03-18-2020 Pre-Pesach Insect Checking

hello and welcome to a special presentation star care in conjunction with leisure gorgeous row we're pleased to present a webinar live webinar with Rochelle Tendler on bug checking a lot of people are spending pace at home this year that they didn't expect to and may have to prepare their vegetables for Pesach and we wanted to give you the opportunity to learn from one of the experts in the field or Rachel and Taylor and on this evening I want to also mention we have been going to have a number of other webinars god-willing tomorrow we were planning one with Robin Hyneman at 4 o'clock 4 p.m. on special hallo hosts that have to do with Davin by yourself on Shabbos without a safe Victoria and all those questions that are coming up special because people are not able to go to shul now and then we hope to have our regular preface of webinars probably next week with products and all the information for people are used to making a circle alone at home and people are not used to making faces at home and we're trying to help you and do the best that we can under the circumstances so without further ado I would like to ask rabbi Chandler to start this webinar and in order to keep the required distance I'm gonna move out of the out of the what's the call number oh the : number if you're if you're if you're something wrong your sound isn't working properly you can call the following number two one eight eight nine five one two zero three again two one eight eight nine five one two zero three and enter passcode 2020 if a couple people could chat we do have quite a nice crowd here if you could chat on the bottom right we all know that you do hear us and then we're coming coming across okay that's good okay for a couple of people here as we know that everybody's hearing us thanks very much Robert emma is going to take the comments and questions as you as you go through the webinar so if you have a question you can type it it when it has a chance he will he will get to it so without any further ado me too much thank you right over for giving me my space it's always good to control the crowd when you can control when the questions come in and everything and so we'll do the best we can I'm welcome everybody to this webinar I want to thank first of all as I go over dimensions I go to see Sir all of Baltimore Chicago East all of Baltimore for arranging this webinar you know unfortunately we can't do it in person fortunately we're able to do it online and hopefully everyone will the gain from it I also want to mention that one of the other things that negocio sponsor is having next week is where behind a man's annual prepay stop share for ladies which usually is held in that go to shul which very large crowd where he goes through a lot of the basic all office of paisa new product information things like that that is also going to be held online the exact link will also be posted at some point in you know the next couple of days or early next week so you just stay tuned for that as well what I like to do today as much as we can is go through the basics of vegetable checking we're going to focus on the items that are most relevant for pace not specifically romaine lettuce a lot of people as a regular mention as we all know are home this year for Pesach and it's something many of them have not done the good news is as we'll say you know there's plenty of pre-check lettuce out there and believe it or not there is not going to be a shortage of it there is no shortage or almost anything that's the real truth I could tell you that one of the other things that I do in the star case I'm involved in the food service industry which deals the restaurants the caterers the supermarkets etc and I'm very much in the know of what's going on behind the scenes I don't know of any food item that is in short supply contrary to public perception so another peg out there in that regard that you know people certainly not panic and on that note I'd like to say one more point and that is you know we're going to talk about insects seeing insects nearly nine things that are visible to the eye and things like that i abused art off with that i heard once from cholesky Zorn Abraha a very obvious question I'm a Gilles ester and that is is that one of the main details that wines through the entire Magilla is that the fact that they couldn't figure out that Esther was a Jew they had no idea that there was a Jew and in fact that that surprise was what pushed our cherished over the edge at the end send me who's ever is it was such a shock to him and then home and ended up getting killed from it but it's a very obvious question and that is is that they took Esther from Mordecai's house one of her was constantly asking about Esther constant communication back and forth between the two of them what couldn't they figure out how could they not figure out that Esther was a Jew they couldn't even guess in the wildest dreams that I suppose it was such a shock to them so I asked her if costs cure this question and he thought about it for a minute and he said that was part of the nice so face value you know you say okay part of the next a lot of things are part of the nice but if you think about it a little bit deep level that was like almost Venus that is the point of middle ancestor and that is is that the lesson of McGillis Esther is that we see what they're punished one wants us to see if he doesn't want you to see it can be right there in front of your nose you're not gonna be able to see it and that is something that's a tremendous lesson from Achilles Esther it's actually seems to be like one of the main points that comes down at mcgillis Esther obviously that's not a process of a Shem but so much so that this detail that Esther was a Jew and it was literally in front of their noses and they could not see it for the simple reason that their burnished limb didn't want them to see it so that's certainly pertinent message for nowadays when there's so much chaos and confusion and around the world what we see is chaos and confusion but there's certainly a very romantic up there that is running the show and we just don't see what's really going on behind the scenes but that's something that we should certainly keep in mind keep in mind and on a more practical note when we talk about seeing bugs so a burnished one certainly wants us to check for bugs and he will allow us to see the bugs so on that now let's talk about checking for bugs okay so this is an interesting slide it took on a new meaning yesterday when first like to always start out with this hereís that people need to have when it comes to thinkest hello him and that is is that something that the Torah emphasizes extremely as something that being extremely important there's between four and six lawmen for eating even one insect and you know I added in corona over here because I used to say until now that you know there's a lot of e.coli scares with romaine lettuce going onto the last number of years and a lot of people stopped eating romaine lettuce and more careful Roman ladders the companies caused tremendous of people's and companies in the whole domain industry all the different recalls that people had from e.coli and you imagine that the chances of getting ecoli from eating romaine lettuce we're miniscule you're talking about I know these numbers sound crazy nowadays foot 34 people in the North America got sick from e.coli that's a little very few people and to be able to trace it back to actually coming from romaine lettuce is something that is next to impossible because ecoli similar to some current issues takes about two weeks until it starts affecting you and that means that you have to remember what you ate two weeks ago and try to pinpoint that it came from romaine lettuce now I don't know about any of you but I'm not sure I remember a yesterday not this time not right now anyways but much more to yesterday's so it'll to pinpoint and say that the Roman lettuce caused the e.coli was something that was you know statistically speaking very far-fetched yet yet everybody refrain from eating romaine lettuce you could not find normal s in the stores it was pulled by all the companies this happened numerous times you all familiar with it happen numerous times over the last couple years now I work with the caterers a lot you know people are very specific at constant us sometimes people are picky at customs people used to be picky on us you know I've been to many classes last couple days with you know a minion of people but when people used to make Costner's with with hundreds of people and they're very specific on their menus of what they really wanted and they want that this salad or that salad it was amazing how when this Nicole I think happened that it went from I insist on having this specific salad don't you dare serve me salad and and the chances of actually getting sick from it we're we're really really low you know talking into zero zero zero percent yeah people still refrain from it because even a small chance of getting sick physically from from that was something that really pushed people away from it very very quickly so laughs is common with common when you have something that is like video stolen which the spiritual harm is so much more real it's something that we certainly have to be more careful about and I don't think I have to overstate this nowadays especially so so we can move on from there as I mentioned the Taira emphasizes Hill castellan specifically but moreso conscious in general more so conscious in general which rokosz in general many times an entire datura constantly uses the word kedusha in relationship to conscious in fact it uses the word kedusha relationship the conscious more often than anything else in the entire Tyrel constantly again East End production of the shawnee Hal Davina Thomas Hannah fellas need some kadosh him again and again and again a partially knee and partially constantly tears stressing that the kedusha of cholesterol and my host Sherry's are somehow intertwines very much together and the reason for that is somewhat very simple as we know America runs on Dunkin Donuts nowadays should the drive-through and that's something that is we're all very much familiar with but Chiron isn't something that's very very different this is a slide about a car that's rather expensive a Rolls Royce now is very interesting spec about Rolls Royce which I highlighted in the blue area and that is that the engine is designed for octane grade 95 fuel however with the of it if your stock it Quran with a minimum octane fuel of 91 and most of us don't fill our cars with 91 or 95 octane fuel that's the more expensive gas we usually go with the 85 or the 87 octane fuel which is the cheaper regular unleaded gas but the reason why a Rolls Royce requires the better gas is because of better engine is better fuel so Cairo 2 is not magnifica of a critical we also need better fuel to enable us to serve a quarter-circle properly and for us the fuel to serve a color stroker properly is kosher food and that's why the tourist stresses again and again and again the interconnection between my host Cyrus and the kedusha of Colley strong so hopefully by us coming together tonight and reviewing some of the pertinent all of us and more importantly the practical procedures and making sure our food is 100% we should be able to have proper level of kedusha and hopefully return time well conclusion our butts gonna see us about two means rush is very soon okay any other stops of Shama SHhhh that's a very common for a catchphrase but it's something that's very very true especially in ridiculous time as well there's nothing new here right there it comes out and the tire and the kumaras are full of talk about different types of vegetables having different types of tailoring issues and you know what kinds of checking procedures you know things change over time but you know this is something that's not a new topic yet I'm sure as we all probably the number one most common question I get is why am i hearing about this now my parents were not so busy with it my grandparents certainly not so busy with it why nowadays excuse