afterwards, and then are canned and sent northto the United States.

Five hours to the south by car we find the astoundingSPL Salt Company. The salt reserves are found high up onsalt beds in the Andes; at some point the oceans reached sohigh as to leave salt deposits there that can provide thehuman race with salt for thousands of years to come. It’s ex-citing to see the salt blasted with dynamite out of the ground.Many bricks of salt have water trapped in them from thou-sands of years ago; I take a few of those souvenirs home afterI visit. One would think salt is salt and doesn’t need supervi-sion, yet there are processes and ingredients added to makesure the salt is nice and clean and doesn’t stick together; thereis salt with iodine added and iodine free; a kosher certifica-tion is needed to ascertain that the ingredients used arekosher and sometimes Kosher for Passover.

Heading straight to the central region there are state ofthe art olive oil companies like Terra Santa in Curacavi onthe way to the beautiful Vinia del Mar beach, or the en-chanting Aculeo Lagoon, which is home to the Soho OliveOil company; in both plants only extra virgin olive oil is pro-duced. About three hours south of the capital is wine coun-

try. Millions of acres of vineyards line the PanamericanHighway; it’s a treat to the eye so drivers beware. Produc-ing quality kosher wine is no easy task, yet working with theLuis Felipe Edwards winery for many years has been a greatexperience, in which both the team of rabbis and the com-pany’s staff work together to produce award-winningkosher wines. Kosher tour groups come to visit this winery,as it is not just an advanced production plant but is locatedin a valley with many fruit trees and a small garden and parkwith antique carriages and wine barrels, perfect for a quickphoto shoot.

The southern third of Chile is fish country, more thananything fish meal, which is used for animal feed andmade from mackerel and hake; even more important areits salmon and trout farms.

Rodrigo San Martin, who runs the Marvivo Fish Com-pany, has been my guide and friend since the very beginningin Chile. His company produces frozen fillets, canned andsmoked salmon and trout. Most smoked salmon coming outof Chile is prepared with the cold smoked system with thesmoke coming from wood chips. It’s a pure process in thesense that no artificial colorings or flavorings are added tothe salmon, just natural smoke salt and sometimes sugar.Much of the salmon both processed and fresh we buy inAmerican supermarkets, or the salmon we see in sushi bars,are Chilean products and come straight form these OU certi-fied companies.

The price of salmon has been high of late due to a virusthat wiped out ninety percent of the baby Atlantic salmon,similar to what happened in Norway a few years ago, butthis has been almost completely eradicated and prices arestarting to stabilize.

Chile’s government is extremely understanding andhelpful to its companies, providing incentives which helpsthem set up new or upgrade existing plants to be able tomeet HAACP ISO and kosher standards. ProChile is thegovernment’s export bureau, with offices in many coun-tries. In New York, its office is in the Chilean consulateright across the street from the UN.

Daniel Martinez, ProChile’s representative in New York,went with the OU to Kosherfest, and as the representative ofmany food companies in Chile has decided to set up a Chilebooth for the 2011 show.

ProChile will promote many new niche areas like or-ganic products and different oils, teas, natural and artificialcolorings and fish products, that will open up even morepossibilities for Chilean companies who have not yet ex-ported or for companies who want to expand their exportpossibilities and range.

LEFT, MUPACHAWOMAN JOINS IN TRADITIONALMUSIC.



A Look at ProChileProChile(*), the Trade Promotion Bureau of the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile provides a wide

range of services for national exporters, such as high

quality information systems; supporting their partici-

pation in some of the most important international trade

shows; and programs specifically designed to develop

export capacities.

While the Jewish community in Chile is not very

large (close to 20,000 people) the supply of national

kosher-certified products is increasing. “Chile has over

300 companies and national kosher-certified brands,

covering not only domestic consumption requirements,

but also focusing on export markets. The range of

products for export is varied, including Chilean iconic

products such as wine and salmon, as well as

processed fruits and vegetables, milk, olive oil, nuts,

and gourmet product,” said the Trade Commissioner of

Chile in New York, Alejandro Cerda.

“ProChile is strongly interested in having Chilean

companies access the market of kosher-certified prod-

ucts, positioning our country as a new supplier for

kosher food. ProChile’s activities for 2011 will focus pri-

marily on promoting the benefits of Chilean kosher

products in niche markets in Europe and the United

States; coordinating among national kosher produc-

ers through workshops and through the creation of an

export directory; and identifying business opportuni-

ties for Chilean companies that are already kosher-

certified,” he added.

(*)ProChile, the Trade

Commission of Chile, is part

of the General Directorate of

International Economic Affairs

of Chile’s Ministry of Foreign

Affairs. It is responsible for im-

plementing and enhancing

Chile’s trade policy.

ProChile’s mission is to pro-

vide support to small and

medium-sized enterprises,

helping to encourage and di-

versify exports of Chilean

products and services by in-

creasing the number of ex-

port markets and companies.

ProChile has a global net-

work of 56 trade offices and representatives strategi-

cally located in 43 countries, covering more than 90

percent of the destination markets for Chile. For more

information please visit www.prochile.us

The mix of natural beauty, natural resources and Chile’s deter-mination to continue growing as a South American leader in qualityfood production and exports, makes Chile a unique and proud coun-try to live in, to do business with, and as The New York Times re-ported, the number one country to visit in 2011.

Rabbi Shoshan Ghoori serves as OU Kosher rabbinic field represen-tative throughout South America. He was born in New York to a dis-

tinguished rabbinic family. He studied inIsraeli yeshivas, including Beit Meir andTorat Moshe, and received rabbinical ordi-nation from the renowned Beth MedrashGovoha, In Lakewood, NJ. Rabbi Ghoorimoved to Chile in 1991 to further his stud-ies at Kolel Avreichim de Chile and hassince been actively in-volved in creating a vi-brant Orthodox Jewishcommunity through es-tablishing both the AishTorah of Chile and thefirst Sephardic congre-gation in Chile for Jewsof Mediterranean andNorth African descent.

In addition, he was instrumental increating the Spanish translation of the ArtScroll Siddur (prayerbook) which has sold tens of thousands of copies. Rabbi Ghooriestablished the Kosher Chile organization as well aslatinkosher.co. His exciting feature on OU certification in Peruappeared in the BTUS Spring 2010 issue.

> > C H I L E C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 2 9

SAN RAPHAEL GLACIER FLOATING SEA ICE IN PATAGONIA NEAR ANTARTICA. BELOW LEFT, CHILEAN WORKERS IN A FACTORY FOR EXPORTS.

SPRING 2011 | 31

Ask the Rabbi

Dear Rabbi:

Our plant processes and cans fruits an

d vegetables. The raw fruits

and vegetables are of course all koshe

r. Why would I need to receive

OU kosher certification; wouldn’t ever

yone know that my products are

kosher? Can you explain what would be

involved in attaining kosher

certification for my plant?

