If a product at the food store is labeled ''Kosher" how does one know if it is really Kosher?
I buy a favorite rye bread. The label says Kosher. I don’t care but how would I know if I did care?
If a product at the food store is labeled ''Kosher" how does one know if it is really Kosher?
I buy a favorite rye bread. The label says Kosher. I don’t care but how would I know if I did care?
You have to trust the manufacturer.
In order to be certified the kitchens are inspected. Now is it possible that after the inspection the kitchen made some change or broke some religious law so that the product is no longer kosher? Sure, but I doubt they would do it purposely at the risk of their reputation to the customers they value.
Sometimes you just have to take things on faith. People who keep kosher are very good at that.
Well there are symbols from groups that certify whether food is kosher or not. If it has a small symbol with a k iin it then there is a good chance it is certified kosher.
What sort of penalties are likely to befall people who mis-label their product as kosher when it isn’t? Staggering fines, public condemnation, wrath of G*D, what?
I’d be comfortable assuming that if a company has been producing kosher goods for a while, they have a substantial investment in the ability to do so and failing to maintain kosher would cripple their business if it was found out. If you suddenly see, say, Kosher Hot dogs from a manufacturer nobody’s ever heard of, I’d stick with the Hebrew National (they have to answer to a higher authority…).
Are you familiar with that scene at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark? 'Nuff said.
Well, nuts.
Moved from Cafe Society to GQ, where it can wait till after sunset tomorrow for an answer from an observant Jew.
It’s consumer fraud in New York state to mislabel non-kosher food as kosher and has been for nearly a century. The state hires rabbis to check not only the manufacturers, but the stores. If you do sell kosher meat, you have to keep kosher (e.g., using a separate meat slicer in the deli and keeping the kosher meat away from non-kosher).
Fines are currently $2500 for the first offense and $7,500 for the second.
There was some objection to this on separation of church and state grounds, but the ruling was that this was a consumer issue, not a religious one: people pay more for kosher food (especially meat), so they have right to get what they pay of, and rabbis are the authorities.
And if nothing else, if a manufacturer put on the circle-K or circle-U logo without actually passing the inspection that goes with it, the inspecting organizations would have an ironclad trademark infringement case against them.
That’s not how Commack Self-Service v. Weiss looks to me like it turned out, but IANAL
In NJ, the court decision was that anything requiring the state to determine what’s kosher and what isn’t is a violation of the 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
I think people who really care would rely on a private heksher (e.g., Orthodox Union or Vaad of Baltimore) in any case.
There are newsletters from various organizations that have information about companies using unauthorized kashrut symbols on their products.
I know orthodox Jews who will not eat kosher food unless it’s been declared so by a rabbi they know. Lving in NYC they don’t have much of a problem because whole stores have been declared good. On the road they’ll eat canned goods they’ve taken with them.
There are many, many kosher certifying agencies. (Here’s a list of some, with the symbols that they use to indicate a product is under their certification.) Each has its own standards as to specific points of kosher law, how often they have on-site inspections, etc. It’s up to the kosher consumer to decide which ones are acceptable to him/her, and shop accordingly. Many of these agencies will also certify restaurants.
Anybody can put a ‘K’ on their package, including manufacturers of bacon, because K is a letter of the alphabet and can’t be trademarked.
True. Although, as indicated by the link you provided, each kashrut testing agency uses a specific “K” in a specific font, usually with additional marks, and then has registered it as a trademark.
Folks looking for kosher products generally are aware of the marks used in their locales.
What happens if a devout Jew discovers that he has been eating non-kosher stuff? Does he have to perform some sort of ritual-cleansing? Or is he given a pass because the act was inadvertent?
There’s a special chemical that dissolves every molecule in their cells that contain some element that came from the non-kosher food. Their kidneys then filter it, and they piss it out. If they’ve been eating enough of the stuff, for long enough, the result can get ugly.
Wow, I didn’t realize DHMO poisoning could get that bad.
I just wish this had been an old thread, then I’d score on zombie thread points, as well as zombie pictures. And the kosher joke…