me are we so busy with videos telling him and hearing about all the excuse me hack we're talking about check veg tools so the answer is very simple and that is is that you know Jews in general came from areas in Russia and Europe we are know the most the staple vegetables that they used are onions and potatoes my ulties ate is in front of the roughly I always tell my my my great-grand my grandmother when she used to try to push and eat more healthy he used to say listen feed it to the cowboy I'll leave it as a steak you know that was the attitude that cholesterol had we had such you know heart-healthy foods as political gold ribbons and you know Yap chick and all these kinds of things because those are the vegetables that we had green vegetables weren't so common of those Park old parts of the world but either way they weren't part of the diet people that call Easter all ate romaine lettuce unless a there even when I was growing up as a kid it wasn't that long ago you know we had maybe some iceberg during the year but most it was Israeli salad and Roman lettuce was reserved for the Seder we didn't have so many vegetables and it wasn't just call you stroll it was the world in general however since then the last 25 30 years the green movement the organic movement the health movement people have gotten more health conscience and that's certainly a good thing but what has come along with that as a few items is that number one is that people are pushed to eat more vegetables number two people are pushed away from using chemicals and growers more importantly are pushed away from using chemicals in fact that if look in the slide is called IPM integrated pest management which is a federal program that growers follow which restricts the amount of pesticides that allowed to use this is all a new phenomenon over the last 30 or so years and we don't we're not making this up either I hear this from growers you know I go to the vegetable growing facilities and the growing fields all the time no not recently but in general I think I go there a lot and I speak to the farmers and they themselves one farmer who's been on his land for four or five generations already he told me he's never had the kinds of infestation issues that he has today he says the FDA restricts the pesticides is a lot of use everybody else is going organic and there's a huge increase infestation sure that just did not exist 30 years ago on top of that also 30 years ago they used to use a chemical about DDT I mentioned that because I always get that question from somebody when especially when it's a live audience and and you know that has been banned because they found that it was certainly killing all the bugs but they found that it was killing people too so they stopped using it burnish em which is a good thing but at the same time this these these factors together have certainly created an infestation issue that is somewhat new and that is why we have this issue today and you know our parents grandparents generation they just did not have this issue now there's also lots of misinformation out there as I'm sure everyone is used to you know there's two sides of the equation there sometimes people that are too strict someones complain too much about a magazine that they put a strawberry in the cover of one of their family first magazines and someone complained how you talking would you put a picture of a hazard on the cover of a Jewish magazine so you know that's obviously a certain extreme and on the other hand the other side of the equation I was once talking to someone who was eating raspberries I wasn't talking to him when they were doing it they were telling me that they eat raspberries right out of the container he said cut esparto who wouldn't you know make something that I can't eat so I said look you know I don't know what colors protocool would and wouldn't do that's not my business all I know is he gave us an instruction manual I had a liberalise it's called the tart and in that book he wrote don't eat bugs so I think we're gonna all do our best and make sure we don't eat bugs so there are certain issues certain types of vegetables that we don't have necessarily a practical way for you to check and we'll discuss through some of them but the ones they have a practical solution for you know we're going to check and do the best job that we can check and to make sure that we're doing what Curtis Perot who really wants us to do so our goal for today we're going to look at the facts real facts whether it raise your awareness whether it calms your fears whichever size everyone hopefully everyone gained something from that we're going to do the procedures that have been developed know through tremendous amounts of research and will give you enough information to practice there's still this time before Pesach you want to take a good project with your kids tomorrow you can buy some lettuce and practice vegetable checking will keep them busy for about three minutes I'm kidding I'll keep them busy a little bit and then you can get maybe the next part of your day even but you know you could certainly make this a family project on how many families are watching this as a whole but if you are you must be really bored no I'm kidding but I'm hopefully enough people will be you know you have a time on your hands next few days to be able to start practicing and before the the Pesach comes which isn't still in three weeks you still have time don't worry I'm all those of you who are in quarantine you know who should be Shermer on all of us and you'll be out by then and be able to check your own lettuce and lettuce everybody where no one's gonna become an expert I say that in an in-person class and certainly not from a webinar and I'm not here either as I always like to emphasize it's like many products you know I work for a conscious agency I do not work for a vegetable company so I don't particularly care whether you buy stock a certified products or product certified but other agencies as long as they're reliable by all means you're welcome to use them that is not the point we're here to discuss how you can do this year on home and also make you an educated consumer so you know what you're looking at and what you're looking for when you go to the store and we'll discuss through some of those issues as we go through okay so an Halawa there are three levels there's right which means if over a 50% chance that in this particular serving of lettuce there's going to be a buck something like that you haven't leave their rice a biblical obligation to check that is not so common necessarily the next level which is more common and that is MIA Tomasi which means you have between 15 under 50% chance meaning less than 50% chance that it's going to be infested and goes down to different sheep does but let's just say for argument's sake we're gonna go with 10% right now so between 10 and 50 percent chance meaning that the chances that there's a bug inside this serving of lettuce this plate of lettuce this salad that I'm about to eat is between 10 and 50 percent so there I've achieved me there are abundant to check now there's very little practical difference between there to thieve there I see of their bottom maybe at the end that we talk about smoothies we'll talk about some of the differences between it but in all intents purposes you have to check it still there's certainly a fee if to check it and no it doesn't really make a difference for our practical purposes at least not what we're talking about now I feel fine it's a cold drink by the way it's not a hot drink and then there's the last level which i think is the most important level that's below 10 percent which means it's a very low probability infestation there's no obligation to check and the reason why isn't emphasize that as being the most important level is that notes that I understand are very shootas and what is Nietzsche in omatsu some people say 10% will go down to 7% 3% different days either way it is a certain percent below which you're not obligated to check but it's not zero that means that it's understood that there is a certain level of possibility that things could have bugs in them and you're still not obligated to check and we'll go through a list of some of the items that are mature in omatsu obviously it's not an exhaustive list beans blueberries we can qualify that if we have time at the end talking about blueberries excuse me cherries corn cans are on the cob now there is some criteria for a corn on the cob but it's not an idea pesach so I mean less you're sorry if you're sorry they feel free to email me and get discuss it you can go to our website by the way check for insects calm and it has all the information so I guess we shouldn't discriminate against fire them so we'll say for a min especially since we certify corn for paces under the star s label we'll talk about corn on the cob if you have one of the cob you have to peel it and rinse it and then you could use it but after that there's no further checking is required flour I mean certainly not Nagisa not for any of us mango nuts onions not scallions peppers all types of colors snap peas okay for those far them out there spices string beans against our desks or a gold Fez you'll be happy and tomatoes all these are items that are mutual nuts you're not obligate to check now it is certainly possible that you know many of us and especially those also spend significant amounts of time in kitchens have opened up peppers and found bugs inside it's not impossible and the reason that is very simple peppers grow on the ground if any of you will go outside on the ground by yourself with everyone six feet away make sure and you lie down on the ground within a couple of seconds you love bugs call because you're lying on the ground right vegetables grow on the ground that means there's certainly a very likelihood of bugs you know climbing all over the insects but in most scenarios when you get those peppers when I get to the store and you rinse them off which you always should do and if you didn't know you shouldn't them off now everybody's rinsing off their produce and that's always a good thing keep in mind by the way in general I always said this probably every presentation I've ever given that when you want to talk about washing your produce keep in mind the last people that touched the produce or the people that picked it in the field keep that in mind and then decide how you want to wash your produce but that aside once that takes place and normal people you take their produce and are ready to eat it after they gave it a basic rinse all these items that are on this list are not considered infested they're made of mud see not saying it's impossible you'll find a bug in your pepper but that does not mean that now you have to start checking green peppers it's possible it happens on an entirely Malafaia Shari's is a very important phrase that means that Terr was not given to angels and that is is that you don't have to walk around with a muzzle on your mouth believe it or not I've said this at every single presentation also that ever given you don't walk around with a muzzle on your mouth now it's very interesting to be speaking about that now when people are actually walking on with muzzles on their mouths but that's not for bugs not for physical bugs anyways so we're not clear to do that and there is a certain understanding that there is possibility that you know when you walk around the lake in the summer you could be inhaling insects and there's nothing wrong with that and if you eat a tomato and it turns out there's a bug in there when you were not obligated to check that there's no problem at all there's nothing wrong with that either so I like to emphasize that point moving right along now how do I percentages we talk on me and I'm not send me a chicken I want to see all these different things how do we know the percentages so the answer is is that it's not practical for the average consumer to figure that out because it varies there's many many variables that affect infestations through the different seasons the regions and so many other variables here's a partial list of some of the variables