The Kosher Standard - English

[Music] The Orthodox Union is recognized the world over for its high standard of kosher supervision. Maintaining that standard is a joint effort between your company and the Orthodox Union. We have prepared the following presentation to serve as an overview of the basic requirements and responsibilities that your company should follow to ensure the integrity of your kosher program. It is beyond the scope of this video to explain every requirement in detail and therefore you are encouraged to consult with your OU rabbitic field representative and the designated coordinator at the OU headquarters concerning all matters related to your kosher program. [Music] Kosher food is one of the fastest growing segments of the food services industry. Recent studies show that more than 28% of Americans consciously buy kosher food. In the past 5 years alone, the number of companies producing kosher food has exploded, providing an everexpanding choice for kosher food consumers. This rapid growth in kosher products has been due in large part to the efforts of the Orthodox Union, the world's largest kosher food agency. The U symbol or circle U as it is often called can be found on more than 250,000 food products throughout the world. Though there are many agencies certifying kosher food, no symbol is as widely accepted and recognized as the OU. This is because the U kosher symbol on a label provides an assurance to those who seek out kosher food that the product they are purchasing was made according to the highest standards of kosher requirements. You might say that for millions of consumers around the world, the U symbol is like the Good Housekeeping seal of approval. Consumers can have complete confidence in knowing that no corners were cut and no compromises were made during the manufacturing process. And it is in fact this trust that forms the very foundation of the OU's kosher food certification. Your company has received authorization to use the U symbol on its products. This certification means that your company has entered into a partnership with the OU that is mutually beneficial. Your company will expand the market for its products and the U will increase the number of choices for millions of people worldwide who depend on the U symbol. This program is intended to provide you with an overview of the procedures and requirements necessary to produce kosher products in your facility. It's also meant to help you strengthen the kosher systems you now have in place. Producing kosher food is a process that requires the commitment of thousands of people around the world. It involves a commitment from you, the manufacturer, because everyone who's part of the manufacturing process shares the OU's profound responsibility for maintaining the unfailing trust kosher consumers must have in the U symbol. Without your involvement and assistance, the U cannot provide the level of supervision that the consumer expects. This is why the OU expects that every ingredient in your product must be kosher. And for this reason, your partnership with the OU is so important. The OU will always be willing and able to answer your questions and to help you do your job. So when there's any trace of doubt in a procedure or in an ingredient, always contact the OU. To better illustrate the kosher process and its proper implementation, we've chosen an actual company that's been under OU supervision for more than 10 years. Matelane Chocolates is one of the nation's largest independent producers of chocolate novelties and confections. We're going to take a look at how with the help of the OU, this company has tailored a kosher program that suits their operation and production methods. Our decision to seek kosher certification was based on the desire to increase our sales. Now with the OU symbol on our products, many new markets have opened up to us. And these were markets that we have no access to before. They were unavailable to us. Greg, your company has the highly important responsibility of ensuring that your kosher products meet with the requirements of U certification. That's right. People think you just stick a label on a product and it's automatically kosher. The fact is that couldn't be any farther from the truth. At Mateline, our job is to provide our customers with the highest quality product while at the same time ensuring that we don't break any of the kosher requirements. And if we were to make a mistake and break one of those requirements, it could mean a very embarrassing and a very costly recall. How would anyone know if you made a mistake and the food isn't kosher? Well, we have our own quality assurance department and their responsibility is to make sure that we do things properly. And then to double check, we have regular inspections by the OU's rabbitic field representative. When is the next OU inspection planned? They don't schedule their visits. They come unannounced. Do these unannounced visits by the OU worry you? Not at all. Because we're on the same team. Ultimately, it's our responsibility to make sure that the products are kosher and it's the OU's job to verify that we're doing things the right way. So if you assume that we're doing things properly, we're maintaining all of the kosher requirements, then we have absolutely nothing to worry about. We're happy to see the uh field [Music] representatives. The U provides guidelines and procedures to help ensure that your kosher program runs smoothly. However, every company is different, so systems have to be customized. The first step for Mellay was to set up a special kosher supervision team made up of several staff members. Each member of the team is responsible for a particular part of the