VOL.

ww y h / NO. 8

TH E

Daf HaK ashrus

SIVAN 5771 / JUNE 2011
Companyname:

swwxc

a monthly newsletter for the oU rabbinic field representative

beware of the perfect schedUle a it may be imperfect!

r a b b i y i s r oel bendelstein
RC Commercial Baking

one of the most pivotal halachos that forms the bedrock for the laws of and which kashrus professionals must be thoroughly versed in, is the concept of or ."The parameters of "begin at the very core with the whether it extends to 1. All, however, agree that it is applicable to as evident by the comment of in the of . As explain, what makes 2 that much more predisposed to "than is the fact that the is created by the union of 2 pieces of ,and is not merely a byproduct of .
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schedule A

RC:Bendelstein,Yisroel

Instructions:RMCColumn:TobeusedwhenaddingRawMaterialCodesforindividualingredients.IfyouhavemorethanoneRawMaterialCodeforthesa ClientComments:Thiscolumnistoidentifythoseingredientswhichneedtobedeletedormodified.Ifanychangesarerecorded,pleasefor Group1=Turquoise Pending=Gold Group6(Allowed)=Orange CommentsandSpecial

Certifying Agency DPM Pareve OU Pareve Pareve OU OU Pareve Pareve K} STARK OU Pareve Pareve Pareve Pareve

RMC 10119 10160 10136 10174

IngredientName(Number) CinnamonGround,Pieces,Sticks,Powder CornStarch DriedEggWhites DriedEggWhites Raisins RaisinsSeedlessThompsonNat(NonOiled& Oiled) 10109 RaisinsSultanaWashed Water 10170 CornStarch

SourceCompany **ANYSOURCE*** CargillCornMillingN.A.(CMNA) MichaelFoodsEggProducts,Inc. MichaelFoodsEggProducts,Inc. ParthenonS.A. BoghosianRaisinPackingCo.,Inc. MarsiaFoodsInc. **ANYSOURCE*** CanAmIngredients

Group 1 3 3 3 2 2 3 1 3

Brand **ANYSOURC Cargill Wakefield#P42 Wakefield#P42

BoghosianRais Mara **ANYSOURC CanAm

daf notes
OU Mashgichim checking the gut cavities of sardines have, in the past few months, discovered what appears to be small, white, parasitic worms in and around the internal organs of some sardines (a separate issue from the krill in the stomach of some sardines from Canada). In the following Teshuva, Rav Belsky Shlita concludes that these are the same anisakis worms which Halachah permits as being truufs hbrs. These worms have migrated from the flesh of the fish to its gut. Rav Belskys conclusion was scientifically borne out by scientists at New York Citys Museum of Natural History utilizing the latest technology of DNA bar-coding analysis using DNA Sequencing with Capillary Electrophoresis.

worms in sardines
" " ( " ") " , ( ) . . . " ( " ")

" " ( ) ( ") " - , " ' ". , , . . , , ' ' " " - , " " " " " " . ... " " ' " " " " - , ' "
continued on page 47

Published by the Orthodox Union, Eleven Broadway, New York, NY 10004

please direct your comments to rabbi yosef Grossman, editor at 212-613-8212 or [email protected]

 refer 3 to as the only other in the that has this unique characteristic of where the union of creates .Were these identifying exclusively and as the only that originate from an amalgamation of , or were and meant to be benchmarks for other similar novelties? I got my answer to this question on a hot summer day in July of 2002 when I conducted a kosher review of a bakery for which I serve as RC.
continued from page 45

S c hE D U L E A

When reviewing the kosher program of a plant, it is my practice to initially spend a few hours sitting down with the kosher contacts to examine the batch formula sheets. I find the batch formula sheets even more indispensable than a plant raw material list to ensure a completely accurate Schedule A. My findings on that hot summer day in July of 2002 only reinforced the greater importance of batch formula sheets over a raw material list. It is for this reason that I highly recommend RFRs to occasionally make a review of the batch formula sheets in lieu of walking through production upon a regular visit of an all kosher dairy or pareve plant.