Answer by Rabbi Leonard Steinberg

Dear ________________:

Canneries present several concerns reg

arding the kosher status of their prod

ucts. The

first concern is the product itself. A

re all ingredients kosher including th

e additives that

may go into a fruit or vegetable? Next

we are concerned with what else may b

e produced on

the same equipment. Very often a plant

that cans fruit or vegetables in seas

on will can

soups or meats in off-season. This can

compromise the equipment so that anyt

hing produced on

it will not be kosher. Another issue i

s shared steam systems where the conde

nsate returned

from a non-kosher product can be used

in cooking a kosher product, which wou

ld render the

product non-kosher. Some types of prod

ucts also require rabbinic participati

on in their

cooking in order to be considered kosh

er.

Kosher consumers will look for a relia

ble certification on any canned produc

t because

that tells them that all issues have b

een addressed and the product is indee

d kosher. With-

out the certification the consumer mus

t be wary that one of the above issues

has compromised

the product.

When you apply for certification, the

OU will arrange for an initial inspect

ion by one

of our expert field representatives. T

he inspection will cover the ingredien

ts and produc-

tion processes. The OU field represent

ative will file a report with the OU K

osher office

taking into account all pertinent kosh

er issues. If there are any problems t

he OU office

will work with you to find a solution

to the problem. After resolution of al

l issues and ap-

proval of all ingredients, the OU cert

ification contract outlining your kosh

er program will

be written and once signed, your produ

ct will be OU certified.

Rabbi Leonard Steinberg is an Orthodox

Union rabbinic coordinator handling n

ew applications

in the foodservice and food transporta

tion fields. He also manages universit

y kosher meal

programs.

SAN RAPHAEL GLACIER FLOATING SEA ICE IN PATAGONIA NEAR ANTARTICA. BELOW LEFT, CHILEAN WORKERS IN A FACTORY FOR EXPORTS.


Chile has a long history as awine producing country, withSpanish colonists bringingvines with them as they settled

the country during the sixteenth cen-tury. It wasn’t until the 1980’s that Chileflourished as a major wine producingcountry. During this time there was sig-nificant investment in modern wine-making equipment and upgradedwinemaking technology, which gainedChile an international reputation forproducing good quality, easy drinkingwines. Chile had arrived on the worldwinemaking map.

Chile is a long narrow country, withnatural boundaries of the Andes moun-tains to the east and the Pacific Ocean tothe west. This unique setting blessesChile with ideal growing conditions toproduce very fruity wines that are ableto fully express their varietal character.The main wine producing area in Chile is

in the Central Valley, stretching southfrom Santiago, with smaller finger val-leys running east to west from the Andesto the Pacific Ocean producing more pre-mium wines. (See map.)

The History of Luis Felipe Edwards Wine Group

The history of Luis Felipe Ed-wards Wines dates back to 1976, whenLuis Felipe Edwards Snr, (Senior) pur-chased the large Fundo San José estatein Puquillay Colchagua Valley, aprime wine-producing area in Chile’sColchagua Valley.

In the early 1990s, Luis Felipe Ed-wards Snr decided to produce wineunder his own name and so he built amodern winery equipped with the lateststate of the art technology. Today, LuisFelipe Edwards Wine Group is thelargest 100 percent family-owned wine

company in Chile. Luis Felipe EdwardsSnr is still actively involved in the man-agement of the winery along with two ofhis sons, a daughter, and two sons-in-law. Since the 1970s, Luis Felipe EdwardsWine Group has continued to acquiremore vineyards in the Colchagua, Mauleand Leyda Valleys as well as expandingthe original Fundo San José.

It has been clear for some timethat the best quality red wines weregrown on hillsides of the valley. Rec-ognizing the potential for creatingsomething very special, Luis FelipeEdwards Wine Group decided to pushthis principle to the limit and startedplanting vines on the top of the highhills of the Colchagua Valley, at an al-titude of 900 meters above sea level,making these the highest vineyards inthe Colchagua Valley. The high alti-tude is the inspiration for the name ofthe LFE 900 hilltop project.

SPRING 2011 | 33

This bold vineyard project oftransforming steep arid mountaintopsinto high quality vineyards involvedmany challenges. Supplying water tothe vineyards involves 3,500 meters ofpipelines passing through eightpumping stations, which supplywater to 25 kilometers of drip irriga-tion pipes. All of this has been accom-plished with a high degree ofenvironmental sensitivity, includingreplanting most of the trees andshrubs that have been conserved intheir natural state.

To date a total of 130 hectares havebeen planted on the top of the hills, ofvarieties including Cabernet Sauvi-gnon, Syrah, Carmenere, Merlot, Mal-bec, Petite Syrah, Mourvedre, PetitVerdot, Grenache Noir and Viognier.

At the same time as the LFE 900project was being undertaken, Luis Fe-lipe Edwards Snr was investing in the

coastal Valley of Leyda, an exciting,emerging region for growing the pre-mium white varieties Sauvignon Blancand Chardonnay, and the red grapePinot Noir. LFE’s “Marea de Leyda”estate, whose vineyards are currently

the closest to the sea out of all the vine-yards in the Leyda Valley, is plantedpredominantly with Sauvignon Blancand Pinot Noir, with smaller plots ofChardonnay and Syrah.

Leyda was not the end of the

Wine-Growing

From the Heart of Chilean

Country, ComesLuis Felipe Edwards Wines


growth of Luis Felipe Edwards WineGroup, as we headed south to theMaule Valley and acquired 400hectares of land located 30 kilometersfrom the Pacific Ocean, close to thecoastal range of mountains at an alti-tude of 120 meters above sea level.This patch will be planted this year,mainly with Cabernet Sauvignon,Merlot, Syrah, Carmenere, CabernetFranc and Carignan, hoping to be har-vesting the first grapes by 2013.

Elevating QualityLuis Felipe Edwards Wine

Group’s main focus has always beenon quality. Every glass of our wine re-flects our family values of care, tradi-tion and quality, while always strivingto improve. Improving every glass ofwine requires investment in everystep of the process: finding the bestvineyard sites, vines, personnel andthe most upgraded equipment. Ouroutstanding international senior man-agement team consistently works to-wards continual improvement.

Our modern winery is equippedwith the most updated Europeanequipment to ensure that Luis FelipeEdwards wines will always meet thehighest international quality stan-dards. This includes state-of-the-artbottling and labeling machines, high

technology pumps, filters, pneumaticpresses and cooling and heatingequipment. All Luis Felipe Edwardswinemaking and bottling processesare environmentally friendly and cer-tified to international standards.

Currently, the company exportsbrands including including Luis FelipeEdwards, Santa Luz, Don Cayetano,Terra Vega, Don Julio, Alto Los Romeros,Autoritas and Claro, to over 50 countries. Luis Felipe Edwards awardwinning wines are recognized interna-tionally as one of the Chile’s leadingwines, produced by skilful local wine-makers and assisted by top interna-tional consultants.

