Articles
Is Lab-Grown Meat Kosher? OU Kosher CEO Rabbi Menachem Genack Discusses in Washington Post, Other Media Outlets
As food technologies develop, so do new halachic issues. In recent days, OU Kosher CEO Rabbi Menachem Genack has taken on questions about whether lab-grown meat, created from animal stem cells, is kosher. While Israel’s Chief Rabbi David Lau recently declared it kosher pareve, Rabbi Genack disagrees. Read more in a front-page piece in The […]
The Hanover Foods: Quality, Kosher Certification, and Connecting with Consumers
Q: Is it important to have the OU Kosher symbol prominently displayed on Hanover products? Russel Smith: It’s always on the front panel or the front of the bag, whether it’s frozen or canned. We make sure it’s prominently positioned. We call them buttons, you know, if it’s vegan, or if it’s grown in the […]
What Kosher, Vegan and Plant-Based Label Claims Really Mean
“Dairy-free”, “non-dairy”, “plant-based”, “kosher”, and “Vegan” labeling are all voluntary label claims, and while the FDA has no meaningful regulation for these meaningful marketing claims, OU kosher and BeVeg Vegan certification standards exist to clear consumer confusion. It would seem that dairy-free and non-dairy, Vegan, and kosher pareve mean a product has no dairy, right? […]
How Chickpeas Went From a Dream to Pareve Yogurt
Noam Sharon was a corporate and securities lawyer in Israel before he began working on the idea that would become CHKP Foods, a company that makes OU kosher pareve yogurt from chickpeas. It wasn’t as radical a move as it may sound, given that hummus was an essential part of his diet growing up […]
Kosher Chocolate Mystery and an OU Rabbi
I once visited a U.S. company that manufactured both dairy and pareve kosher-certified chocolate. This is what the process looked like. They start off putting dry, powdered ingredients like sugar and cocoa powder through a refiner, which is a series of rollers that crush the powder to make it even finer, each successive roller grinding […]
Biodiesel and Kosher Glycerin: A look at this important fuel and its valuable byproduct
Kosher Glycerin in Demand About 350,000 tons of glycerin are produced in the United States each year. In part because of decreased government subsidies, and certain other economic factors, kosher glycerin is harder to come by than it was previously. Along with using plant-based feedstock, making the refineries kosher, under rabbinic supervision, makes it possible […]
OU Kosher Convenes Annual Conference for Rabbinic Field Representatives (RFR’s)
As one of the world’s largest yogurt makers was building their newest production facility, they called the OU Kosher certification agency because they wanted to produce a pareve (non-dairy) oat milk. The challenge was producing it in a dairy facility. This question and others were discussed on May 15th and 16th at a gathering […]
OU Companies Recently Certified BeVeg Vegan Certification
A survey published by Vegconomist reveals that 91% prefer products with an independent stamp guaranteeing a product is really Vegan, and 96% are more likely to purchase a plant-based product clearly marked as “Vegan,” according to Plant-Based News. That’s why OU Kosher has partnered with BeVeg to offer Vegan certification audits for existing OU Kosher […]
OU Kosher Offers Marketing Support for Certified Companies
The Orthodox Union was founded in 1898 as a non-profit community services organization that would help unify the growing and increasingly fragmented American Jewish community. It would quickly become a powerful force within the United States through its support for education, European immigrants and political advocacy. As a result of these efforts the OU earned […]
Why Plant-Based Products Need Vegan Certification
Did you know that plant-based does not mean Vegan, but Vegan means plant-based and cruelty-free? Plant-based is a diet that strives for animal-free ingredients, but the consumer expectation from a plant-based claim is that it is not animal product and cruelty-free, like that of an official Vegan claim. In fact, the plant based certified standard […]