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    17 Jan KASHRUS QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK WITH RABBI MOSHE ELEFANT

    Posted at 22:56h 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 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.