Consumer News

OU KOSHER Announces 2012 OU KOSHER Essay Contest Winners

May 7, 2012 The Orthodox Union Kosher Division today announced that four students have been named winners of the 2012 OU Kosher Essay Contest for grades 7-12. The winners are: • Michelle Natanova, Queens, NY — Yeshivat Ohr Haiim, Richmond Hill, NY, Grade 8 Read Michelle’s essay here • Zev Kraut, Pittsburgh, PA — Hillel […]

OU Kosher In Great Neck Draws Rave Reviews

“OU Kosher’s Harry H. Beren ASK OU OUTREACH program in Great Neck Sunday night, which was supposed to present the two OU poskim (halachic decisors), Rav Yisroel Belsky and Rav Hershel Schachter, was held under the cloud of the sudden serious illness to Rav Belsky, shlita,” declared Rabbi Yosef Grossman, the organizer of the program and OU Senior Educational Rabbinic Coordinator. “Rabbi Menachem Genack (CEO of OU Kosher) stepped in as a substitute on very short notice. He and Rav Schachter were outstanding, as can be seen by the following feedback, first from one of the participants, and then from Rabbi Avraham Kohan, the Rav of Congregation Torah Ohr where the event was held.”

ASK OU Rabbis Program In South Florida Enlightens And Entertains

The show must go on….and on: Rabbis Chaim Loike (left) and Dovid Jenkins continue to answer questions following their presentations at the Ask the OU Rabbis session in South Florida.

OU Kosher’s Rabbi Merzel To Present Seminar At October 26 Food And Beverage Show In Miami

Rabbi Mordechai Merzel, rabbinic coordinator for the Orthodox Union Kosher Division, will be a presenter at the 14th Americas Food and Beverage Show and Conference on Tuesday, October 26 from 3-4 p.m. at the World Trade Center Miami.

Orthodox Union Approves Placement Of Kosher Symbol On Old World Kosher Sausage

Old World Kosher Sausage today announced that it has been certified kosher by the Orthodox Union, the world’s largest kosher certification agency. The new variety of kosher chicken sausage bearing the OU symbol will be distributed nationwide beginning in the next few weeks

If It’s Monday, It Must Be Latvia (With Tuesday In Lithuania And Wednesday In Estonia)

Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, the Baltic States, the frozen north, and particularly in Lithuania, home to great Jewish communities — now these communities are gone and only memories remain. I share these memories — my grandparents trod this ground 70 years ago.

A Kosher Formula

I have heard it said that running a successful kosher program is as easy as PIE: Products, Ingredients and Equipment. One must keep an updated schedule B (products) an updated schedule A (ingredients) and have a proper system for keeping track of the kosher/pareve status of equipment. I would like to add another interpretation to this wise adage. Running a successful kosher program is as easy as π (as in 3.14159…).

Decay? No Way! Kosher Preservatives To The Rescue

“May I have a steak well done, please, and a fruit cocktail?” is a request that is commonly heard in a restaurant. It’s very rare to hear someone in a restaurant say, “Waiter, I’d like an order of rotten fruit, please, and do you have any steak that causes botulism?”

For A Traveling RFR, It’s A Long And Winding Road To The Nearest Plant

As a traveling RFR (rabbinic field representative) for more years than I care to admit to, one quickly learns that regardless of how carefully we plan our days, flexibility is the key to success.

Vanilla, Hurricane Hudah, And The OU Flavor Department

In order to get to Indospice, a vanilla bean export company deep in the jungles of Bondowasa Java, Indonesia, Rabbi Moshe Machuca arrives at a local airport, drives up, down, and around steep mountains, past fishing villages, thatched huts, caribou, monkeys, and exotic birds for five difficult, but colorful, hours until he reaches the plant. There he watches as workers at Indospice scald vanilla beans in vats of boiling water and set them in the sun for three to four weeks. The process, called curing, initiates a series of biochemical events within the vanilla bean that yields one of the most cherished, and expensive, flavors in the world: natural vanilla.