Kosher Wines The company’s kosher project

began in the late 1990’s when an im-porter from Israel approached us atVinexpo in Bordeaux, France, request-ing for our wines to become koshercertified. He was well familiar with thequality of our non-kosher wines. Thatwas the spark that ignited our kosherwines campaign. Israel was our initialkosher market which then expanded toFrance, Morocco, Canada and finallyto the United States, where we havejust finished a working agreementwith a previous importer.

Today Luis Felipe Edwards Wine

Group is the main producer of kosherwines in Chile and is the largest wine ex-porter to Israel under two brands – TerraVega and Don Julio. We are proud of ourkosher wines, produced with the samecare and attention to detail as our award-winning non-kosher ranges.

Our kosher certification process issupervised by the Orthodox Union andits kosher Chile representative, RabbiShoshan Ghoori. OU certification and itshighly regarded OU symbol is recog-nized throughout the world as a state-ment of quality and integrity. We knowthat OU certification adds an extra levelof credibility to our highly sought afterline of kosher wines.

We produce different wine vari-eties; all of which are dry wines,under different brands of products.Most of the brands are mevushal,which means that the wine undergoesa very fast pasteurization in which thetemperature of the must is elevatedrapidly and is then rapidly decreased.With the former, we avoid simmeringthe must and the resulting loss of fla-vors and aromas.

The entire process is handled by theOU team to ensure the kosher status ofthe wine. They are present in the wineryto physically tip the fruit into the crush,and for all subsequent processes throughfermentation and bottling.

Rabbi Ghoori commented that, “Itis a pleasure working all these manyyears with this excepcional and aristo-cratic family-run winery. From their ex-ecutive front office in Santiago to theirprofessional team at the winery, theyhave made the normally difficult processof producing quality kosher wines asmooth experience that we always lookforward to with gusto.”

Or, as they say in Chile, “Me gustaese vino – I like that wine.”

Rabbi Shmuel Singer is Orthodox Unionrabbinic coordinator for Luis Felipe Edwards wines.





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SPRING 2011 | 35





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Any traditional Jew will tell you that the most pivotaltime of the kosher year is the Festival of Passover. Butit is also the most intense period of the year for themany food companies who try to offer their prod-ucts to the kosher market. This is because kosherkeeping Jews are spend-ing a lot of time andmoney buying food forPassover. In fact, accord-ing to one estimate, fortypercent of all kosher prod-ucts are purchased duringthe six weeks prior toPassover.

There are a numberof reasons for the pre-Passover shopping sprees.First of all, Passover is themost celebrated holiday

of the entire Jewish calendar (making the marketshare even larger than the rest of the year). Theseder—a family-centered ritual celebrated on thefirst two nights of Passover and organized aroundfood and wine—is the most commonly observed

ritual of the entire Jewishyear. While food is centralto the seder, it is also piv-otal to the rest of thiseight-day festival. In fact,according to some Jewishthinkers, how we eat onPassover reflects how weeat the rest of the year.

Just as significant isthe fact that Passover re-quires re-stocking the en-tire kosher kitchen. Foodscontaining five grains

PassoverPrimer

A

By Rabbi David Polsky


(wheat, oats, bar-ley, spelt, and rye) and

their derivatives are completelyforbidden (unless they are in the form

of matzah, unleavened bread). To top that off,Jews of European descent refrain from other grain products(like corn, soy, rice, beans, among other staples) as well. Evenfoods that do not contain these ingredients are frequentlyprocessed on equipment shared with them (also prohibited ac-cording to Jewish law). This means that the vast majority ofitems found in the year-round kosher kitchen are unaccept-able for Passover use. Entire pantries must therefore be repur-chased, from condiments to snack foods, to oils. BetweenPassover’s popularity, the centrality of food to the Passover ex-perience, and the many food restrictions special to the holiday,it is no wonder that so much food is purchased for it.

Because of the many food restrictions on Passover andthe association of many Jewish foods with “tradition,” it isunderstandable why many think that the Passover diet con-sists of matzah, brisket, gefilte fish, horseradish, matzahballs, and syrupy-sweet wine. To whatever degree that thesestereotypes were ever true, they are certainly not true now.Within the past few decades, the kosher palette (to borrowthe title of a popular kosher gourmet cookbook) has grownmuch more sophisticated. The kosher market is now look-ing to and borrowing recipes from Italian, French, Asian,Southern, and other cuisines

The same is no less true for Passover. For these reasons,even a “kosher” brand like Gold’s is producing Passover-certified duck sauce (and a good one, I might add) in addi-tion to the horseradishes with which the brand is commonlyassociated. While there will always be a place for matzahballs and macaroons on the Passover table, there is alsoroom for beef bourguignon.

The tastes of the Kosher market are not only expanding

but also becoming more refined. The market nowhas much higher culinary standards than it had, for

example, forty years ago. This greater sophistica-tion has also shaken up the Passover market.

Two perfect examples are the standards ofcheese and wine.

It was not long ago that Passover cheesewas thought to be bland and heavilyprocessed. These days, many Kosher for

Passover cheeses are meeting a higher standard.One example is the artisanal Israeli cheese maker

Barkanit. While they make an assortment of sheep and goatcheeses, one of their best is Gilboa hard sheep cheese. Thosewith a desire for authentic Italian cheese can now purchasescamorza, provolone, and fresh mozzarella cheeses from theItalian brand Yotvata. Recently, the gourmet cheese makerCabot has also taken the Passover plunge, adding their sharpcheddar to the market.

The Passover wine market has experienced an evengreater revolution. For the past two thousand years, wine hasbeen integral to the Passover holiday. At the seder, Jews are ob-ligated to drink four cups of wine to celebrate their freedomfrom Egyptian bondage thousands of years ago. Forty yearsago, the only options consisted of overly sweet wines. But withthe greater desire within the kosher market for sophisticateddry wines, the options have multiplied such that there are nowhundreds of great tasting Kosher for Passover wines from allover the world.

Take your pick of styles and varietals, and it is very likelythat there is a kosher equivalent. Not only are there many

authentic Kosher for Passover Bordeauxs, butalso Cote du Rhones, Asatian Rieslings, Bur-gundies, Sauternes, and more. And that is justamong French wines. Among Italian Kosherwines, there are Barolos, Chiantis, Procsecos,Pinot Grigios. The list of varietals and regionsfeaturing kosher wines goes on and on. Whilethere are always new kosher wines on the mar-ketplace each Passover season, one notable ad-dition this year is a line of Alsatianwines—Gewirtzteminer, Riesling, and PinotGris—from a special kosher production of thewinemaker Willm.

Even those within the kosher market whohave kept their sweet tooth for wine are look-ing for more sophisticated options likeBartenura’s popular Italian Moscato, HerzogSelect’s Late Harvest Riesling and Late HarvestGewirtztiminer. For those who really want tosplurge for a sweet there is the kosher production ofChateau Guiraud Grand Cru Sauternes. Passover winehas certainly come a long way.

