Yeshiva World News

PHOTO LINKS WITH HUNDREDS OF PHOTOS BELOW: New Jersey - Thousands of people gathered on Monday in the Meadowlands Exposition Center for the first day of the 22nd Annual 2-day Kosherfest.

Who would believe Chipotle Chili Aioli sauce, Pomegranate Acai Mints, or Pina Colada Popcorn would be found in the pantries of today’s kosher consumer?

They are among more than 120,000 kosher certified items, and additional items are on the way. More than 500 newly kosher certified foods were introduced at the 21st annual kosher food, beverage, wine & spirits trade show – Kosherfest 2009.  According to the Mintel Research Organization, kosher remains the most dominant feature on new food items and an estimated 40% of a supermarket’s food products are kosher.

According to Rabbi Eliyahu Safran, V.P. Communications and Marketing for the Orthodox Union (OU), “In the past year there has been significant increase in the number of inquiries and applications by many food companies about OU certification despite the ongoing recession. The companies are well aware that attaining kosher certification can easily increase sales and gain a larger market share. We have particularly noted a spike in applications from every segment of the beverage, baking and organic food categories.”

The kosher symbol seems to be everywhere these days, from exotic sauces and convenient heat ‘n serve foods, to gourmet and customized desserts as well as non-dairy, non-soy and gluten-free products in every food category.

According to Menachem Lubinsky, co-producer and founder of Kosherfest, “Sales of kosher foods in the past year have increased by double-digits, significantly higher than the U.S. food market in general or for that matter other categories of specialty. Kosher has benefited from a constantly growing loyal base and the addition of many non-traditional consumers.” He credited the nation’s food retailers with having the “vision and wisdom to buy into a very dynamic and creative market.” The value of the kosher certified products market is over $200 billion, according to KosherToday, an industry newsletter. This year’s kosher food competitions and events gives visitors a taste of the best that kosher has to offer.

Kosherfest New Products Competition

The brand is called Luck Chen (a takeoff of the Yiddish term lugshen, which means noodles) and its 5 different flavors of Asian noodles were deemed the best new product of Kosherfest 2009 by a distinguished panel of judges who evaluated several hundred entries at the Marriott Glenpointe in Teaneck NJ on October 15th. The consensus of the judges was that this year’s entries were innovative, different and great additions to the kosher food shelf. Many of the winners were enhanced versions of existing products, frequently taking ordinary terms into the gourmet category. The winners were formally recognized at opening ceremonies for Kosherfest 2009.

The team of judges that gathered to select the winners included Yakov Yarmove of SuperValu, Joe Plueger of DPI, Jacob Rusinov of Shoprite, Jeff Nathan of Abigael’s, and Marty Stein of Tree of Life.

The new kosher food product entries were judged on the basis of such criteria as their newness, quality, taste, salability and retail price point. The winners are:

Best In Show – Luck Chen Asian Noodles in 5 flavors (NYC, NY)
Best Baked Good, Bread, Grain or Cereal – Sarah’s Tent Potato Borekas (Deal, NJ)
Best Beverage – True Toniq DBA Brain Toniq, Brain Toniq (Longmont, CO)
Best Cheese or Dairy – Get Healthy America Lasagna Florentine (Plainview, NY)
Best Dessert, Candy, Cookie or Cracker – Illinois Nut & Candy Smooth & Crunchy Peanut Butter Bark (Skokie, IL)
Best Food Service Product – Custom Candy Concepts, Inc, Picture Cookies (Ellijay, GA)
Best Packaging/Design – True Toniq DBA Brain Toniq, 4-pack Brain Toniq (Longmont, CO) Best Kosher Organic – Quality Frozen Foods Organic Batter Blaster (Brooklyn, NY)
Best Snack Food – Osem USA, Inc. Bamba Peanut Snack w/ Hazelnut Cream Filling (Englewood Cliffs, NJ)
Best Fine Food from Israel – Blue & White Foods LLC Falafel with Tehina Filling (Long Island City, NY)
Best Giftware/Novelty – Kosherkeepers® by Plastic Packaging Corp Food Kosherkeepers® Food Storage Containers (W. Springfield, MA)
Best Jam, Preserve or Spread – Oxygen Imports Mixed Berry Blast (Rahway, NJ)
Best Meat, Poultry or Seafood – Kosher Valley Chicken Breast Cutlets (Plainville, NY)
Best Wine, Beer or Spirit – The Natural Group/Kedem Elvi Sintonia Sangria (Bayonne, NJ)
Best Savory Condiment, Spice, Sauce, Oil, Vinegar or Dressing – Streit’s Matzos Asian Mel’s Gourmet sauce Line (NYC, NY)
Best Passover Product – Zelda’s Sweet Shoppe Zelda’s Orange Chiffon Cake (Chicago, IL)
Best Health & Wellness – Green Rabbit, LLC MIMICCREME Coffee Creamer (Albany, NY)
Best Pasta, Rice, Bean or Soup – Luck Chen Asian Noodles (5 flavors) (NYC, NY)