So if anyone is wondering what happened on that kosher review in the summer of July 2002, it is this. Sitting down reviewing the batch formula sheets of this bakery had initially proven that the kosher contacts at this plant were really on top of their Schedule A. One by one I had been checking off the ingredients from the Schedule A by description and source in the order that I had encountered them on the batch formula sheets. All had been uneventful until I came across the batch formula sheet for a product with the formula code 13000420. The first five ingredients on this particular products batch formula sheet were properly registered on the Schedule A. These included in sequence the following: sugar, shortening, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon. Then came the sixth ingredient on the list; raisin water. I begin to search for Upon consultation with HaRav the raisin water on 4 the Schedule A, but so The schedule A Belsky shlita, I was advised that this is certainly not an ideal much to my disIs perfecT! situation, and the product in may I cant locate or Is IT? question with its present forit. In the back of mulation should not be kosher my mind I am fretcertified. The is based twofold. First on ful that this may be a raisin juice concentrate, which is one of the more prominent red flag the opinion of the who maintains ingredients. Needless to say I am very conthat raisins soaked in water for 24 hours cerned about the kosher disposition of this have a status of and constitute product as I request an LOC from the plants wine even without . And kosher contact. The fine gentleman answers secondly, even according to the me that it has no LOC since it is made at who posits that a minimum of three days is

required for the soaking of raisins at ambithe plant by means of an in-house recipe. ent temperature to be considered wine, it is What does the recipe entail, I inquire? Very simple, explains the fine gentleman, necessary to have to ensure that all we do is take our raisins and soak them the non-Jewish workers dont soak the raisins in water. I then ask to see the product past the . specification sheet for the raisin water code ' the product did not have to be recalled, number W0109. I am graciously given the since the raisin water was in the final spec and notice that sure enough, all that product and because the 3 day requirement is in this raisin water is raisins and water. of the can be relied upon . Lo and behold both the However, raisins and the water are as Harav IT Is The bATch also properly registered Belsky, shlita, formulA sheeT on the Schedule A. advised, I however, ThAT rAIses So the Schedule A is perinstructed the AwAreness... fect! Or is it? I also notice company to upon further examination reformulate of the spec, that the raisins are soaked in the the product, which it did wholeheartedly by water for 48 hours. It occurs to me that I replacing the raisin water with a little more may have made one of the greatest discoversugar to compensate for the loss of sweetness ies. There is indeed another entity of , in the final product. aside from and ,that is created The upshot is that even the most perfect from an amalgamation of . Can it Schedule A and company raw material list be that the raisins and the water, which are would not alert an RFR to the raisin water both independently ,create the and its related kashrus problems. This is to of when they are soaked together no fault of the Schedule A and company raw for 48 hours? I have the plant place this material list. After all, both of these seminal product on hold until further notice, which documents include separate listings of the they are more than amenable to do. All this raisins and the water. It is the batch formula time the plant kosher contacts are somewhat sheet however, that raises awareness to the befuddled. In their minds they had not been raisin water issue. For this reason, it cant in non-compliance with kosher, since both be underscored enough the importance for the raisins and the water were listed on the RFRs to periodically review batch formula Schedule A. How was I going to explain this sheets and perform where used searches on to them? Of course, I reason to myself, kosher sensitive in-house formulations such is the key. And so I begin by reassuras raisin water. While the use of raisin water ing the plant kosher contacts that they have may be next to nil, as I have found it is used done everything right, and by telling them quite sparingly in bakeries, whos to say what how much their dedicated service towards other revelations the RFR may uncover. our kosher program is appreciated. However, Perhaps another that becomes there are times in kosher when two rights .If the new discovery enhances kashrus, can make a wrong, as in the case of putit will be time and energy well spent. ting meat and milk together. Raisins and water, I explain, fall under the meat and milk category. By themselves, they are all right. ______________________________________ But mixed together, they are wrong. The 1 " " fine gentlemen are very fascinated by this " phenomenon and curiously await to hear the 2 final decision on the product that has been placed on hold. 3 " " " " " 4 " " ' ( ' " ") (" " " ") " " ( " ") " (" ' " ") " " " " .