kosher process. It is imperative that a staff person be designated as the U liaison. This will help ensure that the kosher procedures will be followed correctly. As the kosher team coordinator, the kosher team reports to me and I act as kind of a bridge between our staff and our rebinic coordinator. That's our account executive in the New York office of the OU. I'm responsible for making sure that all of our kosher procedures are followed and that our managers and plant personnel know and understand them. If the OU has any issues or concerns, they know they can rely on me to take care of them. Our ribbon coordinator has helped us establish a system that's right for us. If we want to make any changes to ingredients, products, private labels, or procedures, we must first get approval from the OU's New York office. Also, all billing questions and anything else related to our kosher program are directed there. Sharon has been designated the kosher team coordinator, the company's point person who communicates regularly with the U rebinic coordinator. Sharon will help ensure that all kosher procedures are followed throughout the production process. It is important that the chain of command be established to avoid confusion and to ensure that your program runs smoothly. Mattaline Chocolates has appointed the following personnel to oversee the program. Kosher team coordinator oversees the team and serves as the U liaison. The plant manager oversees the kosher requirements on the plant floor. The purchasing manager ensures that only kosher ingredients are ordered. Label control ensures that packages are labeled with the correct kosher symbols. Receiving doc personnel ensures that all ingredient deliveries meet specific kosher requirements. As the plant manager, I'll make sure that all the kosher requirements on the plant floor are met. When the U established supervision in our facility, it was based on the plant setup and the production process at the time of certification. Any changes in the production process must be approved in writing by the OU and that includes buying new or used equipment or changing production lines. What procedures do you follow if there is a change? If there is a proposed change, I would let Sharon, our kosher team coordinator, know and she'll contact the OU. If I have any questions or concerns related to anything connected to our kosher production, I'll be sure to discuss them with Sharon. I never make assumptions or guesses. I'll leave that for the stock market. Have you made any changes? We've had to change a few of our ingredients and the OU provided us with a list of acceptable kosher substitutes. We also replaced a piece of equipment and they came in to make sure nothing would be affected by it. The OU has an enormous amount of experience. They're a great resource. Another important part of what I do is to make sure that everyone on the floor knows and understands the kosher requirements because we need everyone's cooperation to make things work properly. We have a lot of people who never even heard the word kosher before. So I need to make sure that these requirements are meaningful to them. Are you prepared for the unannounced visits of the OU field representative? Sure. My job is all about maintaining a high level of quality. I take pride in our standards. So the standards that the OU expects us to follow are as meaningful to me as they are to them. So do the OU requirements make things any more difficult for you? The truth is if the right systems are set up, they're simple to follow and maintain. They really don't get in our way at all. What about the field representative's visit? Is that difficult for you? Not at all. I look forward to them because it really confirms that things are running properly. The field representative can only help things run smoother and he confirms that we're all doing our job properly. It is very important to remember that once production specifications are made, changes in production cannot be made without being approved in advanced by the OU. This holds true for ingredients, equipment, production, and labels. As you know, each product can have many different ingredients, and those ingredients can come from any number of suppliers. The kosher process requires that no non-cooser ingredient find its way into the kosher production process. So, all ingredients need to be approved by the OU. To help manage these different ingredients and keep track of what is approved and what isn't, the U has created a document called schedule A. Ron Thompson is the purchasing manager at Meline. I'm responsible for purchasing all of our ingredients. So, it's really important that I'm familiar with what's on the schedule A. Schedule A is like a checklist of all approved ingredients that we use here at the plant. If I have to order an ingredient, then I make sure that it appears on schedule A. And if we have to order a new ingredient, then I'll send a request for approval for that new ingredient to our U Rubenic coordinator. There are basically three components of information on an ingredient label. The ingredient name, the ingredient source of supply, and the kosher symbol, if any. Information pertaining to these three items appears in three separate columns on schedule A. Some ingredients must match only one column, while others must match two or all three. Ingredients coming into the plant have to match up with the information on schedule A. If the ingredient is listed as a group one ingredient, it only has to match up with one column, the ingredient name. If it is a group two ingredient, it has to match two columns, the ingredient name and source of supply. And if it's a group three ingredient, then it must match up