13 Jan KASHRUS QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK WITH RABBI MOSHE ELEFANT

My wife purchased French fries from a pizza
store and put them in the refrigerator. When I
came home, she said dinner would be leftovers. I
combined various fleishig foods with the French
fries and reheated everything in
the microwave. What is the halachic
status of the food and of the plate it
was served on?
This situation is complicated, because one must
assume that food coming out of a pizza shop is truly
dairy unless proven otherwise. I have been involved
in halachic discussions regarding garlic knots from
pizza shops. There is even a broader halachic
discussion about the prohibition of dairy bread and
whether it applies to garlic knots—but regardless,
garlic knots from a pizza shop should be considered
dairy. There are several reasons for this. Many pizza shops produce dairy dough, adding milk
directly to the dough, and that same dough is often used for garlic knots. Even when the
dough itself is not intentionally dairy, it is frequently fried in fryers that are used for definitely
dairy items.
Therefore, unless a pizza shop explicitly states otherwise, the assumption must be that
all foods—including French fries—are fully dairy, not merely pareve produced on dairy
equipment. If such French fries are mixed with fleishig food, the mixture may not be eaten.
If the fries were not mixed with meat but were reheated in a fleishig microwave, there may
be options to kasher the microwave. A more serious concern arises if the food was served
on a dairy Corelle or china plate, which cannot be kashered. The first step in such a case is to
contact the pizza shop and determine the facts: What is the status of the fryer? Is

it used for dairy, and when was it last used? This requires careful investigation.
If a non-kasherable dish such as Corelle or china was used, my general guidance is not
to use the dish for twelve months. There are halachic opinions that allow, after that time,
placing the dish into boiling water. These opinions should only be relied upon in extenuating
circumstances.

May one eat at a store without
overall hashgacha if the specific
item being consumed is individually
certified (e.g., Häagen-Dazs or
Krispy Kreme)?
This is a very good question and one the OU has
addressed for many years. Using Häagen-Dazs as
an example: although most Häagen-Dazs stores
are not certified, the ice cream itself arrives in tubs
bearing reliable certification. If you personally
see the ice cream being scooped directly from
a certified tub, observe that the scoop is clean,
and the ice cream is served in a disposable bowl with a disposable spoon, it may be
eaten. However, toppings or other store items may not be consumed, as their source and
certification cannot be verified. The same principle applies to Krispy Kreme. If a product is
clearly coming directly from its original, certified container, and you can verify that nothing
was added or substituted, it may be consumed. Ice cream works well as an example because
it cannot realistically be removed from a tub and replaced with another product. Cake,
however, is more problematic. A slice of cake presented in a box from a certified bakery
may not actually be from that bakery. I have personally encountered multiple cases where
uncertified products were placed into empty certified boxes. Once a box is opened and
unsealed, substitution becomes a real concern.