[Avodah] Mashgiach and Kosher Standards

[Zev Sero via Avodah]

On 05/01/17 12:07, Professor L. Levine via Avodah wrote:
> The following is from
>
> http://www.kosherveyosher.com/mashgiach-standards.html
>
>
> According to what is on this web site it seems to me that the standards
> of supervision that are in place in restaurants,  pizza shops and take
> outs in Brooklyn and many other places  leave something to be desired.  YL
>

Ironically you found this on the site of a hechsher that almost nobody 
trusts.  Australia's equivalent of Mr Israel Steinberg.

What you have to understand is that the OU does not determine the 
halacha.  It has its standards, based on its clientele and what level of 
supervision it believes they need.  Other hechsherim are the OU's 
*equals*, if not greater, and have every right to set different 
standards, especially if their clientele is different.

For instance, I have been told (but haven't seen it inside) that the 
Darkei Teshuvah (R Tzvi Hirsh Shapiro of Munkatch) would not give a 
hechsher on food, but on the proprietor.  If he couldn't trust the 
proprietor to work without supervision he wouldn't give the hechsher no 
matter how strict a supervision the fellow was willing to endure.  In 
other words, his rigorous standards in choosing clients allowed him to 
employ very loose standards in supervising them.  The OU has the exact 
opposite policy: it certifies anyone who wants it, and it does so by 
treating *everyone* as untrustworthy.   Each approach is legitimate, but 
they result in very different business models. An organisation the OU's 
size simply can't run on the Darkei Teshuvah's principles; a  boutique 
hechsher run by a single yerei shomayim, and taking on no more business 
than he can personally handle, can.

-- 
Zev Sero                May 2017, with its *nine* days of Chanukah,
zev at sero.name           be a brilliant year for us all