that affect the infestation levels in any given item and that is the location so you have something like Salinas California which most of our produce comes from or yuma arizona which are more or less close to sea level the temperatures they're very then you have places like Ecuador we're a lot of the kosher frozen produce comes from Ecuador the reason is very simple is because Ecuador is the growing years in Ecuador between nine and eleven thousand feet above sea us to the three thousand meters I think part of my metric system F but it's something around then three to four thousand meters above sea level and and that is very high insects need to breathe also and where the oxygen is thin there's less insects and that's why if you look in the bags of a lot of the reliably certified frozen vegetables a lot of them come from Ecuador because there are less insects in Ecuador as opposed to California where things are different the same thing applies in Florida the fact remains is that there is less agriculture in Florida than there is in California and there are less bugs in Florida the the winter crops that come from Florida January less infested now there's certainly made a month so you certainly have to check it but if there is a so we do see significant differences between the different locations and regions where our produce comes from mr. fried there's the temperature when it's warmer more humid you're gonna have more insects when it's cooler and drier you're gonna have less insects the wind rain altitude roadways railroad tracks telephone wires that's an interesting one if you go to California where they grow lettuce or even in other places lot of times these huge fields of lettuce let's say other types of produce and what the way they apply pesticides or other chemicals anti fungus chemicals and another that is with airplanes sometimes with the tractors but a lot of times with airplanes so the airplanes are gonna it's very interesting to watch they go swooping through the fields and when they go around like that back and forth through the field literally looks like a stunt show I've seen it many times it's fascinating to watch but when you have wires going through the field you know high tension wires electrical wires the planes can't spray there so you can have these wires going through a field and I had this experience myself you walk me through a lettuce field you're in the middle of the lettuce field and all of a sudden you find infestation like pockets of significant infestation in the middle of field which is usually very rare because usually the middle of field is usually the cleanest part of the field so you look up and you see the wires there and you see that quinn spray pesticides over here so that throws a monkey wrench into trying to figure out percentages of really anything things like that and then you have the proximity to organic and untreated or under treated fields which also if a farmers neighbor starts going organic bugs are bad flyers the thrips aphids things are gonna be talking about they're bad flyers so let means they get blown around by the wind so if a guy next to you is going organic and the wind comes and blows into his field it blows all the bugs into your field so you might be treating your field properly trying to keep as clean as possible but all of a sudden you get this infestation but you didn't ask for and you didn't want and things like that happened so at the end of the day this is not something that's possible really for the average consumer to figure out the way we've figured out their station levels and all these islands that we're going to be discussing is to a tremendous amount of research and resources that we expend in this it has to do with mesquite came in different parts of the country who do checking every single day in factories and report their findings and launder funds we have logs and logs and logs and logs and logs and logs and information that we gather and data we gather on on you know all types of vegetables not just Roman lettuce you know exhaustive lists of all types of produce and vegetables out there just to make sure that our percentages are right just make sure our procedures are right and to make sure that what we're recommending consumers is something that really actually works so that is something that we expend tremendous resources on so at the end of the day you just gonna have to trust us although you know if you look around the rest of the conscious world the procedures are more or less the same some nuances which we feel from a research we feel we're important to add as we'll discuss but otherwise now this is not something that you know we're the only ones talking about these checking procedures is something that's very well known to the conscious world okay next we'll be right along Tomita Matsu so Mita Matsui is pretty much most of our greens that we like to use in our house conventional greens I'm not talking about organic regular conventional greens whether it's asparagus broccoli garlic lettuce you know all types of greens spinach dill parsley cilantro mint basil etc keep going down the list if your spire thee you can add probably a hundred more on to the Erin azam we thought spices and pepper and salt but you know now there's been a little differently pineapple strawberries all these things are items and I mean I'm at sea which means they have enough infestation that you're required to check and we're going to discuss the checking procedures for each of these items in a moment okay and then the last level is most look as you mentioned which is something that most of the time is infested that would include organic produce now I don't mean organic produce turn organic tomatoes or organic mangoes I'm talking produce pros that susceptible to infestation like organic greens for example or things like that those would be considered most bitter lion are much more highly infested and in general it's probably a better idea to use conventional and not organic I know people you know like to always say that your doctor recommends using organic it's healthier you know III I'm not gonna get involved in that that discussion however just keep in mind that regular conventional produce is certainly less infested than organic produce and that note however I also want to emphasize and that is the checking procedures are the same meaning you have organic lettuce organic romaine lettuce you're gonna check it in the exact same way that you're checking conventional lettuce and the checkout procedures work you just might have a harder time actually getting it to pass but the check ups users are exactly the same so if you would like to try your hand at organic romaine lettuce then feel free to do so and the checking procedures are going to be exactly the same other items that would be most of what to them will be mulberries don't know there's any public outcry about mulberries we don't have a good solution from all various how to check them I don't think we've seen ever think no and I don't think I've ever seen a batch of mulberries that then that was not infested books talk even the dried mulberries that's what I'm talking about so we don't recommend people use mulberries at all and you will not find them with any reliable office anymore and the same thing with raspberries and blackberries this applies to fresh or frozen raspberries and blackberries we just don't have a good solution for how to check them all the procedures we've tried on them checking procedures washing procedures just didn't end up working you know enough that we felt comfortable saying that that procedure works there are there are you there are frozen raspberries and blackberries but I don't know of any that have real I've washed off cos if you do find one with a seemingly reliable smoke it's probably an old package because I don't think any of the major agencies certified frozen raspberries and blackberries any more at all okay moving right along okay space toss coming so I always talk about greenhouses but especially pay stuff time well in greenhouse grown produce seems to be a very big thing so it's important to understand what greenhouse are and more importantly what they're not they're not magical they're not Ruben Ashlyn's gift to mankind I'm burnish land gave Cali all a lot of my honest you know Shabbos you know keep the list going many many might honest coma O'Donnell it have but greenhouses I don't know is necessarily God's gift to mankind the reason I was very simple greenhouses the concept is a very good concept you want to keep the bugs out right the books are very small so the picture and there's actually a greenhouse that we used to work with I was in California and the concept is you want to enclose all the produce there so no bars get in so you have double doors or triple doors to make sure that every time you go in there it stays 100% closed off and no bugs are able to get in fine that's very good but let's say a bug does get in he's probably in a very small it's on your shoe right you don't have bacteria flies around now we all understand that right bugs are a little bigger than that but they also can have a ways of getting into place and nobody wants them to get into so let's say about does get in so an aphid can have just for example an aphid and if the 60 day was a day by itself doesn't need a mail have up the sixty babies a day so you get one a fit in your greenhouse it doesn't take long for the entire greenhouse is gonna be infested with aphids and there's what how are you gonna get them out now you're in an enclosed area so how you even get them out right so that is a big problem so that's something that greenhouse growers certainly struggle with I'm not saying there's no value to a greenhouse I want to make sure that's clear there is value to greenhouses for certain vegetables let's say like broccoli and cauliflower which are you know they are possible to check they're very difficult to check and they're very difficult are produced industrially so there there's a very big value in having greenhouses where you have you have to go to great efforts to control the infestation levels in greenhouses and you hopefully you're successful at it so there makes sense when you're talking about roaming lettuce it could be a mile up but you should understand it's not a surefire process either it's something that the growers and I'm we work where we work you know with a lot of the growers that do greenhouses it takes a tremendous amount of effort and even more it's Fila and see how that - see matsui us and making sure that the greenhouses are clean now I'm not saying if it says mean house moon it's not reliable not saying that at all I'm just saying is that it doesn't necessarily have to be the term that you look for the buzz term that I'm only going to eat green house grown produce now the reason I say that is not because I'm trying to point to specific brands say they're not reliable I'm emphasizing that again what I am pointing to is especially the element America now I'm talking to the element North America I mean I don't know where anybody is who's watching this however we're only focusing North America if you're an artist oral and other places you have to follow the guidance of the local value conscious over there because the infestation issues in the research we did is focusing on North America so I'm not gonna make any recommendations ferrets at all and it works that way also because a lot of times people come back from aerilon having certain understands and recommendations over there at the mid see over there is very different than it is here and that is applicable in a lot of places I have idea Contras in Australia they tell me that they don't have the issues that we have here the issues there are very different that's very possible it was hard enough for human being to get on a plane to fly across the ocean you know culturally in a bug so they're saying they don't have thrips for example and I have so many trips in Australia it's very very possible we're talking about North America but when in America they bring in greenhouse grown produce that is not washed and checked it's just green house burnt produce and