Thank you for your interest in OU kosher certification of your tanker vessels.
Kosher products can potentially lose their kosher status if stored in vessels without kosher status, hence the requirement for kosher verification of tanker transports.
The kosher verification program of tankers involves the designation and dedication of tankers for kosher
use. The OU, together with your company, will establish a protocol to corroborate the usage of tankers for only kosher approved materials. If kosher non-dairy status is required the procedures will also demonstrate that dairy products are not hauled in those tankers. Kosher certificates are issued specific to the tanker ID number which is then approved for kosher hauling.
The kosher program will provide for approved kosher wash procedures and certified wash stations to assist tankers in achieving kosher status.
Should you have any further questions or if I can be of any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact me.
With regards,
Rabbi Nachum Z. Rabinowitz
Senior Rabbinic Coordinator
OU Kosher
Now that the Internet has made the expression “information at your fingertips” an ever-present reality, OU Kosher views it as an every-second opportunity. “As the world’s largest and most respected kosher certification agency, we can now educate the world at large about what kosher represents,” says Rabbi Eliyahu Safran, Senior Rabbinic Coordinator and Vice President, Communications and Marketing. “The medium of the web allows us to reach thousands of people whom we otherwise couldn’t.” Since its debut in 2004, the OU Kosher website is doing that and more.
If you find yourself logging onto the site, you most likely fall into one of three main audience categories: an OU certified company (or interested in becoming one), interested in learning about kosher; a kosher professional aiming to gain more specific information about kosher supervision, or a kosher consumer looking to see what’s new on the OU kosher market, checking to see if a particular product is OU-certified, or seeking to expand your kosher knowledge.
Apparently all three OU Kosher website watchers are getting what they come for; they keep coming back for more. “A tour of the website indicates why it’s so useful,” says Rabbi Yonatan Kaganoff, rabbinic coordinator and website supervisor. Through the site, companies can learn the basics of kosher and its requirements. What can make breakfast cereals, cakes, and doughnuts non-kosher? You’ll find those answers and more. With a click of a mouse, you can view comprehensive and entertaining videos about kosher and the OU Kosher standards. Just by perusing the site, you can find out the origin of kosher laws, the basic categories of food items which are not kosher, and why many foods other than meat, fowl, and fish, require kosher supervision.
Companies can also find out how to apply for OU Kosher certification. The site affords online access to Behind the Union Symbol, the OU’s quarterly trade publication now in your hands, which is read by over 6,000 food executives and reaches thousands of food manufacturing facilities worldwide, as well as food industry leaders, editors and analysts. In addition, the website spotlights OU-certified companies and brands on a rotating basis as an ‘OU Featured Company.’ Each item includes a corporate or product image; a description of the company, product, or brand; as well as a link to its website. The “OU Companies Speak” feature draws the diverse array of food companies together, offering them a closer look into each other’s world of kosher operations.
The site covers the latest news and events in the world of kosher, such as, “The Largest Liquor Kosher Certification in U.S.: DeKuyper 60-Flavor Line Liqueurs Receives OU Symbol,” Identifying Opportunities in the U.S. Food Market: A Seminar for Trade Consulates,” and U.S. News & World Report: Is Kosher Food Safer?”
Consumers interested in learning the finer details of the kosher laws can choose from over one hundred “Kosher Tidbits,” online mini audio-lectures presented by the OU’s rabbinic coordinators on a myriad of salient kosher-related topics. “People are listening to Kosher Tidbits from far distant corners of the world,” reports Rabbi Safran.
To make it easier for the Chinese and Spanish-speaking visitors to partake of the plethora of site’s kosher knowledge offerings, the OU hired professional translators. “These are the two biggest markets outside the English-speaking market,” says Rabbi Yaakov Luban, executive rabbinic coordinator. “China is the fastest growing market in the food industry. They are providing more and more of the raw materials used in the foods today.”
Aside from picking up the nuances of kosher in the kitchen and factory, companies, consumers and kosher professionals can also enjoy humorous and informative human interest pieces about the work lives of the OU’s traveling rabbinic field representatives. The website also avails the more kosher-scholarly visitor opportunities to pore over publications such as Daf HaKashrus, by Rabbi Yosef Grossman, RC; The Mesorah Journal, edited by Rabbi Menachem Genack, CEO of OU Kosher, about the thought of the late Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik, renowned Talmudist and Jewish scholar.
Aside from a regular array of recipes, the website’s most popular features include “Kosher Alerts,” announcements informing the public of products bearing an unauthorized OU symbol and “Product Search,” the OU products search engine. “If a consumer wants to know which potato chips are OU certified, he/she could run a search and get 500 different brand names,” says Rabbi Luban. “It’s a powerful resource for consumers to be able to quickly see what’s OU Kosher out there.” The site also offers those interested in dining out the convenience of locating OU-certified restaurants across the New York metropolitan area. And if they have any kosher questions or concerns, they can send an e-mail through the “Ask a Kosher Question” feature, which addresses all matters pertaining to Jewish kosher law.
Drawing from both the Jewish and non-Jewish populations, including consumers, industry people, and the erudite, the site has created an online kosher-conscious community. It even offers “Kosher Kidz,” an educational video, as well as an OU Kosher Contest for the young consumer. Gary Magder, Director of Internet Development, sums up the website’s primary mission and outcome: “We are building an awareness of the value of kosher.”
“Do you want to go to China?” That is what my colleague at OU Kosher asked me two months before an important ingredients show in which the Orthodox Union participates annually. China, well how could I say no! Having traveled there last summer for vacation, I knew from experience just how long and tiring a trip it was, but I was on an organized tour then and everything was taken care of for us as a group. This would be different. I would be traveling by myself and meeting my colleagues who handle the Southeast Asia region for OU Kosher in Shanghai.