So what would it take for a company join in onthe Passover trend? The process of getting a productcertified for Passover is similar to that of approval for othernew products, though (like everything involving Passover)much more intense. Companies interested in Passover ap-proval submit forms detailing their products and ingredi-ents to our Passover department. These ingredients arecarefully reviewed. Should a company have trouble find-ing an acceptable Passover ingredient, the OrthodoxUnion—as part of its mission of superior customer service— tries as much as possible to help identify the appropriateingredient or to suggest alternatives.

The fee for Passover certification is assessed based on thetime (broken down in eight-hour shifts) and expenses neededfor a rabbinical field representative (RFR) to oversee this spe-cial production. Because of the special significance of the lawsof Passover and their many differences from the rest of thekosher year, the vast majority of products require this on-siterabbinic presence to become certified for Passover.

Once the formulas and facilities are approved, the ac-tual production can begin. The RFR first kosherizes the prod-uct line to purge it of anything unacceptable for Passover.Manufacturing can then take place, overseen the entire timeby the RFR. As long as everything goes according to plan, theresulting foods can bear the OU-P, the trademarked symbolindicating that they meet the Orthodox Union’s high stan-dards for Passover use.

The time, effort, andfees (though it is not as muchas you might think; ask yourrabbinic coordinator for aprice quote) involved in cer-tifying products for Passoverhas frightened many away.But think of it as an invest-ment, just as one would forany other new product beingdeveloped. In fact, a well-made Passover product by arespected brand is verylikely, if not guaranteed, togain sufficient market sharefor the Passover investmentto pay off.

Every year, newPassover products are com-ing on the marketplace. Lastyear, the brand Health Gar-

dens came out with a Passover-certified xylitol forthose on sugar-free diets. Kedem introduced asparkling pomegranate juice. Savion introduced a

line of Fireman’s Frenzy sauces. Season introduced Moroccansardines. This year also features many new and excitingPassover products. Among them is the gourmet Jane’s CrazyMixed Up Salt. Shkedia is adding to its delicious Passover con-fection line with Chocolate Covered Citrus Peels, ChocolateCovered Coffee Beans, and Chocolate Covered Nuts. The spe-cialty brand Sonny and Joe’s is coming out with Passover cer-tified babaganoush and Eggplant Matbucha. Reisman’s andLilly’s are each adding to their line of Passover baked goods.

This all begs the question, what will the next enter-prising and forward-thinking company come up with forPassover next year?

Rabbi David Polsky has been serving the Orthodox Union’sKosher Consumer Hotline since 2004.He studied at Yeshiva University wherehe received his B.A. in 2001 and hisrabbinic ordination from YU’s RabbiIsaac Elchanan Theological Seminaryin 2005. Rabbi Polsky’s warmth, pa-tience, and professionalism are alwaysevident as he responds to more thanone hundred consumer kosher ques-tions, daily. He lives with his wife inNew York City.

SPRING 2011 | 37





, When You Need It


, When You Need It





















Each year, Passover strikes an acutesense of panic in the hearts of most home-makers long before the spring holiday ac-tually arrives. Several weeks in advance,the search starts – looking through cook-books and recipe clippings, calling friendsand family members asking about long-lost recipes, or searching the world-wideweb for Passover recipes – something old,something new, something borrowed,something tried and true.

Even though today’s modernkitchens are outfitted with a wide selec-tion of appliances to ease Passoverpreparation, the kitchen needs to becompletely cleaned out and then re-stocked, from condiments to cookies,

from sauces to snack foods. To makemeal preparation and cleanup easier,disposable foil containers are often usedfor turkey, brisket, kugels and vegeta-bles, and many people use fancy dispos-able paper plates, glasses and cutlery forthe larger than usual crowds at thePassover table.

Today, a huge selection of preparedand packaged Passover products areavailable on supermarket shelves to helpmake preparation easier for those whodon’t want to cook – or for those whodon’t have the time. Caterers also offerup a variety of menus in large ads in thelocal newspaper. One might think that afamine wasn’t far away!

Your grandmother or mother mayhave had a live carp swimming in thebathtub for her homemade gefilte fish,but today you can buy delicious frozengefilte fish logs and transform theminto a colorful, three-layered loaf thatwill wow your guests. Instead ofroasted chicken, you can add bottledSzechuan sauce and canned pineappleto create a quick, elegant main dishthat looks like it took hours to prepare.

With a little creativity and thehelp of some packaged products,here’s how to prepare some scrump-tious Passover fare with flair! Yourfamily and friends will never know –unless you tell them!

Panic-FreeBy Norene Gilletz

TRICOLOR GEFILTE FISHMOLD (Pareve)The layered look is in!

5 medium carrots, cut in chunks (or 20 mini carrots)

1 package (10 oz) frozen chopped spinach3 packages frozen gefilte fish, completely thawed

1. Spray a 12-cup fluted tube pan with nonstick spray. 2. Cook carrots in boiling water until tender, 15 to 20

minutes. Drain well. 3. Microwave or steam spinach for 3 to 4 minutes, until

thawed. Let cool, then squeeze dry. 4. In a food processor fitted with the steel blade,

process spinach until finely ground, about 15 seconds.Add contents of one package of gefilte fish andblend well. Spread mixture evenly in tube pan.

5. Spread with the contents of the second package ofgefilte fish to make the second layer.

6. Process drained carrots about 15 seconds.

Add contents of the third package of fish to carrotsand blend well. Spread evenly in pan to make the thirdlayer.

7. Place a piece of parchment paper on top of fish, thencover pan with aluminum foil.

8. Bake in preheated 350 F oven for 1 1/2 hours. Whendone, top should be firm to the touch and edgesshould pull away from sides of pan. A skewer insertedinto fish halfway between centre and outside edge

SPRING 2011 | 39

Panic-Free

should come out clean. 9. Let cool for 20 to 30 minutes. Loosen fish with a long

metal spatula. Cover pan with a serving plate, invertand shake gently to unmold. Wipe up any juices thatcollect on the plate.

10.Cool completely, then cover and refrigerateovernight. Slice and serve with bottled or homemadehorseradish, lettuce, tomatoes and cucumber slices.

Yield: 16 to 20 servings. This can be made up to twodays in advance. Do not freeze.

PassoverSAUCY SZECHUAN PINEAPPLECHICKEN (Meat)You’ll get rave reviews when you serve this dish tofamily and friends at your Passover table!

3 onions, sliced2 chickens (3 lbs each), cut upPepper and paprika, to taste1 1/2 cups Szechuan-style duck sauce1 can (19 oz) pineapple chunks, drained (reserve

liquid)

1. Place onions in the bottom of a large sprayed roastingpan. Remove and discard fat from chickens but do notremove skin. Place chicken pieces on top of onions. Sprin-kle lightly with seasonings.

