Do You Need To Check Frozen Fruits With An OU Certification? with Rabbi Moshe Elefant

when buying Frozen fruits whether it's strawberries or blueberries or vegetables that have an OU certification I guess a most common one is you walk into Costco and you can buy a bag of frozen strawberries with an OU does that mean that they are fully certified and there's no need for any checking afterwards for insects what's the process once you buy that bag with the OU on it absolutely you know I I'll tell you you know I always have a story to answer the question so many years ago there was a haa a certification that was certifying Roma lettuce now when you speak about vegetables probably one of the most complicated vegetables that we speak about that have infestation issues are Roma lettuce and they didn't have a special system in place for washing or for checking but there was this supervision on the bag and I called the rabbi and I asked him how do you put your simp on that bag what are you doing said I'm not doing anything he said so I say to him if you're not doing anything we know how problematic Romain lettuce is so what are you doing he says I don't certify the insects I only certify the vegetable so we don't have that attitude here at the OU when we put the OU on a bag or whatever unless we're expecting the consumer to do something and then we'll say so but that's very rare you could eat it because we say it's kosher and we're taking responsibility for all of the halakic issues that are involved including the insect station piggybacking off that I remember people have asked in the past they buy raw do with an OU do they have to take afterwards I'm assuming the same answer applies the same answer applies if it if it's not a Jewish owned company it's not a problem and if it's a Jewish owned company we'll make sure the Kal is taken off as we do when weever we give as to baked goods whether it's the Mattis that you buy with the OU or if you go to a pizza shop that you're buying pizza and then makes a dough you have to take off kala of course we're not just saying that the ingredients are Kosher we're saying you could eat the food