they write all over a greenhouse from produce sometimes in English sometimes in Hebrew and they write that the hackster has to be valid as long as you do ABC you wash it for three minutes under a stream of water you soak it in soapy water for five minutes whatever the instructions are I you know personally I have not to think you necessarily write is clear enough on the package a lot of people don't realize what it means they see the Hebrew writing all over it or even the fact that it promotes itself as being greenhouse grown produce and is in the kosher section of the supermarket's but it's not washed and checked I emphasize it's not Washington Chef it's a whole head but the stems still on the leaves still attached right that head has never touched water that head is not washed and checked so those heads you know just because it's greenhouse grown does not mean it's insect free and if you read the label carefully it does not say they're insect free and article are surprised by that because then what are you selling me the head for six dollars for so that's it's Earthian I don't know the answer that question at the same time you know should be aware that certainly washed and checked produce is what you're going to look for if you're going to be buying pre-checked and you don't want to check your own at home or you're worried about there being a shortage which is fake news again but at the same time if you want to do that if you want to check your own that's good let's we're talking about here if you want to buy creet check produce make sure it says washed and checked or traumatic offal that's known to wash your check if it's washed and checked and as a reliable on it no problem at all and this is fresh or frozen same thing same guidelines apply but if it doesn't say it's washed and checked make sure you understand what you're buying and that's my main point my pain point is is don't get fooled by any claims of green house on that note also I will add is that green house grown produce in the United States of America in the non kosher world when I'm talking about hydroponics aquaponics and things like that is something that is becoming very very popular and there's also what they call green house grown there certainly looked nothing like the green house as you see on the screen which are fully enclosed they're considered greenhouses they're not even catering to the kosher market at all they don't have any kosher symbol on it but it does say the words aren't it green house grown don't get fooled by that either just because something is grown in a greenhouse doesn't necessarily mean it's insect free so make sure you understand that and the main thing you should be looking for on your lettuce on your produce that you're buying frozen produce etc is a reliable offer it certifies it as having been washed and checked already and if that's the case then feel free to use it any way you wish so a few other factors as I mentioned before infestation can vary it changes things change depending on the country in the region as I mentioned before those differences between California Arizona Florida and Maryland we're only talking about North America my probe this comes from primarily fresh produce California Florida Arizona also many places in South America it's all included in our sphere of research we're not talking with our tester all as I mentioned you should ask that about a minute to solve for guidance they're keeping up to date we are our website in separate checking for insects tack check for insects calm woi check for insects calm it also get there through the star clubs to starcade that org and that is kept up-to-date with all the latest information anything that changes is there you can also sign up for email alerts which we will send out if there's significant changes and we're gonna get to some of the significant change that happened over the last few months in a minute I will also throw out there because you know much sometimes consumers are there are are can be there are best eyes and ears and that is if you find on a regular basis something different what we're saying feel free to contact us if you find you open a contain of apricots or container or packs of tomatoes or onions and you find bugs in there let us know about it we're happy to let us we're happy to hear this information from consumers we're not here to say that we have everything under control and nothing's gonna ever change things do change we feel we do have a lot of resources out there watching for any changes however at the same time you know we can't we're not through Brenda Shalom you can't be everywhere at the same time we can't be up up down down right left all around I'm sure all of you were hearing that through your ears right now in a phone call my she but let us know what you're finding the product the country of origin the store purchased the lot number of possible but the main thing is if you're finding bugs in something that we are currently recommending there's not need to be checked let us know send us a picture so the picture is very telltale depending on the type of insect that is we can tell if this is an issue with produce this is an issue from storage this is an issue that came from the factory it came from the warehouse you can tell very much let's type of insects certain insects only are in the warehouses and are not in the field certain insects are in the fields not in the warehouses so it's very important if you could send us a description is hard I know people ask me they could send in the description of the buggy and right the black thing crawling with legs you know that's that's like going to you even saying I'm the guy with the black hat right you know it doesn't really cut it so much but pictures really help and nowadays with all forms of media that shouldn't be something that is so so hard are there any questions or I Feldman was in the studio with me are there any questions that we should address now or should move on to other things ok so we'll talk about purees and stuff at the end is a few question of curation stuff we'll get the trays and stuff at the end smoothies you know calm puts and things like that ok let's move into the actual check-in procedures ok so the things you need for checking procedures not a whole lot this is not this is not I'm in infectious diseases this is not you know rocket science this is something very simple it's something that most people can do right as long as you have a decent eyes you don't need amazing eyes you know my glasses prescription is actually pretty strong you know it's not something that requires amazing eyes to do properly the hardest thing is patience which I think by the time pace it rolls around the kids are still out of school everyone's patience is gonna be really running thin but besra shem you know that will be fixed by then and anyways we're going to make sure we do this right in either case and a little bit practice those are really the only three items that anyone needs to really do this effectively look at the barley I mean okay maybe we'll get the barley I actually took barley out of the presentation because it's not an again for Pesach but I guess it's looking for the fruit for a few weeks but when we get to the individual items it goes in alphabetical order so Barley's not there but I'll address barley at that point homework everyone has homework everyone has online homework these days practice that's the biggest homework I can give you the only time I recommend you getting organic produce if you want to practice checking for insects organic produce generally puts on a very good show and has tremendous amounts of insects right now we're in middle of the change of seasons which means that in produce which is in the winter grown in Arizona and Florida now is moving off to California and during that change period when things are warming up that is always when there's always a lot of infestation issues pesach always comes during this time of year as we know and always hits usually during one of the peaks of infestation and the reason for that is because grow hole one and today Mayra tyreme it's us to call you strong and I figured heaven permits us and gave us the opportunity to get even more scar for doing this properly that's my guess not enough but this is Matias is that this time of year a lot of times is more infested so the good news is if you want to practice for the next two weeks you'll probably have an easy time finding finding things to practice with and that would be the homework main thing to do is to get too used to knowing what the insects look like that's the main thing the main thing that's the main thing you want to focus on the procedures we're going to talk through the procedures you have the step-by-step you can get our guide on the guide you print out our our guide I usually give them out at the at the presentations which I can't do now but you could download it for free on our website our checking now which has step-by-step instructions for all types of produce that will guide you to that you'll know how to do the steps properly but the main thing is to make sure you're doing the make sure you're recognized within sex look like and we're going to show some videos and pictures and hopefully get as good a recognition as we can but you know when you check it and you get something that's good infested I always personally I would recommend you get like organic kale organic kale is we say cutters for who put his name in kale because he held it was for him alone and not for us kale is one of the most infested vegetables out there and if you check it you especially got organic he'll even the triple washed you get organic triple washed organic kale you probably will have a very very interesting show for your kids they busy with for at least 3 minutes ok let's begin checking let's talk about dry goods for a minute ok these items are not matzah which means you not generally obligated to check it but you do need to make sure they're stored properly because they could be subject to improper storage conditions which couldn't cause infestation issues and we have seen this and in especially recently cereal dried spices dried strawberries flour macaroni oatmeal quinoa and we're going to talk about quinoa because can people use quinoa Mesa raisins rice sun-dried tomatoes and avoid closes all these things are subject to only infestation issues big from bad stores not from where they're grown so these things as long as you buy them from reliable sources and I mean not from closeout stores close up stores generally are spying product that is very very old and we would not recommend buying food products in the closeout stores but if you're buying it from reputable stores where they rotate their stock properly you should not have any very many issues with these items the exceptions are as many of you aware recently is brown rice and quinoa now so we're not going to focus on brown rice but it's what our website it tells you how to check brown rice it's very similar process to quinoa and we're gonna check it by shaking it over a sifter then I'm gonna see if I can get a video up here to show you how quinoa is checked okay I'm not sure why that's not up in one second one other point we'll get to Barragan we'll get to the video and that is if your mock but on yon which is more or less over pay stuff time so it's not a problem but for next year and this is also the issue with barley and that is sometimes since they're a lot especially a lot of the brands that are mock but on having and producing Yantra and barley they're kept for a long time and they end up with infestation issues so you want to avoid that problem you get product when it's clean you put it in the freezer for at least nine to six hours at freezing temperature zero degrees centigrade or 32 degrees Fahrenheit or less and I want me to keep it sealed well you will not have any of the station so the reason for that is all dried items naturally have eggs in them they're microscopic you're not going to see them don't try looking for them and there's no problem eating the food they all have microscopic eggs in them if left to incubate and improper conditions