2. Pour duck sauce and pineapple chunks over chicken, alongwith half of the reserved liquid.

3. Bake covered at 400°F for 1/2 hour. Reduce heat to350°F and bake 1 hour longer, basting occasionally.

4. When cool, refrigerate for several hours or overnight.5. Discard chicken skin and congealed fat from pan juices.

Reheat covered at 350°F for 25 minutes.Yield: 12 servings. Reheats and/or freezes well.

Copyright © Norene Gilletz 2011.

Norene Gilletz of Toronto, Canada is a kosher cookbook authorand food consultant. She is the author of nine cookbooks,which include The NEW Food Processor Bible: 30th Anniver-sary Edition (Whitecap, February 2011) and Norene’s HealthyKitchen (Whitecap). Her motto is “Food that’s good for youshould taste good!” Her Pickle-icious feature appeared to greatacclaim in BTUS Winter 2010/11 issue. For more information,visit www.gourmania.com <http://www.gourmania.com> orcontact her at [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> .


What do Paris, New York andMexico have in common? Answer –kosher certification! Kosher certifica-

tion has hadsteady growthover the pasttwenty years,by an averagerate of 15 per-cent a year in-ternationally.With thou-sands ofproducts be-c o m i n gkosher eachyear, thekosher con-sumer hasc h o i c e sthat werenot avail-able to our

parents and grandparentsfifty years ago.

October through December werebusy months for those of us in thefood industry. With Sial, the world’slargest food show in Paris, Kosherfest,the International Kosher Food Show inNew Jersey and the InternacionalKosher Expo in Mexico, it was a busytime for food manufacturersand kosher buyers.

Paris in October, when Iwas there, is unbelievably beau-tiful. The weather is crisp but notyet cold enough to have to bun-dle up. I was lucky to be in one ofthe most beautiful cities in theworld to promote kosher food cer-tification. I love my job — who

wouldn’t — getting to go to Paris forwork, where on behalf of OU Kosher Iwould meet with over 6,000 food andingredient manufacturers to explorekosher certification!

OU is the world’s largest, most re-spected kosher certification agency.With over 70 percent of the kosher re-tail market being OU certified, it’s nowonder the OU is the most soughtafter kosher certification by manufac-turers, as well as consumers.

Consumers trust the reliability ofthe OU’s kosher standards, whilebusinesses know that having the OUon their products enhances theirmarketability. The OU has grown intothe world leader for kosher certifica-tion, certifying more over 500,000products in over 80 countries.

My trip to Paris took me to Sial,one of the world’s largest food tradeshows. There I met many OU certifiedcompanies as well as many interna-tional companies from countries likeIndia, Turkey, China, Vietnam, Israel,South Africa and South America. I onlyspeak English, Hebrew and a fewwords of Yiddish, while my colleague,Rabbi Yisroel Hollander from Belgium,speaks French, Flemish

andEnglish. Togetherwe managed to communicatewith people from all over the world,sometimes cryptically. The fascinatingcommon denominator was that whenwe mentioned the word “kosher” or“kasha,” the food manufacturers wouldsmile and exclaim “Ahh, kosher” andshake their heads in understanding.

“Kosher” has become an interna-tional word representing a high qual-ity standard of certification right upthere with “food safety,” “organic” and

“natural.” Companies know that inorder to capture a larger portion offood sales it is important that theyattract a large consumer base withproducts that appeal to everyone.Recent studies have shown thatthere is a large segment of con-sumers outside of the traditional“Jewish kosher consumer,” whopurchase kosher food for a varietyof reasons, including, food safety,health and reliability.

Kosherfest, which took place

KosherAround the Globe

By Phyllis Koegel

SPRING 2011 | 41

If you’ve got it - f launt it.OU KOsher MarKeting tips:

Letting your customers know that you areOU certified should be as much a part ofyour marketing strategy as any other significant benefit your product offers.

q If you have recently attained OU certification,get the OU symbol on your packaging as soon aspossible. Studies show that products with the OUsymbol sell more. q Be sure the OU logo is large enough and clearlyvisible in your advertising – either on the productlabel or elsewhere in the ad.q Feature OU certification and the OU symbol onyour web site. Forward your company informationto be included on www.oukosher.org FeaturedCompanies section, at no cost.

q Ask our marketing department how best toreach the kosher consumer – countless consumerscontact us every day about food products they canbuy, places they can shop and eat, and informationabout kosher in general. q Plan special promotions around Jewish holi-days: Passover (March /April), Rosh Hashanah (September) and Chanukah (December) are themost widely observed.qWant your products to be found onwww.oukosher.org when consumers search? Be sure the product name listed on Schedule B issomething that will come up in a search engine.Instead of listing “Tuna,” try “IQF Yellow Fin TunaSteaks” to generate the maximum number of hits.q Keep a link to your current OU Kosher letter directly on your company’s website.

at the end of October in Secaucus, NJwas an astounding sold out success thisyear. With a strong international pres-ence from Canada, Argentina, and Israel,Kosherfest was the place to be for every-one in the kosher food industry. As Itravel and meet companies who are in-terested in selling their products to thekosher market, I always mentionKosherfest as the premier trade event forthem to introduce their products to thekosher market.

My next trip took me to Mexico.The first annual Expo Kosher Interna-cional in Mexico City was well at-tended by the Mexican Jewishcommunity as well as buyers lookingfor kosher products. I met people fromSouth America, Israel and the UnitedStates – all gathering together to pro-mote kosher in Mexico.

There are approximately 60,000Jews living in Mexico; Mexico Cityalone has 40,000 Jews, representingthe largest concentration of Jews in

Mexico. I enjoyed the warmth andhospitality of the Jewish Mexicancommunity.

Visiting Expo Kosher Interna-cional Mexico brought back memoriesof the first Kosherfest in 1988. AtKosherfest’s inception 22 years ago,the kosher industry in the

U.S. was just beginning to dreamof its eventual growth and develop-ment. The potential for growth forMexican food manufacturers isstrong, particularly for export. In ad-dition, there is tremendous interestin kosher food from those in theMexican Christian community whoare seeking healthier, safer foods.

I can’t help thinking how thevery core of being a Jew and keep-ing kosher has become a world phe-nomenon. Companies around theglobe recognize the importance ofkosher food as a business decisionto increase their bottom line. AndI’m always ready to meet with these

companies at shows to tell them justhow valuable OU certification can be for them.

Phyllis Koegel serves as the Marketing Director of OU Kosher based in New YorkCity. She received her MBA from PaceUniversity and resides in Cedarhurst,Long Island, NY.


ccording to most ornithologists the chicken is the domesticatedform of the jungle fowl. There is some disagreement in the sci-entific community as to which species of jungle fowl were usedto develop the domestic chicken. The dominant view is thatthe red jungle fowl (Gallus Gallus) was the primary geneticdonor; however, some have argued that the green jungle fowl(Gallus Varius), the grey jungle fowl (Gallus Sonneratii) and per-haps some now extinct species, also contributed to the devel-opment of the domestic chicken. All of the known species ofjungle fowl are native to the Far East, and the domestic chickenis thought to have first been raised on the Indian subcontinent.

