<br><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 10:08 AM, Lawrence Teitelman <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:lteitelman@yahoo.com">lteitelman@yahoo.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">
<div>
<div style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif">
<div><< I am familiar with this. Doesn't change the fact that what has been kosher<br>for decades, is still kosher regardless of the hecksher and the POLCIES of<br>the kashut agency.<br>Kashrut has always been ingredients, taste and equipment.Unless the laws of<br>
suffeik ben yomo, taarvos and various other things have been cancelled,<br>there is no need, with the strict enforcement of ingredient list laws in the<br>US and the EU for example, to have any hecksher for anything other than the<br>
big three. Meat, wine and (real)cheese.>></div>
<div> </div>
<div>Even assuming you can tell /all/ the relevant ingredients from the printed listing - which as has been discussed isn't so pashut both because not everything is listed or it can be listed ambiguously ("natural flavors") - how do you know about equipment?"</div>
</div></div></blockquote>
<div> </div>
<div><font color="#ff0000">FDA and EU laws require all ingredients to be listed in order of volume. The only exception is if an ingredient is so small and is part of another ingredient such as natural flavours(if one of the flavours was significant it has to be listed). These natural flavours are batel b'shishim, and are made up of dozens, sometimes hundreds of ingredients. Still worried that you might be consuming treif, even on a minute level? You are ignoring Chazal, but then don't buy such a product.</font></div>
<div><font color="#ff0000"></font> </div>
<div><font color="#ff0000">Equipment is aino ben yomo. Besides, when factories cross produce, they sterilize equipment between usage.</font></div>
<div><font color="#ff0000">And see Rav Moshe </font><font color="#ff0000">YD 1, 55. He trusts the ingredient list.</font></div>
<div> </div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">
<div>
<div style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif">
<div> </div>
<div>"To take one example, some canneries (in China) have been known to steam their fruits and vegetables together with treif fish. How would you know by looking at the label? And what about companies who use that in their production lines where you don't even see the cans."</div>
</div></div></blockquote>
<div>I</div>
<div><font color="#ff0000">So what? Can you taste it? Does it really happen? Is it really a kashrut issue? And it doesn't bother the London Beth Din either, for example.</font></div>
<div> </div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">
<div>
<div style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif">
<div> </div>
<div>There are other issues as well: bishul akum where applicable, agricultural halakhot on imports from Israel (e.g. concentrates).<br></div></div></div></blockquote>
<div> </div>
<div><font color="#ff0000">Bishul Akum from factories is not an issue according to many opinions.</font></div>
<div><font color="#ff0000">Agricultural produce from Israel could be a problem, but at the moment such produce is a suffeik d'Rabbanam, or even suffeik suffeika when purchased abroad.</font></div></div>
<div><font color="#ff0000"></font> </div>
<div><font color="#ff0000">And just to remind you there is a Gemara in Brachot discussing the blessing on caperberries. I think it is around 38, sorry I don't have it with me. There they decide a certain bracha was on a mixture that was imported from India. No reference to the ingredients being suspect or the keilim. Of course there are other examples of this.</font></div>
<p><font color="#ff0000">Over 1000 kashrut agencies?</font></p>
<div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Martin Brody<br>310 474 1856<br></div>