which means warm direct sunlight human conditions they will hatch and you'll have an infestation issue people who go away for the summer right we're not talking about going for Pesach now I'm not going it for the summer people away for the summer and turn the air conditioner off in their house especially in Baltimore when you come back and we have the three H's hot hazy and humid it's 90 degrees outside and humid you walk into your house and you open your pantry it's público Medusa every year beginning of elam people come back from the mountains wherever they want on vacation they call up and they say they open their pantry and they find bugs crawling all over the place that is pantry pests as they're no storage bugs that come because you left your things in improper storage conditions don't keep things over our fridge don't keep them over a stove don't keep them in direct sunlight and in fact you pay attention to all those items on the list before on the packaging it says that don't store in direct sunlight or in warm humid conditions because they're aware that that can be an issue soomi spices as well you buy the big containers of spices from Sam's Club there's no running them yet that was a joke by the way there's no run on spices there's no shortage of no orchard of eggs there's no shortage of anything that is no shortage or any food items you want to buy the big things of spices and you want to keep them the over the number of period of months I would recommend keeping them in the freezer especially over the summer months you want to keep it in the freezer first of all keeps it fresher and then avoids having an affair station problem in it I'm barley has the same issue barley which we'll just discuss Minox we're talking about dry goods on the way you would check barley which we do recommend right now we are recommending you check on all different brands barley especially the ocean brands of barley as you sow good 15 minutes in water put the water about a couple inches on top over the barley and let it soak there for 15 20 minutes if there's any bugs that the float to the top if you don't see any bugs phone to the top then there shouldn't be any issue okay I'm gonna put up a video on quinoa I'll actually have Kino right here how did that happen I got an order I apologize for that okay let's talk about quinoa because kin was particularly relevant for Pesach so first of all kinwa needs to have special place of certification on and the reason for that is because first of all it many times could be grown and packed with comets I've been to many quinoa facilities myself they pack even if it's gluten-free they pack oats a lot of times on the same packing lines they don't know so they clean it off not in a way that you know we were comfortable with it still some residue there and there is that very very serious concern so Kenan was certainly nice to have a rival pace at hash baja recently as I'm sure everyone is aware we came with an alert regarding infestation issues in in a lot of different brands of quinoa and that was a storage issue we were able to trace it back we know really where the storage issue came from its it traced back to the sources in South America where they have warehouses and product can sit around there for long periods of time and that's what caused enough a station issue in quinoa I'm gonna pull up a video of checking quinoa I hope let's see if this works okay you see the video don't see that there goes okay here's the video about checking quinoa okay no okay so I hope everyone was able to see that video on okay back up normal now the screens back up okay so I hope you all to see that video basically the method is and you could see this video is actually post on our website if you go to check for insects calm and click on kin Juan has that video there on that video is basically you take the kin will put it in a strainer a number there gives you actual men you need a mesh strainer that with the canola fall through a number 15 mesh or smaller 15 to 25 mesh and on our website actually gives you links to where you can order it online which is the name of the game these days everyone's ordering everything online it's available Target and Amazon they have streams that this works for basically take the quinoa you put it over a white piece of paper or light box shape and you look for any insects in there the types of insects you're looking for predominantly our book lice they can be found live or dead as they say in the Wild West this is what they look like they are magnified here that is them next step piece of rice they're about the size of a grain of rice maybe a little bit smaller but in many of the infested batches if it would be doing this live I could show you you know it's gonna their plate literally or the piece of paper literally walk away it could be then infested but these are what book lice look like you also many sometimes will find mites but you'll find this most these most often if it is infested now if you do find book lies in your quinoa I would not use it I would not recommend using it because you know if you're not going to sell you get it clean these are going to be tremendous amounts of infestation in the in the quinoa if it is talk about batch that's infested people ask about does quinoa if it has a star can need to be checked so if you quinoa from a year-round yes I don't care it doesn't matter which go hard there is one there's I'll get a few that are certified in general all criminal regardless of the Hatcher has to be checked we were everyone was caught by surprise about five months ago when this infestation level happened moving forward all the quinoa we're certifying is checked however even if it's checked when we certify it we still can't control storage conditions so we check it in the facility which we've done extensively the few different batches of quinoa but we still can't control it so for example we certified for Pesach natural earth brand quinoa and also a and ends and ends is an Andean natural on both bags of quinoa for Pesach which we sent to makea all the way from South America it was literally sure Mahaska Syrah as they say we had oversight from beginning to end and it was checked extensively for insects we made sure was a fresh batch and did not sit around anywhere for too long and it was packed with the musky if they're checking tremendous amounts and making sure it was clean so the natural or kin with a star K for Pesach washed off on it was checked a few months ago when it was produced and it was found to be 100% clean however we have no one we don't know where it's been till then so we certainly still are suggesting recommending that consumers do check it even if you find it however you know the likelihood of it being clean is I think certainly higher then other brands there are a few other brands also I'm not a we're off hand are a few other brands that I've made known through other conscious channels that are also being certified as the insect free I'm not sure if there's sort of hard for pace on or not but there are a few also that did batches that were checked extensively but again it's always a good idea to check the quinoa that you're buying simply because no no one can control even if when we produced it was stored properly the distributor got ahold of it sat around in there for a while you know we have no idea especially now it's been a very warm you know end of the winter things could have sat around and improper conditions and it could have gotten infested that way so it's something that would still suggest that you do okay moving on to lettuce greens okay so bags that have a stocking certification on it we will not certify it if it needs for the checking you know unless it's something that you know could be soldier stores conditions I skipped the slide before on figs dates Carib things like that we actually put out a webinar before to be shot about this figs and dates need to be checked even say Vash kaha they could be sewed in proper storage conditions they sit around for a long time we have stopped certifying figs dried figs and talking about we have stopped certifying dried figs and unless the package it says on the package checking is required and the reason for that is because we found figs to have significant levels infestation and something that if you are checking you know you make sure you open the fig up invert it and look through it very carefully it's doable I'm not saying it's easy but it is doable and if you don't see bugs you can see you can eat it but we're talking about fresh greens fresh produce frozen produce I'm star K will only and many other shockers also only certify something that no further checking is required our lettuce is Fresh Express lettuce for example we certify some other many other brands kosher taste lettuce kosher crops lettuce has been fully checked by expert mesquite command no further checking is required it's 100% ready to eat ok so let's go to step one in checking step one is going to watch all the produce soap works best because it kills animals insects now veggie washes are not as good as soap I'm not saying you can't use veggie washes but keep in mind that soaps have as we know now soaps have tremendous properties to get things very very clean and soap works very well on removing insects the reason for that is because soap has two properties to it it has a surfactant property to attracting characteristic to it it has an antibacterial I'm sorry we know it as in the bacterial has a surfactant properly to it and it also has the idea that is it is toxic for the insects not because the soap itself is necessarily toxic for the insects but because the soap when you use adequate amounts of soap in the water it makes the water thick and that suffocates the insects and they die when they're died they're easier to remove because they can't grab on as easily so so certainly works better but it has those characteristics much more than insect more much more than veggie washes and the types of soaps that we generally use or recommend using there's a so-called 7 generation which is a natural 100% natural non-toxic you know bleach free phosphorus free completely edible soap I'm not saying it necessarily tastes good although I've had many people that try it and I said it's actually not bad so if your kids get bored and they want to start tasting soap at a certain point they'll keep them busy for me five minutes and then you have to find something else to do but seventh generation soap is widely available it's a national brand and it's something that we find works very very well and it's fully edible salt and vinegar also don't work as well because they don't have the same characteristics or properties as soap or they're not a surfactant they might be toxic but then again the amount of proportions you have to do is result in vinegar or to be effective you'll end up with potato salad and coleslaw and cougar salad before you end up with lettuce that's actually clean so it's not something that really works well feel free to try it again you're gonna check it anyways but you probably will not pass so you soap really works the best the best method for washing it is really I'm gonna give you a suggestion method but it's not 100% guarantee the way I personally wash my lettuce is I'll take a basin likes pictured in the and the slide fill it up with soapy water agitate the produce in the basin and then rinse it off leaf by leaf like you see in the picture over there it takes like a couple of minutes to do that but it's worth it you do that your lettuce will will be clean be very clean and added benefit by the way to using soap on your lettuce even the natural non-toxic soaps that kills the bacteria and that's something we're certainly looking to do nowadays kill all the bacteria but on top of that also will last longer because the cause of spoilage what causes vegetables to rot is the fact that that bacteria gets to it so when you use soap it actually lasts longer you know when I clean produce at home it can last upwards of two weeks they've kept drying in the fridge it stays crisp and it really really works well a lot of the restaurants that we use when we start