The Chicago Rabbinical Council (cRc) presents 10 kashrus questions that were answered in November 2013:
Q: What is the cRc’s policy on canned cranberry sauce?
A: Canned cranberry sauce is acceptable without certification if it contains no kosher-sensitive ingredients. In this context, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, and water are not kosher sensitive.
Q: Do dry roasted walnuts need a hechsher?
A: Unflavored raw, blanched, salted and/or dry roasted nuts, including walnuts, are acceptable without hashgachah.
Q: Can one use flavored lip balm?
A: Although lip balm is a non-food item and it does not require a hechsher, one still tastes and enjoying the flavor. It is therefore preferable, although not required, to use non-flavored lip balm.
Q: Do sliced or dried mushrooms require a hechsher?
A: Commercially produced sliced mushrooms do not need a hechsher. Dried mushrooms do not require a hechsher. Canned mushrooms do require a hechsher.
Q: What is the cRc policy on frozen fruit?
A: All frozen fruit is acceptable without certification unless they contain any natural and/or artificial flavors or colors, grape juice, have the words “fruit juice” listed in the ingredients, or are from China. This includes frozen berries as well.
Q: I have seen non-dairy creamers are still designated as dairy. Can you explain why this is so?
A: Many of the non-dairy creamers in question contain an ingredient called “sodium caseinate” which is derived from milk. Sodium caseinate is not considered dairy according to the US government, but being derived from milk makes it halachikly dairy.
Q: Does flaxseed meal require a hechsher?
A: No, flaxseed meal with no additional ingredients does not need a hechsher.
Q: What is the cRc’s policy on nutritional supplements?
A: In general nutritional supplements are to be treated as food and would require a hechsher, even as pills.
Q: Does walnut oil require a hechsher?
A: Yes, walnut oil requires a hechsher.
Q: Are all cRc bread products pas Yisroel?
A: Only those products specifically stating on the label that they are pas Yisroel are to be considered pas Yisroel.
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What’s wrong with chemicals? What makes you think they’re bad for you? Maybe they’re davka good for you? Since you don’t know, isn’t either one equally likely? One thing is for sure: the bugs themselves would be bad for your neshama, and the damage they would do to the plant would be bad for your guf. So if instead of these definitely bad bugs you are eating chemicals which could be either bad or good, but are probably neutral, then you’re ahead of the game.
Sorry – I don’t run my kitchen at home ( or buy food products ) based on “probably” about any aspect of what I serve my family & guests. Yes, you absolutely do. Did you know that the meat you buy is only checked for one of the 18 treifos? Only the lungs are checked; the animal could have any of the other 17 treifos and you’d never know, because nobody looked. Even worse, the chickens you buy are not checked at all for treifos! Anything at all could be wrong with them, and nobody will ever know. Why? Because… Read more »
הרבה ירקות ופירות שיש להם הכשר והם “נקיים” – הם גם מלאים בכימיקלים.
כך שבעיניי זה קצת מסוכן לקנות תותים עם הכשר שאין להם בכלל חרקים, כי אם זה מלא חרקים באופן כללי אז מה היו יכולים לעשות כדי שלא יהיו – חוץ מלהשפריץ טונים של כימיקלים?
תיזהרו!!
עדיף להימנע מאשר לאכול רעל.
ועדיף עוד יותר לשאול רב מומחה בעניין מה צריך לעשות כי קשה לי להאמין שחייבים לבחור בין רעל להימנעות.
אבל אני לא רב אז מצאו לכם רב מומחה ושאלו אותו, בהצלחה.
Many times I’ve asked a rav whether or not I can take something that’s for health – that is recommended by a doctor and may contain dairy non kosher and the rav said its ok since its for health. Many times the item was non dairy and no hechsher and the rav always said if its for health its ok, So I guess it depends who you ask.
I work with a very promient lubavitcher hechsher in the southern hemisphere, and from personal accounts I can tell you that the ovens used to roast nuts are DEFINITELY used for other non-kosher related processes. It is the view therefore of our organisation that all roasted nuts require a hechsher, and as #6 pointed out, the CRC must clarify this, for making such a blanket Klal is really just unacceptable.
The frozen ones are fine as the CRC said. You do not need to buy bodek!
Only the fresh ones have a bug issue.
as well as other breads, they just urged us to call every so often to reconfirm… and it doesn’t always say explicitly “pas yisroel” on it. What’s up with that?! any thoughts? Perhaps thy are changing that policy?
Sorry – I don’t run my kitchen at home ( or buy food products ) based on “probably” about any aspect of what I serve my family & guests. I would like to hear what the CRC bases this opinion on and to hear whether other kashrus organizations ( like the OK for example ) agree.
Do NOT buy strawberries without a bodek hechsher like bodek or eden. The other ones are not reliable because of bugs
It used to be that cranberry sauce was the only product made in the plants of manufacture.In the recent past in the northeast of the USA some un certified cranberry sauce is manufactured in plants that also do other stuff.
Kindly clarify.
Don’t frozen strawberrys need a hechsher cuz of bugs?
There is no reason to worry about the oven. It’s a commercial oven, so it’s probably kept clean and there’s nothing on the roof from a previous run that could fall on the nuts or mushrooms and treif them up.
Although the plain roasted nuts or mushrooms ( or any dried item ) may have no need for a hechsher themselves, couldn’t there be kashrus issues concerning the ovens they are roasted in ? IOWS, those same ovens / heat source could have been used for treif, milchigs, etc. Please clarify.