<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">In our metropolitan area, there are currently two (dairy) vegetarian restaurants (one Indian and one Chinese). We also have a vegan restaurant (Chinese).<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">I was the mashgiach for all of these for many years.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">Several issues:<span></span></span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style=""><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">1)<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">Staff would bring in food from home and try to cook it in the kosher utensils. One of our certified restaurants lost their cert over this.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style=""><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">2)<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">BUGS in the veggies. Especially cabbage. Several times, I had to get the owner to send the whole case back and try again.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style=""><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">3)<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">In one case, I spent an entire week preparing a restaurant for kosher certification. This included cleaning equipment, kashering where necessary, replacing other items that could not be kashered, and verifying kashrut of the ingredients. There was one ingredient that the owner said was “critical” to her business. We contacted various kashrut experts who certify products in Asia, and were unable to verify the kashrut of this ingredient. After a very long, hard week, the owner of the restaurant, head of our Vaad, and I had a meeting. No one could change their position, so we ended up not certifying the place. The owner did thank me for the cleaning job I did.</span></p><p class="gmail-MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style=""><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;font-size:10pt">Meanwhile, Rabbi </span><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;font-size:10pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">Akiva Miller</span><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;font-size:10pt"> wrote:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">>Take Chalav Yisrael, for example. Milk is a consumer product which is</span><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif"><br>
<span style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">ostensibly made of one single, simple, kosher ingredient, and in the</span><br>
<span style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">pre-pasteurization era it wasn't even cooked. But because of the</span><br>
<span style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">possibility of adulteration, Chazal saw fit to require hashgacha of</span><br>
<span style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">that single-ingredient product. Even in situations where Torah Law</span><br>
<span style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">would allow us to rely on the probability that a given container of</span><br>
<span style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">milk was kosher, Chazal said we *can't* rely on it.><span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">In Europe, there is a move on to use donkey milk:<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">Chazal were not kidding when they prohibited “Chalav Akum.”<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">Domori Donkey Milk Chocolate<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif"><a href="https://themeadow.com/products/domori-donkey-milk">https://themeadow.com/products/domori-donkey-milk</a><span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">This milk chocolate bar is infused with donkey milk powder.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">Interesting fact about donkey milk: It is the closest to human milk for nutritional values and chemical features. It has les fats and more lactose than any other milk. Cleopatra used to bathe in donkey milk to preserve her legendary beauty.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">And here:<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif"><a href="https://www.thelocal.ch/20161121/swiss-chocolatier-pioneers-donkeys-milk-chocolate">https://www.thelocal.ch/20161121/swiss-chocolatier-pioneers-donkeys-milk-chocolate</a><span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">Swiss choc master creates donkey's milk chocolate<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">21 November 2016<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">A chocolate maker in Morges, in the canton of Vaud, has produced the country's first ever chocolate made from donkey's milk, thought to be suitable for people who are allergic to cow's milk.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">Gérard Fornerod created the speciality chocolate in collaboration with the Eurolactis society, also based in Morges, which produces cosmetics and other products using donkey's milk.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">In 2014 Pierluigi Orunesu, founder of Eurolactis, hit the news when he travelled to the Vatican to present his products to Pope Francis, who revealed that he was fed donkey's milk as a child growing up in Argentina.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">“When he returned Pierluigi suggested that I make recipes with his product. I started to make pastries and the result was really good,” Fornerod told Le Tribune de Genève on Sunday.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">Wanting to create a product with a longer shelf life, Fornerod soon developed a donkey's milk chocolate which is the first such product in Switzerland.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">Donkey's milk is said to be the closest animal milk to human breast milk. Rich in lactose and fatty acids and lower in fat than other milks, it is thought to boost the immune system and may be suitable for those who are allergic to cow's milk.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">The ancient Greeks and Egyptians considered it an elixir, and Cleopatra famously bathed in the stuff.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">In 2013 the UN Food and Agriculture Organization said donkey's milk has “particular nutritional benefits” since its proteins may make them more suitable for people who are allergic to cows' milk.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">Speaking to The Local on Monday, Orunesu said he set up Eurolactis since there was plenty of demand for donkey's milk products but very little on the market.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">“It's the closest milk to mother's milk. And that's very good for all problems relating to allergies and for nutrition,” he said.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">The new donkey's milk chocolate is a first in Switzerland since all chocolate here is made from cow's milk, he said.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">“So it's a way of innovating, and above all, it brings a lightness to the chocolate that cow's milk does not have,” he added.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">Orunesu is confident there is a market for donkey's milk chocolate, particularly among those who are allergic to cow's milk.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">“Not only in Switzerland. In the modern world between four and five percent have allergies and that's on the rise.”<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">However, there aren't actually many donkey's milk producers in Switzerland. Though Eurolactis was created in Switzerland, most of the milk comes from Italy, he said.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif"><span> </span></span></p><div><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div>Chaim Tatel</div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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