Kashrus, Shmito and Chodosh Updates
Kashrus
The items listed below are under the supervision of the Manchester Beth Din. These companies have been given permission to print our registered logo on their products and gradually it will appear on their labels.
The complete range of Ty-Phoo Herbal teas
Nestle Cheerios (Plain, Honey Nut and Oat)
The following items contain non-supervised milk and should be avoided:
Cadbury Drinking Chocolate individual sachets.
Southern Comfort – this includes old stock already bought
Sunpride Pineapple & Coconut Juice
Lyle Squeezy Syrup Chocolate
The London Beth Din have removed from their list the following items – these are now not Kosher:
Bols Kirsch
Bols Lindauer Apfel
Bols Maraschino
Shmito
Below is a list of vegetables that are available in the shops and could well be from Israel.
Celery
Cherry tomatoes – red or yellow
Corn – fresh
Herbs - fresh
Kohlrabi
Lettuce
Melons – yellow (cantelope & galia)
Parsley
Peppers
Potatoes - new or sweet
Scallion
Spinach
Zucchini (a type of courgette)
Some fresh vegetables are grown on land owned by non-Jews. Also some processed foods, even with good Hechsherim, state that they are ‘Yevul Nochri’ i.e. grown on land owned by non-Jew. There is a difference of opinion whether one may eat such products. For those who are lenient this does not apply to produce cultivated by Jews.
The laws of Shmitoh do not apply presently to fruit only to vegetables. For purposes of Shmitoh, avocados are fruits, melon and strawberries are vegetables.
Chodosh
Wheat flour
Due to climatic changes in the past year, much of the UK wheat was below standard and could not be used for making good quality flour suitable for bread. Accordingly, many of the better quality range of bread flours could be mixed with up 60% (!) of Canadian Spring Sown wheat.
This applies to flour used by the bakers. The RHM flour in the shops does not contain any flour from outside the UK and is therefore Yoshon. At present we do not know about the supermarkets own brand name.
This applies both to white and wholemeal flour.
Oats
At least 20% of Scottish oats is spring sown and is now available in the shops.
English oats are winter sown. Morning Foods (Crewe) are under the supervision of the Manchester Beth Din and use only English oats.
Organic oats
These are generally spring sown and will be in the shops in January.