Consumer Kosher Articles
Cooked Or Not? Spicing Foods On Shabbos And Related Issues
Many questions regarding bishul on Shabbos are dependent on how the food was produced and due to modern production methods, in many cases the people with the most technical information on the topic are the kashrus professionals. Thus, consumers who want to know if they can put salt, spices or ketchup into their cholent, croutons into their soup, and similar questions will from time to time call the hashgachah agency that supervises those products – and this week’s column will discuss a number of those questions.
Natural Pareve Cheese Flavor
How can you have a pareve garlic and cheese flavored melba toast with natural cheese flavor?
General Technical Issues In Vinegar Plants
A vinegar plant appears to be a mass of gigantic, non-descript tanks, each one indistinguishable from one another. That’s the first problem that mashgichim face when visiting vinegar companies. Production is hidden within the tanks, and until mashgichim develop an understanding of how the vinegar is made, it is not at all easy to follow […]
Not By Bread Alone Does Man Live: Potato Products
A discussion of many of the issues involved in producing Kosher potato products.
Peeled Eggs, Onion Or Garlic Overnight
There are companies which sell peeled hard-boiled eggs and deviled eggs. This article examines the general issue of certification of hard-boiled eggs and similar items.
Which Foods Are Chametz?
An overview of the issues in determining what is chometz.
Ever Hear Of Pasta Ice Cream?
Why Dairy Products Must Be Kosher for Passover
The Modern Passover Marketing Story
Rabbis travel half way around the globe for special production runs that may last no more than a day, although preparation may take as much as a week. Major national brands remove ingredients from their products, often replacing them with such popular Passover ingredients as apple cider and potato starch, all in deference to the […]
Behind the Chametz-Free Certification
For industrial products, the familiar OU-P (kosher for Passover) can sometimes be replaced by a “chametz-free” certification. What does this mean? To find out, studying some terminology will be in order. CHAMETZ: Fermented grains (wheat, oats, barley, rye and spelt), all proscribed–that is, forbidden—on Passover; KITNIYOT: Legume products, also not for Passover use, but of […]
A Chemical Reaction At Passover
TO A LARGE EXTENT, the chemical industry is free from Passover issues because so many food chemicals are exclusively mineral-based, as are the processing aids. However, it would be inaccurate to say that the regulations of Passover do not impact at all. We will focus on two critical areas: flocculants and alcohols. A flocculant is […]