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    10 May KASHRUS QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK

    Posted at 20:36h in by
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    Should a hashgacha put on the product they certify the beracha one should make on that product?

    We at the OU are constantly getting calls about what’s the right bracha. I’d say the two foods we get the most questions about are breakfast cereals and granola bars, because different cereals and different granola bars are made under different conditions. Many people have recommended to us that the company should put the bracha on the packaging so that everyone should know what to do. The answer is quite simple. I need to remind everyone that we live in galus and most of the companies we deal with are not Jewish companies; they are here to market to the general community. We kosher consumers are a nice market, but we’re not without limits; we’re just a very small part of the population. Companies are not ready to give up valuable real estate on their labels to put on the brachos. It’s very important to remember that. People write to me all the time that companies should put the bracha on their product or other suggestions. They’re great suggestions, I appreciate the suggestions, and it would be great if we could do it. But you can’t go to companies like General Mills or other companies and say “Well, we’re worried about brachos.” It doesn’t really work. Some of the Heimishe companies do put on the bracha. Osem used to make a mezonos cake for Pesach with matza meal.

    Then, because the community that was careful with gebrochts started growing, they stopped making it with matza meal and started using potato startch. Somebody called me who always used those cakes for kiddush on Pesach and realized that it isn’t mezonos anymore. He said I should be noting that this product is shehakol and not mezonos. So we spoke to Osem and they did. They started labeling it with the right bracha. But that’s when you’re dealing with an Israeli company that has an appreciation for it. Most of the companies we’re working with don’t have an appreciation for hilchos brachos. A marketing manager once told me that the fact that they’re giving you that space on the label, some even on the front of the label, is huge! They measure every millimeter of what they put on and don’t put on a label so there’s only so far we could go with it.