using soap again the natural non-toxic soaps to clean the produce they find that it really lasts much much longer that way is it a very good shelf-life so that's step one step one is you want to take your produce you're going to wash your produce again using soapy water is ideal and then you can put on the side now I have a pile of lettuce that's just been washed okay that's step one step two now what kind of soap what kind of soap I'll address that in one second I'll just I'll get to the the the soap in one second and how much soap but also going to get to the one second okay the preferred method we're gonna be talking about it's called the shmatte vide cup which means as you know it was developed by some ano high academic university and they need to try and I'm kidding there's all by the conscious world ramesh of ashley dinerral and other I'll develop this method I don't need really are that you need or most importantly is what they call the trip cloth the schemata which is 60 micron piece of mesh which we sell in many storm stores and kosher stores sell them we have it on Amazon all these items that you see in the screen except the basin basin you can get on your own but the loop the white box and the throat cloth are available from our office we don't ship it and you know if you're not interested in coming in they are available on Amazon we stocked up Amazon right before they issued the new guidelines where they're not accepting new stuff except things that are essential for life and although this is probably central for life this time of year for juice but anyways I'm azan has a very nice stack of them if you're having a problem getting at an Amazon or if they sell out for some reason feel free to give our office a call we'll do our best to ship it out to you a third cloth a loop is helpful in a light box the main thing really is a trip cloth and other things are helpful and as I was like to mention you don't absolutely need a loop you don't absolutely need a light box you know everyone says our grandparents didn't have them that's correct they didn't have them it's but they also used to build decks and houses with hand saws so you know you can do that it will work but it certainly is more efficient if you have the right tools make the job go faster and more efficient look if you're looking to spend more time with your kids checking it don't use the loop spend all the time you want look for every inch of lettuce have all five your kids hold the lettuce and look through it then wash it with soap again afterwards but you can do that if you want but the method we're going to show is very quick and very efficient so I'll pull that up here and one set that's the one yes just make sure it's clean okay in here so I'm gonna narrate you hear me when I'm there any okay I'm gonna demonstrate that way to do this math we think of properly in this time is necessary are a light box and a 16 micron piece of mesh known as a through cloth and a basin of water I take the basin of water you put on the light box like that add some dishwasher liquid soap for a dishwasher which does not cause any bubbles as opposed to Palmolive at the sink which will have a pile of bubbles up this guy take the produce agitated in the in the water like that in this case it's romaine lettuce about ten to fifteen seconds actually I say about twenty twenty-five seconds agitate it shake it off and then you're gonna check the water okay and the way you can do it is either you can turn the light on and look in the water like that if you see any bugs you know what failed right away but the most efficient way is you take the trip cloth or the schemata as they call it sandwich it between two strainers or any other way you want to hold it in place sandwiching it like that is just a practical way to hold it and then you pour the water through and you then you take trip cloth and you put it on the light box or in good light with any white background and check it carefully if you see any bugs in there then then it has failed and you don't have to try checking it again if you don't see any bugs in there then you can use it no problem let's get back to the presentation here okay then you then you can use it no problem the man is hope you want to use is enough that you stick your fingers in the water you feel the water is thicker it's approximately two tablespoons of so per gallon of water but don't sit there measuring it take a cup of plain water and put your fingers in this water and then you rub your fingers like then you feel the water as thicker you know using enough soap and you know don't as I mentioned it's soap for a dishwasher which is not cause bubbles we use Palmolive or something like that you can end up with a pile of bubbles up to the sky and keep in mind soap does not naturally bubble they add a chemical to soap that causes the bubble which makes you feel you schmuck like you're using a lot of soap but in reality you're not necessary using a lot of soap is you know from washing your hands nowadays a little soap can cause bubbles but you have to use really you know enough soap they give you enough to put in the palm of your hand and make sure you're rubbing enough the amount of soap is more critical in the bubble because the bubbles are really not an indication of how much soap you're using so that's the step that's the that is the method let's review it one more time step one again because people get confused here so you feel free to chat if you're confused about this and I fell man will let me know step number one you're going to watch the produce watch it as well as you can the way I read suggested washing in this take a basin of soapy water agitated in the water and rinse off a leaf by leaf or whatever type of produce you're washing and put on the side and then you're going to step two is you're going to do the football check method you're gonna take a second basin of soapy water so yes you're putting in soapy water twice okay you take a second base in the soapy water and agitate the produce in that water for a twenty five thirty Seconds shake it off and then pour that water through the thrip cloth and check that water either in a light box or over a white piece of paper over my towel with good overhead lighting take it outside whatever you want and see if you see any bugs in there okay so is everybody clear on that yes so we're should we do recommend I see that we do recommend you do this for every single piece of lettuce it's best to check everything it's actually fairly easy he goes fairly quickly the hardest part might be washing it you know personally I had my own experience where you know I we had about 30 heads of romaine lettuce to check for the storm was kind of hurt a lot of people and I decided to be a column so I had one of my brothers wash all the produce I gave him that job um he washed it and I decide I was gonna check it so I took one bucket of water you know put soapy water in it and I agitated all thirty heads in there not obviously all at the same time yeah agitated about 30 seconds or so you know take it out next next it takes about 2 3 3 4 minutes you can agitate large quantities of lettuce excuse me in this bucket of water and then I put all that water through through cloth and ended of finding two bugs have to wash all of it again so you don't have to do tremendous amounts you know at one time but it actually goes pretty quickly doing this method and it's extremely extremely accurate now everyone always ask this question can I do it leaf by leaf the answer is I'm not saying you can't do it leaf by leaf what we are saying is that again this is something that is something very home between four and six eleven for each bug that is ingested it's not something that anybody needs anybody wants and the Rhenish alarm did not give us an instruction to say anywhere in the Tyron hazael how to check lettuce talks about other types of produce other types of grains how to check them different things different types of bugs some bugs we are familiar some bugs we're not familiar with but there's no set guideline in how to check anything for bugs it basically is do the best job you can to make sure you're not checking box so there's nothing wrong certainly though with taking a piece of lettuce holding it up in light or outside and seeing if there's any bugs in there the problem is is that if you don't do it very very very carefully you're gonna end up missing bugs and we found this because we took mystique and horrid experience and were trained well and we're doing it leaf by leaf and we took that lettuce that they had already passed and put it through the schemata and put it to the throat cloth check method and we and we found bugs we did the other way we did the throat cough check method and then we try checking leaf really if we didn't find anything this wasn't our experience this was extensive research done over many years until this conclusion was reached that this is certainly more efficient and more accurate than leaf by leaf but again if you're stuck you don't have any of these tools and have a trip claw if you're not able to get out to get a through clock and you don't have access to Amazon and you don't have a telephone to call someone to get you one then if you're on this planet still no kidding if you cannot have rip cloth then you can do certainly I'm not saying you can't do it leaf by leaf but this method is more accurate and there's also a time factor you know do leaf by leaf you know hat takes a tremendous amount of time in this day and age people are short on time especially especially of all your kids home people are gonna be short on time this method is extremely accurate extremely efficient and it you can do it very quickly in very large quantities and volumes of lettuce as well so this is the method we recommend if someone's saying I did a leaf a leaf that's the way I've always been doing it and I didn't find any bugs you know I'm not gonna say that you're more cleave now to do this method that's not my point that's not what I'm trying to say but if you want to do it right from the start and we're all trying to do everything right and do everything in the best way possible and the shortest time possible you know this method is the way to go okay if you find an insect even one you're going to repeat steps one you're going to take the lettuce again you just took it out of soapy water before you put it through through cloth you're gonna wash it and then try checking it again okay you do that you know you could do that really I mean we say on our website up to three times and then you're out if you're still finding bugs at the three times you know it must be really badly infested and you probably shouldn't use it but if you're still find there's one stubborn bug that's there you know you could really keep going until you make sure that it's clean yes you should dishwasher soap both times again because once you start with regular dish soap you can end up with bubbles at some point and it's just it's hard to get rid of the bubbles they distort it makes a mess it's not good I choose dishwasher soap on both rounds okay what are we looking for the insects we're looking for are nearly and I'm they're visible to the eye these are things you're burnish alone wants you to see yes seven generation is a company that produces a whole line of soaps dishwasher soap amongst them if you want you want to if you WA see in the in the in the in the kitchen over there you might have a container I could show I show picture what it looks like if you're in Baltimore seven mile they'd start carrying it target carries it you know it's a national brands available everywhere yes it is Carla Pesa is Carla pencil this is what it looks like okay Simon generation dishwasher soap okay it actually has an extra pan oh you owe us confirmed this car slip s on as well okay thank you okay these answers we talk mine are are visible to the naked eye they're called nearly nine yes they are visible they might take some getting used to because they're very good at camouflaging themselves but the fact that you're the camouflage themselves by color does not make them not invisible to the naked eye and that's