The OU continues to give certification to Passover Quinoa. Quinoa will be available with an OU- P from Goldbaum, Pereg, and La Bonne. La Bonne will also have OU-P chia seeds. Pereg will also be selling quinoa flour. The OU will also continue certifying OU Kitniyot retail items as it did last year. Flaum’s will be selling Sonny & Joe’s OU Kitniyot hummus and tahini. Ferrero in Italy will have OU Kitniyot Nutella Spread and Kinder Chocolate. Osem will also have a number of OU Kitniyot items. Telma corn flakes will also be available marked OU Kitniyot. All these products are clearly marked OU Kiyniyot Ochlei Kitniyot and are all made with Mashgiach Temidi like all OU-P products.
Manischewitz together with Welch’s will again have concord grape juice and sparkling concord grape juice. Kedem continues to bottle grape juice under its own name as well as under the Savion and Gefen labels. All these items have always been and will continue to be Mevushal. Kedem has one not Mevushal grape juice. This is bottled in 1.5 liter glass bottles and clearly labeled Non-Mevushal. Kedem also has Fresh Pressed Grape Juice as an OU-P grape juice made without sulfites. Kedem will also have Sangria Grape Juice and Sangria Sparkling Grape Juice. Kedem also has Pomegranate and Sparkling Pomogrape Juices with the OU-P certification. Passover vodka will be available from Lvov and Pravda OU-P vodka imported from Poland. OU-P liquers will be available under the Queen Esther, Spirit of Solomon & Gold Shot labels. Zachlawi will have OU-P arak and vodka.
Manischewitz continues to bake matzah under OU Passover supervision. The OU has also agreed as in past years to place the OU-P on Aviv, Osem, Yehuda, Rishon and Holy Land matzah products coming from Israel. The items are supervised by local Rabbanim and are satisfactorily made with OU Pesach guidelines. In addition, we certify Yanovsky matzah baked in Argentina. This matzah is widely distributed in Latin America. This company manufactures various types of matzah.
Manischewitz has whole wheat matzah meal and whole wheat matzah farfel. These items are made from Manischewitz OU-P whole wheat matzah. They also make OU-P spelt matzah. Manischewitz also bakes OU-P Matzah under the Horowitz Margareten label. They also make Mediterranean Matzah which is regular matzah sprayed with oil and spices after baking. It is not Matzah Ashirah. Manischewitz continues to produce Egg Matzah as well as Passover Egg Tam Tams. These are made from egg matzah dough and marked as Matzah Ashira on the box. Manischewitz also bakes machine Shmura Matzah. In addition Manischewitz makes a product known as matzah crackers. This is an ordinary matzah product and is not Matzah Ashira. This year Manischewitz will be introducing Manischewitz Handmade Shemurah Matzah as well. The various Israeli OU matzah companies will all be selling machine shmurah matzah as well. The OU also supervises hand shmurah matzah under the Holy Land label. In addition this year Kestenbaum hand oat shmurah matzah will be available with OU-P.
Manischewitz will again have gluten free OU-P crackers and gluten free OU-P matzah style squares. Yehuda will also have these gluten free products as well as gluten free cake meal, fine meal and farfel. Kedem will also have Absolutely brand OU-P gluten free flatbread and crackers as well as Jeff Nathan gluten free Panko Flakes. In addition Manischewitz will have Jason gluten
free coating crumbs and panko coating crumbs. None of these products are made from matzah and none of them can be used in the place of matzah. This is clearly marked on the label.
Coca Cola will again be available with an OU-P for Pesach in Regular and Diet flavors. Aside from the New York metropolitan area, Coke will be bottled in Miami and Los Angeles. Coca Cola items will be made with an OU-P in 2 liter bottles. All these items, of course, require the
P symbol. All the Passover Coke items will be marked with a distinctive yellow cap bearing the OU-P symbol.
The Haddar line of Passover products will again be available. The Barton brand will be back again with the OU-P. A full line of Barricini candy items will be available with the OU-P symbol. Manischewitz and Barricini will both have chocolate covered egg matzah. Manischewitz will again have Matzah Smores. This is regular Passover matzah in a box containing additional ingredients to make this candy item. In addition Barton will have OU-P chocolate covered regular matzah crackers. The Barton item is not Matzah Ashirah. Barricini also has chocolate covered regular matzah. This is also not Matzah Ashirah.
