The OU continues to give certification to Passover Quinoa. Quinoa will be available with an OUP from Goldbaum, Pereg, and La Bonne. Goldbaum and La Bonne will both have OU-P chia seeds. Goldbaum, La Bonne and 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. Holy Hummus will also have four types of OU Kitniyot hummus. Ferrero 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 Kitniyot Ochlei Kitniyot and are all made with Mashgiach Temidi like all OU-P products.
Kedem continues to bottle grape juice under its own name as well as under the Haddar 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 NonMevushal. 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 liquors 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. Geula will have OU-P 18 minute matzah and 18 minute matza meal as well as Shemura matzah meal. 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. Yehuda, Aviv, Rishon, Osem and Yanovsky also produce Passover Egg Matzah marked as Matzah Ashira on the box. Manischewitz also bakes machine Shmura Matzah. Manischewitz will also be producing Manischewitz Handmade Shemurah Matzah. 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.
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 Jacksonville, FL 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 will have different types of chocolate covered OU-P plain matzah. Barricini will also have chocolate covered plain matzah. These items are all not Matzah Ashirah. 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 will also have chocolate covered egg matzah. This item is Matzah Ashirah and labeled as such.
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. Devash milk and cream will also be OU-P Cholov Yisroel.
J&J will have OU-P cottage cheese, cream cheese and farmer cheese. All of these will be Cholov Yisroel.
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 including various types of macaroons such as Mini Macaroons Chocolate, Mini Macaroons Birthday Cake, and Mini Macaroons Coconut. Manischewitz will again have a number of cake mixes. These are all made with matzah meal. Le Chocolat will have chocolate cake mix, chocolate chip cookie mix, brownie mix and drinking chocolate mix. All of these are not made with matzah meal. Manischewitz is introducing a line of OU-P Mezonos cookies baked with matzah meal.
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 and Shoprite OU-P Smoked Salmon will also be available. Old Williamsburg will have Smoked Salmon and Herring in Wine Sauce. They also will be making BBQ Smoked Salmon, Original Smoked Salmon and Maple Smoked Salmon. This year, Old Williamsburg will be making OU-P Meat Beef Jerky in different flavors as a Passover meat snack. 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. Vita will have smoked salmon, herring in wine and herring in cream sauce. The herring in cream sauce will be OU-P Cholov Yisroel. King Oscar sardines in olive oil and sardines in water will 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. Flaums will be selling whitefish salad and tuna deluxe salad. Old Williamsburg will also have whitefish salad and baked salmon salad. Shefa will be introducing OU-P lox salad, tuna deluxe and whitefish salad, as well as OU-P potato salad, egg salad and various dips.
The OU position remains that OU supervised extra virgin olive oil can be used without special supervision for Pesach. Manischewitz will have OU-P Grapeseed Oil and Grapeseed Oil Spray available this year. 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.
Gefen will again have Zero Calorie Harmony, as an artificial sweetener. Health Garden will again have OU-P Xylitol 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, Bowl & Basket and Adirondack seltzers as OU-P. Bowl & Basket will be selling a number of OU-P certified flavored seltzers. These include Coconut, Lime Mint, Cherry Vanilla, Ginger and Raspberry and Orange.
The OU position remains that regular tea bags, which are not flavored or decaffeinated, are acceptable for Pesach without special supervision. Swee-Touch-Nee and Wissotsky will continue to have Passover herbal teas. Shoprite will have specially marked OU-P plain tea bags available. in addition, Swee-Touch-Nee will have OU-P decaffeinated tea bags for sale. 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 Directory should 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.