Although the Far East, was thousands of miles from Is-rael, the two civilizations did have contact with each other.While classical biblical trade routes were not known to reachthe Far East, there were times of peace and prosperity whenextensive expeditions were launched by the Judean kings.Biblical Israel extends from the Mediter-ranean to the Gulf of Eilat. From the port ofEilat, Judean kings were able to launch navalexpeditions via the Indian Ocean. The firstsuccessful expedition to the Far East waslaunched by King Solomon in the early years ofthe First Temple (Kings I: Ch. 10 v. 22; ChroniclesII: Ch. 9 v. 21).

There were a number of failed attempts byother Judean kings (Kings I: Ch. 22 v. 49). The at-tempts by the Judean kings relied on the shipbuilding skills of the Phoenicians (Chronicles II:Ch. 8 v. 18) and the Phoenician cities which bor-dered biblical Israel did successfully launch expe-ditions to the Far East without the participation ofthe Jews (Ezekiel Ch. 27 v. 15). As a result of these ex-peditions, many exotic items were imported into bib-lical lands from the Far East.

Along with the spices and woods, a menagerie of an-imals were brought back to the biblical lands. They includemonkeys, elephants and peacocks, but no chickens. In factthe biblical word for peacock, tuki, is borrowed from ancientTamil, who at that time dominated large areas of the Indiansubcontinent. The first chickens were imported into Israel dur-ing the Mishnaic period, at the time of the Second Temple, al-most one thousand years after the initial expeditions of KingSolomon’s navy. It is unclear if the chickens were imported byJews emigrating from Babylonia or by the armies of Alexanderthe Great returning from the conquests in the Far East. In anycase, the chicken was immensely popular in Israel, as it was inthe far reaches of the Greek and Roman empires.

In the biblical times, all domestic animals, pigeons,doves and numerous birds were used in the services of theTabernacle and the Holy Temple which stood in Jerusalem.However, the chicken was not used in the Tabernacle nor inthe services of the Holy Temple of Jerusalem. Quite to thecontrary, its habit of digging through the trash heaps andremoving remnants of food could have presented a uniqueproblem for the biblical Israelites.

In the time of the first Temple, ritual purity was strictlyadhered to. Not only was the chicken not used in the Tem-

ple, but its actions could cause ritual impu-rity which would prevent a person frombeing allowed to ascend the steps of theTemple or enter through its gate. Persons

could become impure if they cameinto contact with dead animals orinsects. Mice, rats, and roaches nodoubt foraged in the garbage heaps

of biblical Israel. Yet, as long as peopleavoided these garbage heaps, theywould not accidentally come in contact

with the impure creatures. However, the chicken, because of its

habit of scratching the earth, eating insectsand such would likely go to the biblical

garbage heaps and in course of scratching for food,would find these ritually impure animals and in-

sects. They would then run with these animalsand insects in their mouth to eat them in pri-vacy. This action would cause the impurity of

the garbage heaps to spread. People who dedicated theirlives to maintaining a standard of ritual purity would findthemselves barred from the steps of the Holy Temple.

In the Second Temple period, there was indeedlegislation passed to limit the raising of chickens for

this reason. However, for much of the Second Templeperiod there was too much foreign interference to really

bar the chicken completely, as by that time, the chickenhad become one of the most popular domesticated birds inthat part of the Middle East.

While the chicken’s economic usefulness is indis-putable, aesthetically it is not as impressive as the monkey,peacock and elephant. If the biblical expeditions to the FarEast did return with the chicken, their economic potentialwas never explored because of the danger which they posedto the general population, which was trying to preserve theirritual purity. With the destruction of the Second Temple,

How the Chicken

to Your PlateWent from the Jungle

By Rabbi Chaim Loike

> >

A

FALL 2009 | 43

ritual purity has become almost impossi-ble. As such, the chicken is raised through-out modern day Israel and is certifiedkosher by all major kashrut agencies, in-cluding the Orthodox Union.

Now, in our times, the chicken has be-come a staple of the Jewish diet, serving as afavorite food for Sabbath and Festival meals.Kosher food stores offer their chicken specials(barbeque and fried), which are snapped upby customers. Thousands of years after thedomestication of the chicken, it is a feather in a chef’s cap tocome up with a new Sabbath recipe using our favorite fowl.

Rabbi Chaim Loike, the OU’s bird specialist, serves as OUKosher rabbinic coordinator servicing egg,spice and chemical companies. His fascinat-ing BTUS features on the pigeon, partridge,peacock, duck, Aracouna chickens, birds ofthe Bible and flamingo are always big hitswith BTUS readers. Rabbi Loike frequentlyvisits with schools and adult groups as partof OU Kosher’s educational outreach, teach-ing about “Kosher Birds: Who Are They.”

One of the complex pieces of equip-ment used in the food industrytoday is the agglomerator. This

machine is unique because of its high levelof versatility, allowing for its many andvaried functions. Through the applicationof dry heat and liquid spray, the agglom-erator will effect physical and chemicalchanges to the texture of the product. Theagglomeration process helps to produce awide range of products: From medicinalherbs to dairy drink mixes, among thekosher products, and chondroitin and glu-cosamine, among the non-kosher items.

As with all machinery used in thekosher industry, the mashgiach needs tounderstand both its technical make-up andits processes, to be able to determine itskosherization needs. The agglomerator iscomprised of a bottom chamber used forthe inlet hot air to enter the agglomerator.This bottom area is covered by a screenused to disperse the hot air evenly to theupper chamber. Above the bottom area, inthe upper chamber, is the product bowl.The product is held on a thin mesh screenwhich sits on a stainless steel screen heldup by stainless steel beams. Above thebowl is an open area where liquid issprayed, through atomizing nozzles, intothe agglomerator and onto the product.Even further above that area is the baghouse of filters which hold back the prod-uct from being pulled out with the hot airexhaust. The hot air is produced by eithera heat exchanger or by a direct fire unit,which heats the air, and this air is then in-troduced into the bottom chamber.

The hot air is pulled through the

product by a vacuum that pulls the air outon top. As the hot air goes through thebowl that contains the product, the prod-uct rises; a process called fluidizing, bythe thrust of the upward movement of thehot air and is sprayed with the liquid that

is needed for the agglomera-tion of the product. As the hotair moves through the upperchamber, it is also causes theevaporation of the excess liq-uid. The ability for the tem-perature and humidity to be atvariant levels simultaneouslyin each of its sections is per-haps the most dominant fea-ture of the agglomerator. Thechemical make-up of sourceproduct and the desired out-come in new product will de-termine the temperaturemaintained on its many sur-faces at any given time.

The mashgiach will bechallenged to identify the pres-ence of the following featuresin each product:

• The temperature of the hot air; • The CFM (cubic feet per minute)

of air flow;• The rate that the liquid is

sprayed in;• The rate of evaporation which can

To purchase a DVD at $10, a complete set at $35 , or to request “OU Kosher Coming” program for your school, synagogue orcommunity - contact [email protected].

