Major ASK OUtreach-Lakewood Success Launches OU KOSHER “How To” DVD Series
Back in the year 2000, OU Kosher presented a series of kashrut seminars in Lakewood, the great New Jersey center of Torah – known in fact as Ir Ha’Torah, the city of Torah and home to Beth Medrash Govoha and a variety of other institutions and kollelim. On average, some 80 people showed up to […]
Rice Protein Concentrate
Is rice protein concentrate derived from cooked rice? If so, rice protein concentrate is potentially bishul akum and should not be a group one.
Trucking
The OU has made great strides in the last several years towards ensuring that kosher products are transported only in kosher approved tanker trucks. To this end, we now certify fleets of kosher dedicated tankers and kosher truck wash stations throughout the country.
Is it OU KOSHER? Newly Redesigned Product Search Feature on Website Aids Consumers in Finding OU-Certified Products
A newly redesigned feature to help the kosher consumer easily locate OU certified products has just made its debut on http://www.oukosher.org. With more than 400,000 products certified by the OU, the feature uses the OU’s technical wizardry to find just what the consumer is looking for, in categories ranging from acids and acidulants to wrapping materials and paper goods. The website is automatically updated daily to keep up with the OU’s newly certified products.
Kashruth in the Workplace Webcast
Following success of Kosher Kitchen Webcasts, OU Kosher presents new webcast on “Kashrut in the Workplace,” featuring OU Kosher Authorities, January 27.
Newly Redesigned Product Search
Is It OU Kosher? Newly Redesigned Product Search Feature On Website Aids Consumer In Finding OU Certified Items
When Kosher and Allergen Issues do not Converge
Rabbi Dovid Polsky, the remarkably patient and knowledgeable managing attendant of the OU’s ever-ringing Kosher Consumer Hotline, does not see a day go by – or even a morning — without receiving a call that touches on the overlap between kosher certification and allergen concerns.
“I see that Miller’s Heavenly Chocolate is labeled OU-pareve. Yet I also see a declaration of ‘may contain dairy.’ How could this be?”
“The soy milk I just bought states that there is no dairy or lactose in the product. And yet the kosher label says OUD. I’m confused.”
The answer to both of these questions, of course, is that although kosher and allergen considerations often converge, they are not identical.
Aish M’aish: Bishul Yisroel
In many companies the method for dealing with the issue of bishul akum is to have the mashgiach light the pilot light of the boiler. This is based on the ruling of the Rama (Y.D. 113:7) that if a non-Jew lit his fire from a fire that was lit by a Yisroel, then the food cooked with that fire would not be subject to the issur of bishul akum.
Remembrance of the Mumbai Kedoshim
Rabbi Martin Grunberg, a rabbinic field representative for OU Kosher, who covers Asia for the OU, knew both Ben Zion Chroman and Rabbi Leibish Teitelbaum, who were murdered in the Mumbai massacre. He has prepared the following remembrance of the kedoshim.
Rav Moshe zt”l’s Heter of Cholov Stam Revisited
Halacha states that milk which is produced without hashgacha (r’iyah of a Yisroel) is non-kosher; such milk is termed “cholov akum”. This rule is a gezeirah, lest milk from non-kosher animals be mixed into what otherwise could be assumed to be kosher milk. Milk is only permissible when a Yisroel watches the milking, verifying that milk from non-kosher animal species is not incorporated. (Yoreh Deah 115:1, from Maseches Avodah Zarah daf 35b)