why having it on a white cloth as opposed to having it on a piece of lettuce is certainly something that is much much easier again you know if you're talking about leaf by leaf you know you have to look through every single crevice every single crevice of the lettuce and make sure you're looking at every single part to make sure there's no bugs that are hiding there okay and and you know just emphasize these tools that were talking about loops light boxes toss everything or not to find insects that you wouldn't otherwise see with your naked eye again you couldn't you can see them it's just much easier using these tools and it goes much faster let me try let me put up a video here one more video of what insects look like all these videos by the way are available on our website as well and you can see them hold on one second let me get that video up here why is that you want to use the same so for both the same the same dishwasher soap that seven generation that I showed you want to use it for both that's the best thing to do the three mains piece of insects that are found in produce a fit strips and flies there are some others but these are the main ones I'm a fish are small round green brown black red they change colors depending on the host that they're on that's what if it looks like on a leaf of lettuce as you see it could be challenging to do it leaf by leaf looking at it that way there's but that's an aphid next to a nickel so you see they could be quite small but certainly visible and you see it you'll know it that's what a piece of lettuce looks like on a lightbox you know it is you can see it that way but you have to look very carefully see the crevices next to the leaf make it very hard trips are about the same length but narrower and it could be those trips are by far the most common anyways they're brown black could be translucent yellowish pale yellows if they're get smaller and they also are very hard to find on a leaf of lettuce itself simply because they're hide themselves and they camouflage themselves and they run away when they're exposed to light so it makes it a little bit challenging to to find them flies are very large big and easy to find that's it next to a finish rip and flies are we like to call the Helen Keller bugs and they are things that most people will not miss people will not miss them people will not miss flies if you're still finding flies after you've washed your produce you probably did not do a good job in washing it well flies usually will wash off right away once in a while people call me up and say they found the fly in you know whatever brand of kosher produce a lot of times that happens in a packing facility which they try to confer with say where they go to very great efforts to control what a fly is not something generally that will be found in washed produce of any sort unless it really wasn't washed well but anyways and thrips are by far the most common sometimes you'll find mites sometimes you can find other things but if isn't trips are by far the most common let's go through step by step some of the different common areas of protists that what you're going to use and how to check them so asparagus is two years from asparagus and you're checking there's under the side leaves which are really hard to check especially if you have to lift it up and look underneath it will you recommend you take a peeler and just remove the side that leaves from the can you see they add the arrow on the screen all right Feldman no you see it don't I'm saying that with the mouse there now Sarah no okay the with the blue arrows pointing those salaries are gonna pick those up and look underneath them otherwise just take a peeler and just peel all those off and peel the whole side of it and then you don't have to worry anymore about the silage then you have the tops of this prior stop to the surrogate or the area where the leaves start getting loose and water can get inside there you're gonna take them and do the trip lock method responsibilities go on then we're gonna take a basin of soapy water and agitate them very vigorously in the top in the water and then you can pour the water through through puffs and check it that way cabbage so cabbage does have bugs but it is certainly less infested because it's very tightly packed and it's also less green and nutritious and you know humans don't like it as much and you'll do insects and it washes very well but if you make stuffed cabbage for example you're gonna freeze the heads of lettuce and then you're gonna remove the leaves and with cabbage specifically if you want to check green cabbage leaf by leaf by taking off the leaves since they're pretty large and smooth and you hold them up in good light and look to them if you see any bugs that will work I would recommend you rinse them first and then you can check and you can check the leaf by leaf if you would like to do it that way purple cabbage will not work because you're not going to see through purple cabbage it's not very translucent so purple cabbage we recommend doing it through the threat cloth if you're gonna be dicing it up anyways I'm you're making coleslaw or something like that then just dice it up and put it through the puff that's very easy way to check it okay celery so the leaves if you're gonna be using the celery leaves then you're gonna need to check them in the same way we check Roman lives with a throw cloth however if you're not using the leaves just cut off the leaves and then you're left with the stalks the stalks won't have insects but they wash very well if you take them use the veggie brush don't use veggie brush use your hand it doesn't matters rinse them very well under a stream of water and no further checking is required it's something that is not as complicated thing cleef miners what people talk about in celery is not very monthly in celery it's very much in scallions some other items but it's not very months in celery and you do not have to worry about leaf miners but trips and other things could be found but again just rinsing them off and that is enough fresh garlic there could be mites it's you know it's me and I Munsey we feel Smith at Muncie to find mites in between the peels of the garlic peel but not on the clothes themselves so if you're just using the cloves it's not really a problem so what you do is just peel the garlic the garlic heads and peel the garlic take the clothes out of the heads rinse them off and then you know for that no further checking is required at all you want to actually do any checking on it we don't recommend roasting the whole bowl but the roll the whole garlic head in olive oil using as a dip you know I'm not saying there aren't reasons they could allow that but it's not something we officially recommend to rely on doing that grapes grapes the problem is mites and other types of insects we found on the skins of grapes on the outside but you rinse them well in a stream of water don't need soap you're going to make sure that you're hitting a with a very strong stream of water every single grape just want to make sure you rinse it well under a stream of water and that is enough mushrooms all types of mushrooms except Morello oyster I'll add porcini mushrooms okay but regular portobello Babybel button mushrooms all you need to do is rinse them well in the fan area specifically you do not need to take a spoon and scoop it out if you want to do that you could but you know some people don't use mushrooms on Pesach but that's a different story if you're using them you're using mushrooms on pace at which I think predominant meaning is to use mushrooms on pizza then all you do is rinse them well if the area Carver has the fan is covered up by the mushroom itself and you don't really need to do anything but again keep in mind that mushrooms were just picked and not grown in ground they are grown with dirt and people did pick them with their hands I don't know if they're wearing gloves so you should rinse them off and anyways and if you can't access the failure because Cardo by the mushroom you don't have to worry about that but that's all they need to do is if you do get access to the fan area just rinse it well no further checking is required and yes a lot people asses about Pesach can you buy sliced mushrooms in in code in a non-kosher store they come in a package you know regular raw diced mushrooms answer is yes because they're made in a protist facility and there's no issues even for pizza with buying that canned obviously wouldn't need a reliable ashkani and certainly for pace on ok pineapple there's mites and other types of insects in the crown and the outer rind and inside the blossom cups the blossom cups are the remnants of the outer rind on the pineapple and the picture you see those brown stuff that is part what we call the blossom cups and there could be mites in there so the main thing is solution as you see in there slide on the right is you want to peel it properly until only yellow is visible there's no brown pieces then you rinse it off and there's no further checking is required here's a picture side by side of a pineapple that's not filled properly what has brown on it and the right is a pineapple that is peeled properly those holes in the pineapple are not a problem at all as long as all you see is yellow you are in good shape scallions and leeks so there's two issues of the skies I'm one is thrips many times are going to be inside the scallions so the easiest solution for that is going to be you know I'll talk about the solution for that in a second the second problem is gonna be leaf miners leaf miners are very common in Scouts but they're very easy to find what you're gonna do is you're gonna take the scallions and hold them and sift through them on the and look outside the standard if you see any of the tell-tale signs old leaf miner like shown in the picture relieves this squiggly line that's actually has the leaf miner that black thing is the leaf miner bug insect inside the leaf miner it's inside the flesh in between the layers of the flesh that's where it burrows its way in there that obviously it's not so easy to remove who just say pull off that area that has those lines in it and you could use the rest but you should check all your scales externally for that hold them open like this and turn them over and look on both sides if you don't see any leaf miners there are none there they're not very hard to see at all that's a product issue no one after you check them for leaf miners then you're going to deal with the issue that they're strips many times inside them and there's two ways to check either you can peel them open and look inside for any strips that is one way to do it and but it's not a sin most efficiently most of the time I think people who are using scallions although some people use them for car bus so if you want to keep them whole let's talk about diced for a minute you know school dice up there scallions you put it in soups read icing them up the easiest way to do it is dice them up and then do a throw throw them in water agitated in the water for threw three puffs and check that's the easiest way to do scallions if you do want to keep them whole for whatever reason then you want to slice open the scallion all the way down the middle as far down as you're going to use you're gonna use the bulb slice down into the bulb open it up and look inside if you see any bugs it you know it's a pretty similar surface in there you should be able to see it I can tell you from experience it's always cadets cadet I rinse your scallions because most batches I don't say most because I don't put in love the most look many batches of scallions will not pass bugs are quite common inside scallions you will see that if you do a through cloth on it I would always recommend whether you're slicing them open or you're dicing them rinse them in plain water just plain water first does give them a rinse and then check them either by looking inside or putting them through a thrip cloth and then and then if you don't find any thrips any bugs on them after that then you could use them no problem ok the last thing is strawberries and then we'll look at some questions