These DVD’s are rated OU

KOSHER KIDZ

THE KOSHER FISH PRIMER and KOSHER BIRDS: WHO ARE THEY?

KOSHER MEAT: UNEXPLORED FRONTIERS WITH RABBI YISROEL BELSKY

INSECT-FREE: A GUIDE TO HOME VEGETABLE INSPECTION

Distribution of these educational DVD’s serves as one of the many ways that OU Kosher is reaching out to the public. OU Kosher’s educational programs also include the popular OU Kosher Coming project, which sends the OU’s Rabbinic Coordinators to schools, synagogues, college campuses and communities – enlightening thousands with their vast knowledge of halacha and technology.

OU Kosher - Live & in Person!!

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Kosherizing an Agglomerator: They Said It Couldn’t Be Done.They Were Wrong.By Rabbi Yisroel Rosskam

AGGLOMERATOR

be adjusted by the temperature of the hot air or the CFMof air flow and spray rate;

• The various different liquids that can be used to affect theagglomeration process.

The inlet temperature can range typically from 110°F – 250°Ffrom one product to another, and the internal product tempera-ture can range typically from 85°F – 150°F. In the kosherizationprocess, it is standard procedure to either fill the equipment withboiling water or apply dry heat of 500°F -1000°F; to do so in an ag-glomerator, would be to destroy it.

As mentioned, agglomerators can be used for a variety ofproducts. As long as it is used exclusively for kosher pareve prod-ucts, or exclusively forkosher dairy products,maintaining the kosherprogram is rather easy.For many years, Pow-der Processors, an OUcertified agglomera-tion facility in Ogden,Utah, maintained anagglomerator exclu-sively for kosherpareve products.Maintaining the kosher program was rather simple. However,when the opportunity arose to produce a kosher dairy product onthe pareve agglomerator, the challenge began.

Serious questions needed to be answered. Which areas ofthe agglomerator get hot enough to the point where kosherizationwould be required? What would be the most practical way to ac-complish the kosherization? Could it be done at all? Complica-tions integral to the uniqueness of the agglomeration processarose. Indeed agglomeration facilities are not equipped to boil anabundance of water, nor do they have steam generators accessi-ble. We were stymied by its limitations; but, not for long. Work-ing within the premise, “Were we able to kosherize theequipment, how should we?” the dedicated team at PowderProcessors worked out the following solution:

As is the process for the kosherization of most equipment,the first step was to determine the temperature at which eachsection of the agglomerator is used. To do this, Powder Proces-sors decided to attach Temperature Indicating Labels to all ofthe areas that may get hot during production. Obviously, thebottom mesh screen upon which the product sits would gethot, since the heat is directly below it. Thus, Powder Proces-sors decided to purchase a new mesh screen and have dedi-cated parve and dairy mesh screens.

Next, it would be important to ascertain if the areas above

this mesh screen get hot. If the areas above the mesh screen do notget hot during the dairy production, no further kosherizationwould be required beyond replacing the mesh screen. If the areasabove the mesh screen do get hot, kosherization would be re-quired. Powder Processors suggested a rather simple solution.They would bring in a burner capable of boiling a large pot (new)with 10 gallons of water. The agglomerator would be preheatedto 212°F, and the boiling water would be pumped into the ag-glomerator and sprayed through the spray nozzles.

By turning the spray nozzles upwards, dispersing boilingwater throughout the agglomerator, the spray of boiling waterwould hit the hot upper walls and the stream flow would rundown. Our objective of accessing all heated surfaces which comeinto contact with hot product through the use of boiling hot water,would be accomplished.

However, a new problem came to the fore at this point inthe process. During the spraying stage, a substantial amountof heat is lost, due to evaporation. Once again, a simple solu-tion was found. After the hot water was sprayed in, the ag-glomerator would be reheated, thereby causing the water thatwas saturating the walls to boil. The agglomerator would bethoroughly and effectively kosherized. Replacing or washingthe bag house or filters to remove any residual product wouldconclude the process.

Rabbi Yisroel E. Rosskam was born in Brooklyn, NY. He at-tended Yeshiva Torah Vodaath and Mirrer Yeshiva, and thenpursued advanced studies at the famed Beth Medrash Govoha,Lakewood, NJ. For the next five years Rabbi Rosskam contin-ued his advanced studies in Jewish law, concentrating on allareas of kashrut, culminating in his receiv-ing rabbinical ordination. In 1990 he wasselected to join the newly established kollelin Denver, CO, where he was also intro-duced to the kosher certification field.

In 1994, Rabbi Rosskam was appointedas rabbinic field representative by the ScrollK agency. Representing the only kashrutagency within a 600 mile radius, he was alsofrequently asked to perform inspections onbehalf of OU Kosher. During his continued extensive work in thekosher food industry, Rabbi Rosskam interacted with many of theOU’s rabbinic coordinators, as well as rabbinic field representa-tives. In 2006, he was appointed Rabbinical Administrator of theScroll K /Vaad Hakashrus of Denver. He travels throughout theRocky Mountain Region and beyond inspecting tens of OU certi-fied companies. In his free time you can find him deep into con-tinued study of the Talmud or simply enjoying his family.

Powder Processors Inc. was formally

organized by Lynn Dahle and his father, Bur-

dell Dahle, in 1998. The primary focus is

granulation, blending, roller compaction, and

milling on a toll and turnkey basis. The busi-

ness is a provider of controlled granulation

and blending of powders to be used for tablet

compression, dry powder blended

foods and nutritionals, drink mixes

and other custom powder formula-

tions. Powder Processors Inc. op-

erates at a single contiguous

location in the Business Depot of

Ogden, Utah. “We take pride in giv-

ing our customers exactly what

they want and when they want

it from a high quality environ-

ment,” Lynn Dahle declares.

For more information contact

us via email, ldahle@powder-

processors.com.

> > A G G L O M E R A T O R C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 4 3

AGGLOMERATORBOWL OPEN


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I have been a full-time OU rabbinic field representative forthe past 12 years. My job has taken me to all types of placesand has given me exposure to people and plants of which Inever dreamed.

I was born in London, England, and my rabbinicalstudies led me to New York City, where I met my wife andthereafter began rabbinical work. Until last year, my familyand I resided in Louisville, KY. Although we now live inCincinnati, OH, I retain the same supervision route as be-fore, which includes Indiana and Kentucky.

My day begins early. When I start my route, I may visit alarge baking facility such as Flowers Foods of London KY, Con-solidated Biscuit Co, or Kraft Foods North America/Biscuit &Snacks Division. I may then proceed to visit a massive flavorhouse, like Clarendon Flavor Engineering Inc of Owensboro KY,and then to some dairies.

I drive over 50,000 miles a year, and I have just reached the600,000 point - all with no speeding tickets, thank God. I stayover in hotels on average of two to three times a week.

