Consumer Kosher Articles
OU Kosher Symbols Explained
A complete list of all of the OU Symbols and their meaning.
Etrog Jam & Shnapps Are Recipes For the Righteous
One of the quintessential symbols of the holiday of Sukkot (Festival of Tabernacles) is the Etrog (citrus fruit). Often yellow or greenish in color, it is primarily imported from Israel, Italy, Greece, Morocco, or Yemen. The holiday of Sukkot falls out after Yom Kippur for good reason. After reaching levels of angelic purity we return to a holiday […]
Pas Yisroel List – 5780
The Tur (Orach Chaim, Siman 603), based upon the Talmud Yerushalmi, cites the custom for Jews to be stringent during the Aseres Yimei Teshuva to eat exclusively ‘Pas Yisroel’ bread. Even those Jews who generally do not exclusively eat ‘Pas Yisroel’ are encouraged to accept this practice during the period between Rosh Ha-Shanah and Yom […]
OU Kosher Q & A For Rosh Hashana
OU Kosher presents popular Q&As in preparation for Rosh Hashana. Additional questions can be asked by contacting the OU Kosher Hotline (212-613-8241) or by submitting them to kosherq@ou.org. Alternatively, CHAT LIVE with an OU Kosher expert on www.oukosher.org via the chat icon located at the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. This Yom Tov season (5778) we have the oppertunity […]
The Many Lives of Kosher Salt
What exactly is Kosher salt? Kosher salt is really a misnomer: it should be called koshering salt. This is salt that was used to ‘kasher’ chicken and beef, by removing the blood from the flesh. Remember the familiar red and yellow box of kosher salt in Bubby’s pantry? While its use in kosher processing has moved out of the kitchen, it’s […]
Expo East
Every year in downtown Baltimore, just off of the harbor, executives and marketers from across the natural food industry gather their organic cotton bags and pack quinoa-kale lunches for two days of health food nirvana. Expo East brings together food and health product companies who line up in hundreds of booths, creating an opportunity for […]
OUKosher Visits the Thaifex World of Food Show 2018
For the last 15 years, the Thaifex World of Food show in Bangkok has been the ultimate food show for innovation. Vendors and visitors travel from across the globe to show off their food and beverage products or to sample some of the products that may not have even hit the market. Some of the […]
Checking Fruits & Vegetables: Halachic Positions of Rabbi Chaim Yisroel Belsky zt”l
1. One is obligated to inspect fruits and vegetables that commonly contain insects prior to use. A 10% likelihood of infestation is a guidepost to help assess what is considered common. If people generally expect to find insects in certain fruits or vegetables, infestation is a common occurrence. However, if people would be surprised to find […]
OU Kosher Cheese: Why some of America’s top cheese brands are now going kosher
It’s early morning in the Sardinian countryside and a farmer is milking his sheep while an Orthodox Jewish kosher supervisor looks on. The supervisor, known as a mashgiach, is sleeping in the farmer’s barn, and he’ll be there all week. Welcome to the world of kosher cheesemaking. The weeklong kosher cheese run in Sardinia is […]
What’s Booming in Kosher Beverages?
OU Kosher Supervision has a Presence in Almost all Packing Plants Making Most Beverages Kosher With all the ready to drink products flooding the market these days, you’d think that people are drinking a lot more. But according to a top CEO in the beverage industry, consumers are drinking the same amount as they always […]