against all three columns. To make things easy, a fourth column identifies which group number the ingredient is classified as. If there's any discrepancy between the label and schedule A, the ingredient can't come into the plant. There have been cases when a supplier will send an ingredient without the required kosher symbol. And well, sometimes our suppliers may run out of an ingredient. They'll substitute a similar product without telling us. Now, when this happens, we immediately quarantine the product so that well, there's really no chance of it being used by accident. I then call Sharon, our kosher team coordinator. I tell her about it. She then calls the OU and they determine whether or not the ingredient is acceptable. What happens if an ingredient comes in which has an appropriate kosher symbol on it, but the ingredient isn't on schedule A? I can't accept it because it may not be compatible with our product or our production line. This could lead to tremendous confusion. You know, if we simply follow the guidelines set out in schedule A, it ensures that the expected standards of the OU are met. Simple. What is printed on the outside of the package is just as important as the ingredients that go into the product. Beth Wilson is in charge of packaging. There's a document issued by the OU that identifies which labels may bear the U symbol. It's called schedule B. Schedule B is a list of our products that are certified by the OU. Only those products and specific brand names that appear on this list are authorized to bear the OU symbol. There are several U symbols, so we must be sure to use the U symbol that appears on the schedule B. Jewish dietary laws don't allow milk and meat to be eaten together. The U symbol tells the person buying the product what its status is. The U symbol by itself without a suffix means the product is parv. Parve means that the food is neutral. It can be eaten with either milk or meat because the ingredients contain no dairy, meat or meat byproducts in them. Oud is for a product that has any kind of milk or dairy component in its ingredients. This product can't be eaten with meat, but it can be eaten with a par product. Oup is for specially prepared products for the Jewish holiday of Passover. These products don't contain leaven grains or certain legumes that can't be eaten during the 8-day holiday. This is a Jewish holiday with very special dietary restrictions. When we design a label, we check the schedule B to know which products may be an U and which get an OUD. It's very important that the printer print the labels accurately. And when they come back from the printer, the labels are double checked to ensure no mistakes have been made. And then the final printed labels are all put into a book for the U field representative to check when he comes to visit. The schedule B that is provided to your company by the U must be carefully followed to ensure correct labeling. Only products that appear on the schedule B may bear the U symbol. Products bearing the OU symbol must be checked before and after printing to ensure accuracy. Brand names that do not appear on schedule B will be deemed unauthorized. Labels should be placed in a designated label book for easy review by the U Rabbitic field representative. A request for new product must be submitted to the OU for new product approval. When an application is submitted for certification of a new product which requires new ingredients, a list of those ingredients and a description of the equipment used in production must be presented to the OU in advance. This is important to ensure that the integrity of the product is maintained and that the appropriate U label is printed on the package. Rabbi Russell is the company's U field representative. I had the opportunity to speak with him during one of his unscheduled visits to the plant. Our visits have to be unannounced because scheduled visits don't always tell the whole story. In a way, it's like leaving your child at a daycare center. Even though you trust the people there, you would want to drop in unannounced to verify that trust cuz your child is so important. It's that way with kosher. I have the responsibility of making sure that no consumer be misled and eat non-cosher food. So, when uh everything is in order, it's a clear indication that the system the company has implemented is working properly. This is a beautiful label book. Thank you. So nicely kept. It It's very important to note that private labels have to be approved independently of the company's in-house brands. Right now the OU has only approved the Matalane brand products. So anything made in this plant that doesn't have the Malane brand label has to be approved separately. What if the packaging was mislabeled? Let's say it had an OU on it, but it contained dairy ingredients and therefore requires an OUD symbol. Well, in such a case, the label would have to be changed. Wouldn't that mean printing brand new packaging? That's why we have a kosher program in place to make sure no mistakes happen the first time around. So, as you've seen, maintaining an effective kosher program within your facility is extremely important. It will help to ensure that no mistakes will be made throughout the production process. Your dedication to the program directly affects the quality of the kosher products you produce. The OU printed on your product symbolizes the pride, dedication, and commitment that consumers have come to expect. So when you go to work each day, remember that you are appreciated by millions of consumers around the world who know that the U represents the highest standards of quality and kosher supervision. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music]