Food Day Event Features In-Depth Look at Changing Trends in the Kosher Marketplace

Kosher food isn't just an aisle at the supermarket anymore. It has expanded into a billion dollar per year operation that serves not only those of the Jewish faith, but vegetarians, people with allergies, and people seeking the latest trend of whole and healthy products.

"Demystifying Kosher: Using Kosher Food Production to Enhance Your Business" was presented Monday by Rabbi Yaakov Horowitz and Jacob Rusanov on Rutgers University Cook Campus.

Horowitz is a predominant voice on all things kosher. He is chief supervising rabbi for Manischewitz, located in Newark, one of the largest and best known providers of Kosher products in the U.S. He is also a senior member of the Orthodox Union, which is the largest kosher supervising organization in the world.

Rusanov is a former category manager for Shop-Rite/Wakefern supermarkets, where he managed the corporation's private label kosher product line. He also worked as a sales manager for Israeli food company Osem.

Horowitz and Rusanov led a small group of industry professionals through the day-long seminar, discussing a range of topics including what kosher exactly means, who grants kosher certification and what it takes to attain it, who the current kosher consumer is, origins of kosher law, and what changing technologies in food production has done for providing a kosher product.

The forum was the first of its kind in that it was being offered by a university on this topic, Horowitz said. The Rutgers University Office of Continuing Professional Education hosted the event.

Horowitz said that kosher food has experienced a recent trand, largely in part due to consumers seeking these products for reasons other than religious.

There is a perception that kosher products are healthier and safer than those that are not, he said.

Additionally, vegetarians and people with food allergies are seeking these products for the guarantee that certain ingredients will not be present in them, he said. The Pareve designation, for example, denotes that there is no milk or meat present.

Basic kosher guidelines are the same - once an animal is slaughtered, it must be rinsed with salt and water. Dairy and meat can never be mixed. Fish that has scales and fins is considered kosher, while shellfish is not. Animals without split hooves are not kosher, such as pigs, nor are birds of prey or their eggs. These laws are rooted in Jewish scripture.

However, attaining proper kosher certification through proper rabbinical oversight and supervision is a whole other task. Much of the kosher certification in the U.S. is handled by four organizations: The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations and OK Kosher Certification, both in Brooklyn, N.Y., "Star-K" Kosher Certification in Baltimore, Md., and "Kof-K" (pronounced "hoof") Kosher Supervision in Teaneck.

Horowitz said the perception that kosher products are healthier than those that are non-kosher is false. Kosher does not mean that the product bearing the certification is always going to be vegetarian, organic, unprocessed, or all natural.

Further changes to the kosher product are coming in the way of changing food technology, Horowitz said, with widespread use of ingredients such as amino acids and enzymes, which are derived from animal products.

The presence of these ingredients, no matter how small, can render a product non-kosher. An example of this is animal enzymes in baby formula.

James Elliott, a plant microbiologist for Anheuser-Busch in Newark, said he was attending the event because the company is looking to sell off excess carbon dioxide, a byproduct of the brewing process. 

"It's a nice byproduct to have that other people need," he said.

It was suggested by another company that Anheuser-Busch look into getting a kosher certification to aid in finding a buyer for the gas, he said.

Currently, the plant does not currently have kosher certification, he said.