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ask oU kosher comes to town

A Night to Remember in Elizabeth
in its continuing tour of Orthodox communities in the New York metropolitan area and beyond, OU Kosher came to Elizabeth, New Jersey and presented ASK OU: A Night of Kashrus, in conjunction with the Vaad HaRabbonim of Greater Elizabeth, JEC Beit HaKnesset Adat Yisrael, JEC Elmora Avenue Shul and the Elmora Hills Minyan. The program was part of the Harry H. Beren Ask OU OUTREACH initiative, which is sponsored by the Harry H. Beren Foundation of Lakewood, NJ.
Featured presentations were given by Rabbi Chaim Loike, OU Rabbinic Coordinator and an expert on birds and eggs, who discussed, Can I Eat That? with the assistance of his feathered friends. Rabbi Yosef Eisen, Rabbinic Administrator of the Vaad HaKashrus of the Five Towns and Rockaways, who is a former OU Rabbinic Coordinator for Food Service and expert in Bedikas Tolaim, presented a live demonstration on How to Check Fruits and Vegetables. According to Rabbi Yosef Grossman, OU Senior Educational Rabbinic Coordinator, who arranged the program, It was a distinct pleasure to bring the Harry H. Beren ASK OU OUTREACH program to the world renowned Greater Kehilah of Elizabeth, under the leadership of its distinguished Rav HaIr Rav Elazar M. Teitz Shlita. The attendees, from the various synagogues represented, were all united in their praise of the stimulating presentations that were delivered by Rabbi Loike and Rabbi Eisen. Following the presentation, Rabbi Jonathan Schwartz wrote to Rabbi Menachem Genack, CEO of OU Kosher: On behalf of the Vaad HaRabbonim of Greater Elizabeth, I want to extend our sincerest thanks for the wonderful ASK OU program that visited our community this evening. HaRav Loike Shlita and his bird friends were both educational and entertaining as he raptly contained the audience with both insight from our mesorah as well as examples of the application (and sometimes misapplication) of mesorah terms throughout world history creating some of the halachic conundrums we deal with today. HaRav Eisen Shlita followed with a hands-on, practical presentation on Bedikas Tolaim which, according to one participant, "made my vegetable checking doable." Like Rabbi Loike before him, Rabbi Eisen was relatable and made a difficult section of halacha easier to understand and apply. I also want to openly thank Harav Grossman Shlita without whom this effort would never have happened. The success of the evening is truly his -- and the OU's.

Rabbi Chaim Loikes feathered friend after a supper of goldfish

Rabbi Yosef Eisen demonstrates checking vegetables

A partial view of the crowd

S A rD I N E S

continued from page 45

". . . " ( ' ') " , ' , " , , . ". " "

. " ( , Museum of Natural History) DNA bar-coding analysis using DNA Sequencing with Capillary Electrophoresis " . . . " , " ' "
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oU kosher visits paris consistoire

Translated from the original in the French press

Rabbi Menachem Genack, OUs Rabbinic Administrator and CEO and Rabbi Moshe Elefant, OUs Executive Rabbinic Coordinator and COO, met Paris Consistoires high ranking officials in Frances capital (May 9-12, 2011). In 1808, Emperor Napoleon first created the France Consistoire and local Consistoires. All local Consistoire are members of the France Consistoire Central. The Paris Consistoire, which also includes Jewish communities living in the city capitals suburbs, is the most important local Consistoire. Rabbis Genack and Elefant were invited by the Paris Consistoire for meetings regarding kosher products. They participated in ceremonies at the Paris Great Synagogue of La Victoire for Yom Hazikaron (Israels Remembrance Day) and Yom Haatsmaut (Israels Independence Day). They visited several Jewish communities and schools, as well as the Fleg Center. Located in the Quartier Latin, the Fleg Center is dedicated to Jewish students. On May 11, Rabbis Genack and Elefant discussed key issues with Parisian rabbis in charge of kosher services. They were offered a lunch of refined French kosher cooking in the Paris Great Synagogue with Senior Professional staff and rabbis from the Parisian suburbs Jewish communities. They tasted a wine which had the OU and the Paris Beth Din (KBDP) kosher symbols on its label. The Paris Beth Din is the Paris Consistoires Kashrut supervising authority. Rabbi David Messas, Great Chief Rabbi of Paris, is the son of former Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Jerusalem, Shalom Messas. He was invited to visit the OU headquarters a few months ago. His vibrant speech during that lunch was focused on the necessity to repair the world by showing brotherhood, feeling love for Israel, and reinforcing unity. Rav Jermiyahu M. Kohen, Av Beth Din, lauded the OUs rabbis expertise.