Norman’s has a full line of Cholov Yisroel yogurt. In addition there will be OU-P Cholov Yisroel goat cheese and sheep cheese from Barkanit and mozzarella, provolone and pecorino cheese from Yotvata.
J&J will have OU-P cottage cheese, cream cheese and farmer cheese. All of these will be Cholov Yisroel. Dannon will again be producing OU-P yogurt in coffee and vanilla flavors.
There will be two OU-P brands of packaged cakes available this year. These are Schicks and Lily’s Bakeshop. They are baked in a special Passover bakery and do not contain matzah meal. Bernies Foods will have Frankels blintzes, waffles and pizza as well as LeTova Kichel and bread sticks. These are not made with matzah meal. Dayenu pizza, rolls and pierogies are made with matzah meal. Manischewitz will continue to have its line of OU-P baked items. This year it will be adding three new OU-P items – Grey Tea Macaroons, Coffee Macaroons and Chocolate Button Cookies.
Season will have Moroccan sardine items in various sauces for Passover. All of these items are made with mashgiach temidi and bishul yisrael. Tuna fish is available with an OU-P from Season, Gefen and Mishpacha. Shoprite OU-P Tuna in Water will also be available this year. Kirkland OU-P Smoked Salmon will also be available. Kenover will be introducing OU-P Old Williamsburg Smoked Salmon and Old Williamsburg herring items including Herring in Wine Sauce, Herring in Horseradish Sauce and Herring in Beet Salad. Season and Gefen will have OU-P canned salmon in both regular and no salt versions. Kedem will have Sea Castle sardines in tomato sauce, olive oil and water. King Oscar sardines in olive oil will also be available. Kedem will again have Sea Castle roasted seaweed and roasted spicy seaweed snacks. All these items are made with mashgiach temidi and Bishul Yisrael. Manischewitz will be introducing three new OU-P versions of Horseradish with Beets. These include Sweet, Bold and Sugar Free. Manischewitz will also have OU-P Sweet Potato Chips and Beet Chips available.
The OU position remains that OU supervised extra virgin olive oil can be used without special supervision for Pesach. Zayit will have OU-P certified olive oil. Mother’s olive oil pan coating spray, Mishpacha olive oil spray and Manischewitz olive oil spray will also be available with the
OU-P symbol. Prepared olives with an OU-P will be available from Gefen, Osem, Kvuzat Yavne, Gilboa and Mishpacha. The OU position is that all virgin coconut oil is acceptable for Passover.
The OU position continues to be that all granulated white sugar is acceptable for Passover. This is not true for powdered sugar which requires Passover certification. Brown sugar may be a problem, but there is a list of various OU year round certified brands of brown sugar in the directory which are acceptable for Passover. Gefen will again have Nutra Taste Gold, as an artificial sweetener. It will also continue to offer Sweet & Low with OU Passover certification.
Health Garden will again have OU-P Xylitol sweetener and Xylitol Vanilla sweetener. This year Fox’s U-Bet syrups will be available with OU-P certification. These syrups are all pareve. The OU continues to certify various White Rock, Stop & Shop and Adirondack seltzers as OU-P. This year Shoprite will be introducing a number of new OU-P certified flavored seltzers. These include Coconut Ginger, Lime Mint and Cherry Vanilla.
The OU position remains that regular tea bags, which are not flavored or decaffeinated, are acceptable for Pesach without special supervision. In addition we have clarified once again this year that all Lipton unflavored decaffeinated tea bags are acceptable without special supervision. This is not true of other decaffeinated tea bags. Shoprite also has specially marked OU-P plain tea bags on the market. In addition Swee-Touch-Nee and Wissotsky will continue to have Passover herbal teas. Nestea Instant Tea Powder continues to be acceptable for Passover without special certification as long as it is regular tea powder. The decaffeinated version is not acceptable for Passover. Some coffee companies add maltodextrin, which is either chametz or kitniyos, to instant coffee. As a result this coffee is not kosher for Passover. Only coffee bearing an OU-P symbol or brands listed in the gray area of the Passover Directoryshould be used. Both Folger’s and Taster’s Choice instant coffee remain acceptable without special Passover certification. This year we have clarified again that Folger’s Decaffeinated instant coffee is also acceptable for Passover without special certification. This is not true of other OU certified decaffeinated instant coffee. Other brands should be checked in the Directory. Ground coffee remains acceptable from any source as long as it is unflavored and not decaffeinated. There is a full listing of unflavored and not decaffeinated K-cups that are acceptable in the gray area of the guide.