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27TH

• State of the Kosher Industry: The Marketing of Kosher Foods
Menachem Lubinsky, founder of Kosherfest, discussed how the industry can use its kosher status to make inroads with different segments of the food market, including retail and foodservice.

As the kosher food industry continues to grow; more than 100,000 products carry a kosher symbol. This can be an enormous marketing opportunity, for those who capitalize on this important asset. Over ten million Americans buy kosher food and U.S. supermarkets are seeing a greater growth in this market over non-kosher sales.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28TH

• 2nd Annual Kosherfest Culinary Competition
Watch and learn as chefs prepare their kosher deli sandwich of choice at the 2nd Annual Kosherfest Culinary Competition. A panel of industry professionals will judge and decide who takes the title.

• Crash Course in Gelatin - Presented by The Center for Kosher Culinary Arts
An engaging presentation from the culinary experts at The Center for Kosher Culinary Arts, the only kosher cooking school in the US. This event will feature a demonstration on how to prepare Kolatin® Real Kosher Gelatin for use in cooking & baking, followed by a Q&A on the characteristics and general application of the product. Take your kitchen prowess to the next level by learning how to use gelatin, one of the most versatile ingredients out there!

YWN PHOTO LINKS: Click HERE for photos taken for YWN by Hillel Engel, and click HERE for photos taken for YWN by Shimon Gifter.

According to data provided by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP), a record 5,360 inmates in federal prisons are receiving kosher meals in all of the FBOP’s 114 facilities across the United States. Of those, 3,268 identify themselves as Jewish.

While there have been several challenges to kosher by some state prison officials, the FBOP guides itself by a number of court decisions that mandate the kosher food. In interviews with FBOP officials, KosherToday has learned that in each facility’s main kitchen, a room is designated for the preparation of all “certified religious diet meals”, the FBOP term for kosher. All hot meals are commercially pre-packaged and frozen, and certified according to a reliable, nationally recognized Orthodox Jewish standard. Food trays for inmates that are determined by the chaplain to require a specific certification are distributed through the main serving line at the regular meal times to facilitate all inmates eating together. Kosher products are also available in the inmate commissary. To receive kosher meals, inmates submit a request through the local chaplain. It is not necessary, however, to confirm an inmate’s particular religion, which explains why only 3,268 inmates are self identified as Jewish.

Felicia Ponce, a public affairs specialist at the FBOP, estimates that the kosher requests are predominately religious in nature, albeit not all Jewish. Ponce attests that previously many of the kosher requests were motivated by perceived health or diet concerns, but since a recent FBOP shift to serve more balanced meals, this has not been common. All meals are now consistent in portion size and menu throughout the entire agency. Despite the change, the number of kosher inmates in the Federal prisons has still increased significantly over the last decade, although exact figures were not available. Upon request, the FBOP also provides inmates with grape juice, challah and other essential religious foods for the Shabbos and Jewish holidays. “Religious dietary observance is protected as a constitutional right,” said Ponce. “The Bureau of Prisons takes very seriously its responsibilities to uphold the constitution and the rights it gives all individuals, even those who are incarcerated.” Federal prison officials have in recent years become far more knowledgeable about kosher, even visiting shows like Kosherfest.

(Source: Kosher Today)

In the Tri-State area’s giant hub of kosher food, an industry that is a major kosher-food provider often gets overlooked. Yet the main hospitals in New York City, as well as hospitals in other major markets, are dealing with an increased demand by patients, their families, visitors and staff. At the Maimonides Medical Center in the heart of Boro Park in Brooklyn, the entire kitchen is completely glatt kosher, producing approximately 3,500 kosher meals a day. It is the only hospital in the region that serves kosher exclusively in all its facilities, including its cafeterias and even at staff meetings. Manhattan’s Mount Sinai Medical Center has a small in-house kitchen, certified by the Orthodox Union, with both a dairy and meat chef. It provides kosher food to about 100 of the medical center’s 900 patients. The kosher kitchen produces another 150 meals available for purchase in the cafeteria each day, and supplements catering at hospital events for kosher attendees.