Joel Mergui, President of the Paris Consistoire, defined Paris Consistoires characteristic: it is a non-profit service organization. For instance, he gave recognition to all rabbis who gave Kosher Le Pessah meals for Jews in hospitals, in the Army, in jails, etc. He hoped that kosher food would be affordable for every Jew, including poor Jews. He wanted to enlarge the range of Kosher products. He wished that more Jews would come closer to Jewish organizations and to Judaism through kashrout eating kosher food at home or in restaurants, etc. and ethics. He briefly mentioned the Consistoires fight to prevent the adoption of a European ban of ritual slaughter (shehita). An OU Rabbi echoed President Merguis speech underlining that the OU, a community-based organization, is also guided by religious and social considerations. After prayers, Rabbis Genack and Elefant joined the Parisian Rabbis Beth Hamidrachs Seminar. The KBDP is an important Kosher certification in France and Europe. The OU has high standards of kosher certification and is active in Europe and world wide. OU and Paris Consistoires representatives met in order to set up partnerships in the interest of Jewish communities. We share the same goals: to serve the Jewish community. We wish to optimize our actions. The French food-processing (agroalimentary) industry will be more interested in manufacturing kosher products which include the American market, besides the French one, President Mergui told me on May 11, 2011. He added that activists who support boycotts of kosher products might put pressure on some food-processing manufacturers. OU and Paris Consistoire have strict standards of Kosher certification. Their activities are complementary. Thus, a synergy will be positive for both organizations. For instance, OU benefits from the Paris Consistoires expertise in kosher wine production in France. Thousands of bottles of OU/KBDP certified wines were sold, Alain Korcarz noted. Korcarzs enterprise is a European leader of Kosher bakery and viennoiseries whose two sites of production are certified by OU and Paris Consistoire.

second advanced kashrUt seminar for women

Coming August 29-September 2 at OU Headquarters
is a womans place in the kitchen? Yes, if that woman is interested in the finer points of kosher law and that kitchen is the large facility at the Sheraton Meadowlands in New Jersey. A group of those women will visit the hotel kitchen, where kosher meals are prepared for hundreds of people simultaneously, as part of the second Orthodox Union Advanced Kashrut Seminar for Women, to be presented by OU Kosher, Monday August 29 - Friday, September 2 at OU Headquarters in New York.
The seminar, part of the ASK OU program sponsored by the Harry H. Beren Foundation of Lakewood, will feature lectures on a wide variety of aspects of kashrut as well as industrial plant and hotel kitchen tours, with instruction provided by a faculty of OU experts. The course will go into the home kitchen as well, declared Rabbi Yosef Grossman, OU Koshers Director of Kashrut Education and program coordinator, for proper control of ones own kitchen requires extensive kashrut knowledge. Space is limited. When the course was offered for the first time in August of 2009, a group of 25 women -- some coming from as far afield as Sydney, Australia; Edmonton, Canada and Efrat, Israel -attended sessions on checking vegetables for insects; finding blood spots in eggs; meat and dairy control; identifying and purchasing kosher fish; methods of food service and industrial kosherization; and general questions on Jewish laws of kashrut, in addition to the site visits. In reflecting on the first Advanced Kashrut Seminar for Women, Rabbi Grossman noted, I was extremely pleased with the outcome of that program. We were able to educate, on an advanced level, a group of women representing the broad religious spectrum from left to right. They were all united in their quest and appreciation for accurate kashrut information, which OU Koshers kashrut experts so adequately provided. We look forward to duplicating that success. The only cost is a $75 registration fee. For more information, or to apply and set up an interview, contact Avigail Klein at 212-613-8279, or [email protected].

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new oU kosher proGram presents yoreh deah

