14 Nov OU KOSHER ADDS TWO NEW OPTIONS TO CONSUMER PRODUCT SEARCH WEBSITE

Dairy Equipment and
Yoshon Categories
Offered in Response to
Community Requests
Of the hundreds of
weekly queries OU (Orthodox Union)
Kosher fields from consumers via its Kosher
Hotline and Webbe Rebbe forum, the most
popular centers on Oreo cookies.
“The most frequently asked shaila in
America is whether Oreos are dairy, pareve,
or simply made with dairy equipment,” says
OU Kosher Chief
Executive Officer
Rabbi Menachem
Genack. “While
some Oreos are
dairy, others are
in fact pareve.
But they are all
marked OU-D in
order to enable the
manufacturers to
change the formula,
should they wish, without having to incur
the tremendous costs of altering product
labels.”

The Oreo question is particularly
meaningful to people who observe Cholov
Yisroel, live in smaller Jewish communities
devoid of pareve food options, have milk
allergies, or simply wish to indulge in these
treats following a meat meal.
Thanks to OU Kosher’s recent addition of
two new categories to its product search
website, consumers can now obtain instant
answers to their dairy equipment and
yoshon-related questions. The site now also
lists 2,000 additional products designated by
OU Kosher as DE or
yoshon that lack the
official certification
symbols on the
product packaging.
“We’re here to serve
the community,”
says OU Kosher
Chief Operating
Officer Rabbi
Moshe Elefant.
“That’s our mission.
Consumers have increasingly conveyed
that the DE and yoshon designations are
important to them, and we have responded.

OU Kosher’s objective is to provide
timely kashrus information in the
most sophisticated way possible.”
As the world’s largest and most widely
recognized international kosher
certification agency, OU Kosher
certifies over one million products
manufactured in 13,000 plants in 105
countries. The organization certifies
two-thirds of all kosher food in the
United States and has endorsed DE
and yoshon products for over 20 years.
Launched in 2011, OU Kosher’s consumer
product search website already enabled
visitors to search for meat, dairy, pareve,
kosher for Passover, pas yisroel, cholov
yisroel and gluten free products.
Rabbi Genack notes that as with Oreos,
other foods confirmed as DE or yoshon by
OU Kosher may lack official symbols on the
product packaging due to the prohibitive
costs to manufacturers of updating product
labels, in the event that ingredients change.
Because manufacturers can potentially alter
their formulas and re-add milk to DE items,
certain foods listed as DE on the consumer
product search website are marked as
“Subject to change – Please check on DE
status every few months.”
“A company with an OU-D certified
product can add milk to the recipe in
the future and it’s their right,” says OU
Kosher Executive Rabbinic Coordinator
Rabbi Moshe Zywica, who worked on
the website additions together with
OU Chief Technology Officer Jeremy
Sanders.
“Therefore, OU Kosher is saying, right
now the item falls under DE according
to our investigation, but don’t assume
that it will always be DE. The website
is updated daily; people should recheck
items’ status every few months where
indicated, because even if the recipe
changes, it will take time for the updated
product to reach store shelves.”
As for products confirmed as yoshon on
OU Kosher’s consumer product site but
which appear unmarked, Rabbi Zywica
explains that many lack certification
symbols because companies prefer not
to have extra writing on their products
beyond the small OU symbol.
The Torah forbids eating the new year’s
grains until after the second day of
Passover. This prohibition applies to
five varieties of grain: wheat, barley,
spelt, rye and oats. After the second day
of Passover, all grain which took root
before Passover is viewed as yoshon
(old), and is permitted. Grain which

took root after the second day of Passover
is known as chodosh and is not permitted
until after the second day of Passover the
following year.
In Israel all grain products are required to
be yoshon, but whether this is required in
Chutz la’Aretz is the subject of controversy.
Rabbi Genack notes that it was Rabbi Ahron
Soloveichik, zt”l, who spearheaded the
movement of adherence to yoshon in North
America. The concern for chodosh grain
in the United States is a relatively recent
phenomenon, Rabbi Genack explained.
“Until the late 1960s, the U.S. had a huge
wheat surplus,” he says, and therefore all
grain that reached the market was yoshon.
“During the Nixon era, there were massive
grain sales to Russia and the U.S. no longer
had that kind of surplus, so the issue of
chodosh emerged. Rav Ahron Soloveichik
believed very strongly in the importance
of keeping yoshon even outside of Israel.
While the number of people who kept
yoshon was small in his day, it has become
more widespread. Many others, however,
continue to follow the lenient positions
about chodosh in Chutz La’Aretz, such as
that of the Bach and others.”
Rabbi Elefant notes that significant time
and resources were dedicated to adding the
DE and yoshon options, and the project is
ongoing.
“OU Kosher’s rabbinic coordinators
spent considerable time researching each
product, and the field representatives
verify that each item’s composition remains
consistent,” says Rabbi Elefant. “OU’s IT
department also invested tremendous effort
and countless hours to create the program
and ensure that the information remains
current. We are grateful to everyone for
their dedication to OU Kosher consumers.”