I visit over 100 companies. Two of my plants schedulemany special productions. One of theseplants is Morgan Foods of Austin, Indi-ana, renowned for its top-quality soupofferings. As one of America’s mostsought-after business partners in the pri-

vate-label food industry, Morgan Foods offers retailers every-thing they need to win customers and keep them coming back.

Even though Morgan Foods manufactures numerous non-kosher products, the company has undertaken an amazing pro-gram to maintain OU certification of many of its products. Everykosher production at Morgan Foods involves kosherization ofthe facility and full-time OU supervision of kosher productions.

Another special-production company I visit often isBluegrass Dairy & Food of Springfield, Kentucky, where Ienjoy a very good relationship with their staff, especially withthe Mr. Jerry Hardin and Ms. Patty Howlett (senior manage-ment); they are dedicated utmost to our kosher program. Thisplant processes hundreds of specialty powders made onspray dryers, including cheese, flavoring, dairy, honey, mo-lasses, shortening and butter powders, and it alsofeatures a long list of specialty blends. Due to theplant’s mixed production (kosher, non-kosher,dairy and non-dairy); I visit often to supervisekosherization and special productions.

Understanding Bluegrass/Springfield works has beena most interesting experience, as spray-drying is one of theoldest forms of drying — and one of the few technologiesavailable for converting a liquid, slurry or low viscosity paste

to a dry solid (free-flowing powder) in one-unit operation.Spray dryers are found in almost every industry, includingpharmaceuticals and detergents, paint and pigments, foodand dairy, and mining and minerals.

Visiting Little Brownie Bakers, L.L.C. that manufac-tures Girl Scouts cookies, is always a treat. If you were toask me what the Garden of Eden smells like, I would reply,“chocolate mint”!

Jif peanut butter, owned by The J.M. Smucker Com-pany, is also on my route. This facility and its staff are apleasure to work with, and their renowned products fit wellwith their overall stellar work.

Recently I began visiting a new plant called BloomfieldFarms, which specializes in gluten-free products, Mr. DanielSutherland, president of Blend Pak and CEO of Bloomfield

Farms, and Ms. Ruth Companella are modelexamples of how one expertly runs a kosherprogram. There are nine different gluten-freeOU Kosher certified products produced by

Bloomfield Farms.I also visit our friends at Dawn Foods products,

the provider to bakery owners with quality commercial foodservice products for bakery management and the baker owner.I work with our dedicated kosher contact Mr. Ron Foster who

By Rabbi Yosef Levy

Through the Bluegrass

SPRING 2011 | 47

excels in keeping up with hundreds of kosher dairy and pareveingredients at the plant and with all the kosher dairy and pareveproduction lines.

Let me not forget Najla’s, Inc. a gourmet specialty foodmanufacturer specializing in all-natural upscale, handmadeproducts made from the highest quality ingredients. And yes,there is a Najla, and a Stasia, and an Azra. Their products aremade by these incredibly talented artisans. They never cut cor-

ners; never compromise quality or consistency.All Najla’s products are kosher dairy, free ofhigh fructose corn syrup, free of hydrogenatedand trans fats, free of preservatives and artifi-cial flavors. It’s like having three pastry chefs

in your corner! They do all the work, you get all the praise.The internationally renowned Mead Johnson Nutrition-

als, best known for its Enfamil and Enfalac families of infantformulas as well as for our regional children’s nutritional prod-ucts, including Enfagrow, Enfapro, Enfakid, EnfaSchool, andSustagen is most fortunate to have Mrs. Evelyn Brady admin-ister its extensive kosher program. Her total dedication to ourkosher program is exemplary. The equipment and differentlines used at this plant of 2,000 employees used to make allthese many different products was a big learning curve for me,but after visiting this plant for more than ten years, I believeI’ve gotten the hang of it.

I visit The Carriage House Companies Inc. Division of Ral-corp, one of America’s leading store brand food manufacturers,having roots that predate the store-brand food industry. Mr. JeffWilliams and Ms. Leiga Cooper do a wonderful job with main-taining ourkosher pro-gram. Someof the products produced here are salsas, barbeque steaksauces, jams and jellies, chocolate and pancake syrups.

Jim Beam Brands, located in Frankfort, KY, manufacturesa large variety of the best known liquor products. Mr. NathanCapps is a person truly dedicated to our kosher program and isalways looking to enhance and add more products to the OUkosher line.

Another big industry I got very involved with is the oil in-dustry, visiting Consolidated Grain & Barge, Inc., where the soy-beans come in raw and are crushed. I then visit OwensboroGrain, where the crude soybean oil is sent. The process also in-cludes degumming the oil and then RBD that is, Refined,Bleached and Deodorized.

Last but not least is Snyder’s of Hanover, Inc, which is nowSnyder’s-Lance, Inc. Located in Jeffersonville, IN, this plant pro-duces kosher tortilla chips, kettle chips, and potato chips. It is a

company I thoroughly enjoy visiting.My special-production work schedule often requires me

to work when others are home spending time with their fam-ilies or sleeping. I am frequently at special-production plantson Sundays, overnight, and at all odd hours. On these days,my work hours exceed 20 hours daily, yet the hardest part ofmy job is to schedule and be available to all of our partners atany given time.

I share with all my plants that I am not a policeman, seek-ing to discover problems. Rather, I am there to verify that allis well. If and when a problem is found, we will fix it together.My job is to assist and accommodate companies in every waypossible. It has also been my good fortune serving as a match-maker with different OU companies, and have thereby helpedthem thrive with business.

As a rabbi, I frequently find myself being a therapist, asmany of the employees and sometimes the employers of the

companies open up to mewith their personal trials andtribulations, seeking my ad-vice and recommendations. I

always keep in mind what they tell me so that on my next visitI can follow up and continue to show my care and concern.Sometimes all people need is just a listening ear! On one occa-sion, I spent over an hour listening to someone without sayinga word, and when the speaker was done he said, “Thank you,rabbi; you have such good advice!”

What a privilege it is being part of the Orthodox Union– the world’s largest and most respected kosher certifica-tion agency.

Rabbi Yosef Levy was born and raised in London, England.After spending two years of study in Manchester, England,Rabbi Levy studied for rabbinic ordination at the LubavitchYeshiva of New York. As part of his rabbinic training, RabbiLevy spent a good deal of time doing Jewish religious outreachin the former Soviet Union, where he ran educational and re-ligious programs at camps and schools.

Rabbi Levy joined the Orthodox Union in 1999 to becomethe first full time RFR in Kentucky, where he was assigned tosupervise nearly 100 companies. He also isan active member of his synagogue andcommunity in Cincinnati, where he serveson its board of directors, maintains educa-tional and outreach programs for youthand adults, and visits with inmates at fed-eral prisons. Rabbi Levy lives in Cincinnati,with his wife and six children.

AN RFR’S KENTUCKY (AND INDIANA) DERBY

and on the Highways

FALL 2009 | 48

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OU Kosher product, and how to design an effective system at your company. Recommended for personnel in management, production and quality control and for in-house training.

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