17 Jan KASHRUS QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK WITH RABBI MOSHE ELEFANT

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 com-munity.
We kosher consum-ers are a nice market, but we’re not without limits;
we’re just a very small part of the popula-tion. 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.