Mini-Shiurim with Rabbi Eli Gersten on OU Radio
in a new Orthodox Union kashrut education initiative, Rabbi Eli Gersten, OU Koshers Rabbinic Coordinator for Psak Halacha, now delivers mini-shiurim on www.ouradio.org in Yoreh Deah, the section of Shulchan Aruch which includes the Laws of Kashrut. Rabbi Gersten goes through each siman, beginning with siman 87 (Basar BChalav), elucidating the halachic concepts involved and drawing on the major commentaries and writings of the foremost halachic decisors in order to provide a thorough, detailed overview of the issues.
It is anticipated that Rabbi Gerstens mini-shiurim will cover most of the major sections of Yoreh Deah which are learned for semichah, including Hilchos Taarovos - all with a focus on providing the underpinnings of modern kashrut policy. In this vein, the minishiurim may continue into lesser known sections of Yoreh Deah, due to their particular kashrut ramifications. As such, the number of potential mini-shiurim in this series is limitless. The mini-shiurim began two months ago as part of a new training program for professional rabbinic staff of the OU Kashrut Department. Due to the lack of availability of such shiurim for broader audiences, it was decided that the OU would go public with the program and offer it to a larger audience. Although this is a public program, it is geared to those who are prepared for an advanced study of Yoreh Deah, such as rabbis and semichah students. Each mini-shiur is approximately 10-15 minutes long. They are tailored as much as possible to each cover one new sif in Yoreh Deah. New mini-shiurim are posted on an ongoing basis approximately three new sessions per week. The mini-shiurim are featured on www.OURadio.org in the Yoreh Deah link. Furthermore, the mini-shiurim are readily available as free podcast subscriptions via iTunes and Yahoo. The Yoreh Deah shiur is now available as a podcast. You can subscribe using iTunes or any other RSS Feed reader/podcast software. If you are using iTunes you can simply click on the iTunes logo below the podcast feature box at the top of the Yoreh Deah page (http://ouradio.org/yoreh_deah) and youll be able to subscribe automatically. You can also subscribe to the podcast feed manually in iTunes. To do so, in iTunes click on the Advancedmenu in the top left hand side of your screen. Select Subscribe to Podcast... from the drop down menu. Then cut and paste this url- http://feeds.feedburner. com/YorehDeah into the text box that appears and click on OK. This will make all the shiurim appear in the podcast section of your iTunes. From the podcast section of your iTunes you can then download all the available shiurim by clicking on the arrow to the left of where it says Yoreh Deah and then selecting Get All. Additionally each shiur can be downloaded as an individual mp3. You can right click on any download mp3 link and select save as... from the drop down menu. Once youve saved the file to your computer you can burn a CD or drag it into whatever software or mp3 player you'd like. Rabbi Gersten has semichah from Ner Israel Rabbinical College of Baltimore, where he studied and gained a mastery of Yoreh Deah (among many other things). While living in Baltimore, Rabbi

Gersten underwent extensive shimush (hands-on halachic training) under Rabbi Moshe Heinemann. Rabbi Gersten continues his halachic involvement at the Orthodox Union by interfacing closely with the OUs poskim, Rabbi Yisroel Belsky and Rabbi Herschel Schachter, and publishing and teaching Yoreh Deah/Kashrut topics at OU Headquarters.

kashrUs alert

#1 Gluten Free ChOCOlate Cake Mix, 5lb., UPC 654367435304 Lot 333104 and White Cake Mix, 5 lb., UPC 654367435052 Lot 33310-4 produced by #1 Gluten Free Sayre, PA may inadvertently contain dairy ingredients. The affected products have been recalled.

Better Batter PanCake & BisCuit Mix, 20 oz., UPC 896439002070, Best Before Jul 2012-Mar 2013, PanCake/ BisCuit Mix, 2.5 lbs., UPC 896439002032, Best Before December 2011, February-August 2012 & March 2013, YellOW Cake Mix, 18.25 oz, UPC 896439002100, Best Before Jan-Mar 2013, Chocolate Cake Mix, 18.25 oz., UPC 896439002094, Best Before Jan-Mar 2013 produced by Better Batter Gluten Free Flour Altoona, PA may inadvertently contain dairy ingredients. The affected products have been recalled. hersheYs COOkies n ChOCOlate produced by Hershey Chocolate Company, with the Israel importer Royalty Tasa and Jack, Holon Israel appearing on the label, is made in Brazil and sold in Israel with a sticker placed by the importer that contains an unauthorized U . This product is not certified by the Orthodox Union and the sticker did not originate from the Hershey Chocolate Company. Consumers who see this product with an OU sticker should please contact [email protected]. to our dedicated RC raBBi Daniel nOsenChuk anD his WiFe on the bar mitzvah of their son Moshe Chaim.

mAZ el T ov

to our devoted RC and Group Leader raBBi YOel sChOnFelD who will be leaving the OU as a full-time employee to become the Rabbi of the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills.

oukak of,tm

to raBBi Gil stuDent, Managing Editor of OU Press who has returned to the corporate world. We thank him for his devotion and wish him much success. We will miss both his professional qualities of erudition, insight and intellectual prowess, as well as his personal qualities of pleasantness, sensitivity and consideration for others. to DOrit hakiM who has led OU Koshers Product Dept. for the past ten years. Her devotion, dedication and excellent smooth handling of the department was greatly appreciated by OU companies and the entire staff. We wish her much success in her future endeavors. to YuDi FrieDMan who will be transferring from OU Direct to head the Product Dept. Best wishes for her future success as well. Yudi can be reached at [email protected], Phone number: 212613-8192. Fax: 212-613-0654.

oukak oftucu

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