Most other hospitals deal with lower volumes of kosher consumers, visitors and staff via their food services departments. They typically order kosher meals from local caterers and vendors. Lenox Hill Hospital and New York University Medical Center, for example, both in Manhattan, serve an average of 15 kosher patients a day in this way. Long Island Jewish Medical Center had its own kosher kitchen, but closed it down almost 20 years ago because it was not cost effective. The hospital still provides almost 100 kosher meals a day. The meals are typically frozen then heated before being served to patients, and supplies of kosher bread and dairy products are delivered fresh. One hospital nutritionist described how an increasing number of the standard packaged foods, such as cookies and juices, are becoming kosher certified and can be added to the kosher meals. Kosher food is also available for hospital personnel and visitors in the cafeterias. Usually the options are the same meals received by the patients, with an assortment of sandwiches and salads. All incoming food is sealed and supervised by the hospitals’ chaplain rabbi.

Despite outsourcing the kosher meals, hospitals strive to offer kosher patients a complete range of options. Staff nutritionists attempt to accommodate each patient’s strict dietary, cultural and personal preferences. The NYU Medical Center even orders sushi from Midtown Manhattan restaurant Circa NY. Hospital officials say that they have noticed an increase in the demand for kosher food, mostly for religious reasons. Kosher purveyors report increased inquiries from hospitals about kosher food products. A number of hospital food service personnel visited last November’s Kosherfest. Some nutritionists expressed concerns about the quality of some of the frozen meals for patients who clearly need better nutritional foods.

(Source: Kosher Today)

Ruth Madoff, wife of the disgraced Bernard Madoff, was one of two executive editors of a kosher cookbook that remains one of the classic kosher cookbooks in the past decade.

“The Great Chefs of America Cook Kosher” received high marks from Nina and Tim Zagat: “This book should forever dispel the notion that kosher food can’t be interesting, up-to-the-minute, and – most of all – delicious.”

The book, a project of the Hebrew National Fund, included kosher recipes from such celebrated chefs as David Burke, Anne Rosenzweig, Bobby Flay, Michel Richard, Rozanne Gold and Mark Strausman. Several of the chefs even appeared at Kosherfest in the late ‘90’s to promote the book with their recipes being featured at the official reception.

In the book, the executive editors thank Bernie Madoff and his sons Mark and Andy as well as their wives. In the bio of the book, Mrs. Madoff is described as the “Director of the Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities with a lifelong interest in food and health.”

She holds an MS degree in Nutrition from New York University.

(Source: Kosher Today)

A new kosher toothpaste was launched by American Lion Toothpaste Manufacturing. Recently certified by the OU, the toothpaste produced by a Malaysian company was on display at last month’s Kosherfest.

While  kosher consumers have always taken for granted that toothpaste is inherently kosher, kashrus organizations say that there may be reason for concern, primarily because of some of the new flavors that are marketed nowadays. The most kashrus sensitive ingredient often found in toothpaste is glycerin, which is often animal based, and usually makes up one third of the product. Glycerin which is not certified kosher should be assumed non-kosher, rabbis say.

“We’re very proud to have met the strict kashrus standards of the Orthodox Union,” said  A-L executive Joereen Koek, daughter of the Malaysian company’s founder. “And we’re pleased that our devotion only to toothpaste gives us the expertise to deliver popularly priced products that kosher consumers can use with confidence.”

(Source: KosherToday)

The 20th edition of Kosherfest opened yesterday in Secaucus, N.J., with nearly 7,000 trade buyers and exhibitors from 28 nations expected to gather for what organizers say will be “an impressive showcase of an industry that continues to grow year by year.”

The show is returning to the Meadowlands Exposition Center after five consecutive years at New York’s Javits Convention Center. Co-produced by Diversified Business Communications of Portland, Maine, and LUBICOM Marketing Consulting of Brooklyn, N.Y., Kosherfest will occupy all available space at the convention center and additional space in neighboring hotels.

Despite the fallout from the bankruptcy of Agriprocessors, the nation’s largest producer of Glatt Kosher meat, the Kosher industry continued its double-digit growth last year, with a record 110,000 food items bearing Kosher symbols. Among the trade registrants to visit Kosherfest 2008 are many new buyers from supermarket chains and large discount chains, say the organizers.

At least 300 new products will be on display at the show with a special emphasis on those that appeal to health-conscious consumers.

Many buyers will be focusing on Pesach, which this year begins on the night of April 8th and accounts for nearly 40% of annual sales for Koshers foods.

(Source: Gourmet Retailer / Kosher Today)