Comments on: BUG-WAR: Kashruth Agencies Slug It Out Over ‘Chasalat-Alei Katif’ Lettuce [UPDATED WITH ADDITIONAL LETTERS]

By: koshervyosher

koshervyosher — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 23:34:44 +0000

Checked 40 of these chasalat heads today. there were the kind WITHOUT THE english and american hechsherim that the STAR-K found in Baltimore. They were majorly infested and disgusting. Forget about the Yoreh daya. KAJ What about the Choshen Mishpat!!!

By: the cheif

the cheif — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 20:58:20 +0000

We have been checking romaine lettuce on a electric light box for years,I am sorry to say the rabbi mantel’s concluding remarks on unsupervised romaine lettuce is totally incorrect.At certain times of the year and/or from local small farms the lettuce can be very infested.However,most of the year commercial romaine HEARTS are totally bug free.[unless, Rabbi Mantel was referring to regular lettuce not the hearts,with these we have no experience.

By: koshervyosher

koshervyosher — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 16:55:06 +0000

Online star-k’s bug policy seems no bugs in check at all not 10% I called they said the same thing they fail anything that they find bugs in

By: torahwriter

torahwriter — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 13:42:29 +0000

Chaslat originated bug free green vegetables. They worked together with Rav Yoel Schwartz from day one. One demand Rav Schwartz made was that they are not to increase pesticides over what is accepted in ordinary greens. There are many other companies that do use overly high amounts of pesticides, Rav Amar recently recommended that people avoid bug free greens because chamira sakanto maissura. Thanks to Rav Schwartz, Chaslat should be fine.
Re the infestation, according to Rav Schwartz, he discussed this with the company, they checked hundreds of bags the past few days and found them all clean, and therefore came to a conclusion that there was a company error and somehow, some low quality heads made it into the the packaging containing high quality hashgochos.
According to Rav Yitzchok Rubin in Har Nof, the way the company works is that they try very hard to have high quality clean greens, but are not always successful, and they divide the lettuce into several qualities, the highest quality gets aida charaidis which are the most machmir regarding miut hamotzui, next quality gets some of the other mehudar hashgochos, and lower quality gets non mehadrin hashgochos.
And so, because of human error, some lower quality lettuce seem to have made it into the highest quality bags.
This is what I understand after speaking to several rabonim.
Chag kosher vsomeach.
Ephraim Stein

By: Savlanut

Savlanut — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 02:18:59 +0000

Ysgib. I found the headline to be rather witty considering the content. And certainly both sides of an an argument should be allowed should be allowed to be represented. I would not have known that I needed to ask my Rav on this matter were it not for these articles. #pun alert# My recommendation would be to errr… take a leaf out of akuperma’s reaction, carefully check for the good in people, stop wineing so much and have a wonderful bug-free Pessach.

By: heythere

heythere — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 02:08:37 +0000

It’s interesting the Star k is actually a lot more Maikel then most Kashrus organizations when it comes to the amount of bugs it’s aloud to have. The Halacha is, that it’s ok if it’s less then a Miut Hamutzoi which the Achronim (Al Pi the mishkinos Yakov) assume is 10%. Most Kashruth organizations go with R’ Shlomo Zalman Zt”l Psak (brought in Rabii Via’s Sefer) that it has to be 10% of the size that it’s being sold as, meaning in this case it has to be that less than 10% of the bags being sold are infested. The star k however holds it goes by serving size, so as long as less then 10% of the serving size of salad has bugs it’s fine. It’s interesting that in this case they are being more Machmir?

By: koshervyosher

koshervyosher — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 00:08:17 +0000

In a Letter from Rav AHaron Goldmintzer Shlit”a AB”D Skver Beis Din One of the Hechsherim of Chasalat they advise checking as well

By: Imanonov

Imanonov — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 23:23:08 +0000

I find it interesting that Star-K does not seem to give any alert or warning on their own website!

By: Not getting involved

Not getting involved — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 22:45:52 +0000

This really shines a light on the confusion as to which Hecsher is serious and which are FRAUDS, just there to pick up a check! Remember last years “Shaimos truck” fiasco, allegedly under a “reliable” Hechsher? Remember the Treifa hotdog story in Boro Park, under a “reliable” Hechsher, a few years ago? There is a lot of fraud & fakery in the Kashrus world which is being covered up.

I would like to know what Rabbi Veigh, a known insect in vegetables expert, has to say about this.

By: akuperma

akuperma — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 21:30:03 +0000

Baruch ha-Shem that among ourselves we are arguing about bugs in lettuce, rather than something obscene like the Israeli government’s desires to oppress the poor or to try to keep people from learning Torah (or should we get into the virtues of the Iranians, Syrians and their ilk).

It is a Kiddush ha-SHem that that Am ha-Torah get into passionate debates about such matters. We agonize more over the danger of eating a bug more than the goyim do over killing thousands of people.