so strawberries are issue a strawberries are mostly with thrips specifically baby thrips which are very small and very hard to see the good news is is that we don't require actual checking of strawberries and we don't nuke our actual checking storage we have this washing process that we found works and after you do this washing process you don't have to do any further checking so prepare a soapy solution of water using at least two tablespoons or so per gallon of water as you mentioned before this secures any soap you want but use the same image and that's your bug checking so could you go to so for bug checking and agitate them in the water let them soak there for one full minute it doesn't have to be more than a minute but it should not be less than a minute okay rinse them off in plain water and repeat this process a second time okay and the reason why we say repeated a second time is because we found during the highly infested times a year which is the spring and early summer it's like a boys pants sometimes you wash it once doesn't get on the mud out if to wash it twice so we found when the strawberries are highly infested washing them once didn't necessarily cut it and so we say wash them twice and just wash them twice all year round repeat this process a second time after you finished washing them cut off the tops and I know someone's gonna mention it so I'm gonna say it right now you cut off the tops before you wash them we declare that the tops after you wash them an answer is from a bug perspective it makes no difference the only reason I say cut off afterwards because many times if you cut the tops off before you end up with a hole in the top of the strawberry then you wash it in soapy water you're never gonna get the soap out so a practical consideration to do is just first wash them rinse them off and then cut the tops off with part of the flesh it's not really good to just to pull the greens off because you still have that seam area on top where bugs can hold on inside there and very hard to get inside there so we say cut off the tops with some of the flesh of the strawberry if you look on our website of a video but I think you all understand what I mean you know this is if this is the top if this is the this is the strawberry you cut off like from over here like that cut off the top of the strawberry you know I think everyone understands what I mean by that so that's the recommendation for strawberries watch them two times in soapy solution rinse them off and obviously the two times in the soap which is not the same water you change the water in between cause otherwise you're not accomplishing anything rinse them off two times in soapy water I'm sorry try this one more time soak them two times in soapy water rinse them off cut off the tops and then you're good to go and after you do that no further checking is required if you cannot find frozen strawberries with reliable ahaha and this does apply to frozen as well we do recommend you buy orange with a reliable haha that already been checked if you cannot find them they're not available in your area it's very easy too it's very easy to to make your own iqf need to meaning the frozen strawberries frozen strawberries go through a very complicated process what they do is they take them to factories they wash them and they freeze them then they put them in a bag that's it so you do the same thing take your strawberries wash them put them in the freezer individually and then you put them in a bag and you have exactly the same thing that they charge you ten bucks a bag for okay anyway I mean maybe they charge that much I know anyway you are you know this is a cheaper solution to make your own frozen strawberries but again if you don't have time you can buy them with yourself yes so do you need to agitate the strawberries in soapy water yes you should I mentioned you should agitate them initially here about 1530 seconds in 20 seconds and then let them soak their in the water for one full minute umm items that we don't recommend to be used or artichoke and the reason is because it's inside this artichoke bulbs or heads there are many times bugs are very highly infested and we just have a perhaps otherwise other than taking them apart leaf by leaf which you can do if you want to do that and check in if you don't have a practical way to check the artichokes like that even canned you're only gonna find canned canned artichoke bottoms that are reliably certified because no one else will certify the artichoke hearts as they call them or artichoke tops or leaves for sure because of infestation issues most of raspberries and blackberries even fresh or frozen we just don't have a good solution for we just don't have a profitable way to clean them and they should not be used Brussels sprouts as well they're like a cabbage so if you want to take them apart and open them up and check them then you can do that but that sort of defeats the purpose now though a number of the kosher companies do have frozen Brussels sprouts that are going green houses that are bug free and those are you know certainly reliable you can buy those if you wish if you like Brussels sprouts okay blending and juicing this is everyone's favorite topic we say this to the end blending existing is allowed if the following following conditions are met you take first of all you're taking conventional produce you're not taking organic produce you're taking let's say frozen strawberries with no ash Gotha conventional frozen strawberries in Alaska and you're making a smoothie out of it so it's not like you bought them then you realized oh I can't use them so now I have to now I have to I have to blend them you're bonding there with intention you're making a cut you're making a strawberry so if you're making a smoothie your intention is to blend them then our mind holds your 100% allowed to buy them and blend them luckily you don't have to buy the Jewish brands now Stark a certified establishments don't do this we only use the bow deck or the check friends not boudic brand necessarily we do use bodek these other brands as well on the brands that are already checked and certified is already being checked but if you want to do it at home for yourself you can take any frozen strawberry you want and put it in a blender similar things apply for juicing other vegetables I would not recommend it for kale but you could do it with you know other types of frozen vegetables even if you want to buy you know other types of greens that do not necessarily have a haschke on them but already washed and you're going to blend them up it would be allowed lathela and again there's one emphasized no establishes that we certified don't rely on this and you know that if anyone has any questions they can feel free to ask about that and we can try to address it it might be hard in chat you can call me you can call me call me on the office line for 10 for 8 4 4 1 1 0 extension 2 3 9 you can email me rabbi Tendler at started educate that org and I will try to get back to you as soon as possible one last note about checking on Shabbos and that is that actually checking for insects and Shabbos is not recommended or you want it for that matter because you end up in a quandary Shabbos let's talk about Travis Freeman if you end up finding about how to removal without now getting into borer issues on you and if there is more lenient C's questions you're a lot of use a trip coffin you want if you're not gonna get into that order Hyneman you know not saying there aren't reasons to allow it but generally our base recommendation is to check everything before Shabbos or yontiff okay any query Feldman you wanted any questions that pertinent second wash on once they go back to the list the second what do you mean if the lettuce fails to do you do the initial rinse okay then you washed it once you prepare a second bucket of water okay you agitate the produce in that water and then you pour that water through through cloth okay and any any questions on it you don't have to oh oh you don't have to wash it leaf by leaf after the second time no no you don't leaks by the way are the same thing as scallions they should be checked in a similar manner leeks are joining less infested but you will find you will find the same process uses do the same process so buying raspberry yogurt raspberry jams with ochco so generally what I scuffles are going to use and those things are are either generally speaking what they call the raspberry or strawberry slipped my mind now the leftovers from the IQF it's actually called alright it'll come to me it's called the it's left open iqf process the strawberries that are left all mushed and crushed from the machinery that's what the end of using in the in the in the in the jams and yogurts and things like that those are pretty much smashed already and that's why i Chicago's rely on it or many brands are you actually only using strawberry or raspberry juice once in a while I have a little piece in there but mostly it's really just juice which is not a problem at all Emily sees any other questions here so it's always helpful this will you make sure nothing wrong with using a loop doesn't mean it's not nearly nine if sometimes it's ends up in a trip cloth not necessarily in its natural state I'm not talking about not barrier now you want to make sure you're comfortable understanding whether it's above not a book you know many of our trained monkeys him need to use loops but they carry them just in case this way they know 100% sure we're like to do things 100% I'm not gonna make a policy not to use a loop you know because I don't have to use a loop if you're not sure check it you know and and this way you do things 100% the way one said I see note here also about someone sometimes there was a recent talk about finding worms inside strawberries that happens once in awhile it's not me and I'm not see that way we do we are watching for that in our research but we're not saying that's made of months you find one somehow that happens but in general it's not something have to worry about its own there only on the outside of the strawberry um so the issue with blueberry the story of blueberries is the following on blueberries yes so that last question the corner behind one can buy strawberries at a hack sure for the purpose of some external chase yes that is true as long as they're again they're not organic or conventional yes you can do that now the story of blueberries is the following blueberries do we have potentially an issue with scales on the outside of blueberries there are many brands are reliably certified frozen blueberries if you are concerned about that you can buy those and but otherwise the consensus of most conscious agencies is that the scale insects on blueberries are not an issue you know don't have to get into all the nitty-gritty details on that we are we do monitor it and the ones that we certify but you know it's it's it's a complicated story of blueberries not one that I think is conducive to having an understandable discussion if we're not in person to be able to talk about it so I'll leave it at that is that right now we are still allowing blueberries but there's there is grounds to be master if you want and there's also there's also frozen blueberries with reliable close closer taste produces frozen blueberries with a star K&S axis that has been checked and they're okay to buy bozo organic Lewisham I recommend it yeah no we're not finding that many times you're gonna find dirt inside the stalk you're gonna you're gonna find that we'll eat that's not uncommon but we're not finding inside inside the stock okay all right yes track everybody who attended and who listened which is all much has slop everyone should stay safe and healthy and my email is rabbi Tendler at te and DL you are right and ler at Starrcade org my phone number here is 4 10 4 8 4 4 1 0 that's the main star K line and my extension is extension 2 3 9 this presentation has also been saved yet so we recorded and uploaded to our website tomorrow at some point so you can review it and you could pass it along wishing everybody a Compu weeks nothing to worry about in a kadhai service' man