By COLlive reporter
The OU Kosher certification has warned consumers to be aware of certain brands of quinoa which may contain booklice insects.
Some brands of quinoa were recently found to contain booklice, the OU said in a statement, and said they are “looking into this matter.”
Accordingly, quinoa should not be used without a thorough inspection, the OU advised.
The method of checking that has been found to be effective is to pour the quinoa into a thirty mesh sifter and agitate for 30 seconds over a white surface. If any booklice are found on the white surface, the quinoa should be discarded.
Booklice are tiny pests that measure barely longer than 1/16th of an inch. They are brown, white, or grey and have six pairs of legs. Normally they live outside in trees, but they are drawn indoors by damp conditions where they can thrive.
What is a thirty mesh sifter?????????????
It’s A Very Fine mesh Wire Strainer..
If the quinoa is O U certified do you still have to check it?
Just checked my new bag of Costco Quinoa and Ill never buy it again,,,just saying
Don’t use it…
I was made to understand this applies to white quinoa only, not to red and black. Does the OU comment on this?
Give us names!!
More info needed
1) Strainer just needs to be fine enough the uncooked quinoa doesn’t fall through. 2) A clean white plate is good for checking other grains also. 3) Besides shaking dry quinoa over plate, I look in bottom of box or bag that I just emptied, plus I leave a handful of grain from the bottom of container, sitting quietly on the plate a minute or two, in case bugs are hiding inside the grain. Usually I check it all the regular way, sliding it over the white plate- because I am also watching for stuff I am sensitive to things… Read more »
Which brands has it been found in?
Very disturbed about products with OU that the OU says needs to checked. The reason Companies Pay, And Consumers Pay, is to ensure the Product is Kosher, we rely on a Yid to tell us he or they checked to make sure. If a Hashgacha symbol does not Denote that it is Kosher, then we should not have these symbols on products. We will have to just go back to eating foods we can check ourselves.
No hechshers protect you from bugs! The supervision protects us from non-kosher ingredients & cross contamination of milk and meat. On bread we can be assured that challah has been taken. In Israel, we are assured that the laws of orla, shmitta, and maisser are followed correctly. But bug checking is THE CONSUMER’S RESPONSIBILITY. The exception to that would be in the case that it clearly states that it is a bug free product (Bodek)