The OU’s China and Far East team of Rabbi Mordechai Grunberg, Rabbi Donneal Epstein and Zhu Yanan handle the OU’s rapid growth in China. China, now the second largest exporter in the world, is becoming the fastest growing supplier of food ingredients to international food corporations. It has been estimated that close to $1.25 billion of kosher certified ingredients are exported annually worldwide. Enter the OU, the world’s largest, most respected kosher certification agency, now certifying over 300 plants in China. As the export industry grows in China, OU kosher certifications are growing right along with it.
I left JFK on a Sunday morning and arrived at my hotel in Shanghai, a very long 24 hours later. The time zone change is exactly 12 hours ahead in China, so as you can well imagine, I was quite disoriented and sleep deprived. I traveled via Korean Airlines, which was simply a wonderful experience, and I connected in Seoul for a two-hour flight to Shanghai. I did doze off at the gate in Seoul, only to awaken abruptly and realize most of the passengers had already boarded, almost missing my connecting flight.
The hospitality of the Asian people is beyond measure. They cannot do enough for you, and the flight attendants were especially sensitive to my kosher dietary needs. Kosher travelers are accustomed to packing our own food just in case the meals served are not edible, or as has sometimes happened, not available. My meals were delicious and the head flight attendant kept checking on me to make sure I was satisfied with the food. There were eye masks, slipper socks and toothpaste and toothbrushes distributed to all the passengers -- what a treat as I settled in for my journey. I was lucky that the seat next to me was empty, and I was able to stretch out a bit.
Fast forward 24 hours later, and I am in a taxi racing through the streets of Shanghai. It is 10 p.m. and the skyline is magnificent but the drivers seem to think of themselves as participants in the Indy 500. My taxi driver makes a left turn from the right lane of a four-lane highway as I hold on for dear life. You have to really see it to believe it. Somehow I arrive safely at my hotel, where my colleague, Zhu Yanan, the OU’s man in China, greets me and helps me check in. He offers to have someone drive me around the next day so I can sight see, as the show we will be attending does not begin for another day. The Chinese people are very courteous and proper, with an obvious curiosity about westerners. As China becomes more westernized the people embrace anything and everything American. College students are eager to practice English which they study in university.
Show Time in Shanghai:
The Food Ingredients China Show opens on Wednesday morning and we meet many manufacturers who are eager to obtain OU Kosher certification for their products, as their customers are demanding kosher certification for export to the U.S. and Israel. The days pass quickly with the exhibition attracting well over 10,000 visitors from all over the world. The OU’s reputation as the most influential kosher certification symbol in the world is reinforced as visitors from all over the globe stop at our booth to discuss their kosher needs. This supports the vast media coverage the OU has received recently nationwide in publications such as USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Financial Times, Newsday, The Miami Herald and Business Week, all positioning the OU as the leader in its category.
Many Chinese ingredient manufacturers requested OU Kosher certification applications and our Chinese representative, Zhu, will oversee the completion of those eager to become OU certified. As the New Business Development/Marketing Associate, I had an opportunity to network with many ingredient brokers and importers who require their ingredient sources to be OU certified. Many emphasized their company’s requirements that all ingredients meet certain specifications, including kosher certification. Their certification of choice unanimously was OU, as one Food Ingredients Manager told me, “We insist on OU certification because of its universal acceptance and undisputed global kosher standard.”
OU Kosher has more than doubled its China kosher certification growth in the last two years. The OU expects to grow its China certification business over the next five years “into the thousands.” Its seal-of-approval can assure Chinese manufacturers that the millions of consumers who buy kosher and trust the supervision behind the OU symbol welcome their products.
Currently, the ingredient and food production markets constitute ninety percent of the marketplace in China and the remaining ten percent on “finished products” such as candy and confections, frozen and canned fish and baked goods. This ten percent includes consumer retail pack and industrial food service items. The OU forecasts a gradual reversal of these percentages beginning in 2008 – at the minimum rate of ten percent a year – until “finished goods” comprise the ninety percent. It’s a matter of record that multinational companies with the OU kosher seal-of-approval have created a surefire way to gain increased market share for a relatively modest investment.
As I travel the world, attending a multitude of domestic and international food and ingredient trade shows, I have the privilege of branding the OU as the leader in the kosher certification industry, established while maintaining no compromise in the highest standards of certification. I do my best to “demystify” the certification process in such a way that makes it easy for a corporation to do business with us. We strive to make certification an easy, open and transparent process, with top quality customer service as one of our most important assets.
Shabbat Shalom:
As the show ends on Friday afternoon, we have no choice but to stay in Shanghai for Shabbat. We change hotels to be closer to the Shanghai Chabad and I look forward to experiencing the day of rest in the beautiful city of Shanghai.
We light candles at the shul and I marvel at the 150 Jewish guests from all over the world who gather together to usher in the Shabbat. Davening is beautiful and everyone is smiling and mingling -- Israelis, Americans, South Americans, Canadian, and Chinese Jews, united by yiddishkeit as the common bond. Dinner is delicious, the rabbi and rebbetzin warm and welcoming, and the people fascinating. I make friends easily and marvel at people I meet who have chosen to live in China for personal as well as professional reasons. They cherish the Chabad as it welcomes everyone who enters its doors as a safe Jewish haven and home away from home. We get to know one another and I even make a few new friends, with whom I promise to stay in touch after my return home. I truly am sorry when Shabbat ends.
I arrive home Sunday night, exactly one week since my journey began, happily exhausted and disoriented again, but this time laden with mementos and wonderful memories. But the part I will remember most is the spiritual and magical Shabbat in Shanghai, a period of delightful rest and renewal following a work week in which I traveled thousands of miles through a dozen time zones to bring the message of OU Kosher to the growing commercial colossus that is China.
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