11-20-2019 Bug Checking Current Issues

hello and welcome to star K's monthly webinar held in the Starkey offices main offices in Baltimore Maryland I'm your host Rob Lee Goldberg and today we have rubbish on tumblr joining us thank you right over thank you for coming right and I take out the time from your busy schedule usually our webinar has held the last Wednesday of each month at noon Eastern this month because of scheduling we doing it a week early and I mean contrary to popular opinion we do do other things besides the webinar so we have to work at around our we do i schedule is that that's on record right right let's make right okay so we have to work it around the work schedules and we thank you for joining us today's topic is checking for bugs and if you got the email you're so we're gonna discuss kinwa dried fruit beings barley flour especially how they relate to yo shun figs sushi nori and seaweed snacks onions corn all these topics some things which you may not realize have bugs if you have any questions if you can chat with us at the bottom right of your screen there's a chat box we would love to hear from you answer your questions and have a back and forth if you want to join us by phone it's two one eight eight nine five one two zero three passcode 2020 again two one eight eight nine five one two zero three passcode 2020 these and all of our webinars are archived on our website star dash Georg if you have any questions after the webinar that you can call us at 4 1 0 4 8 4 4 1 1 0 or email us at info at star dash K org okay so without further ado rabbit tell me we have a full presentation and we have some pictures which is the really the advantage of this kind of form right yeah we can't really you know we can we can show people exactly what we are we're talking about one of the old phone jingles an expecting to being there that's right oh you're not old enough to remember that I don't think I heard you know hearsay hearsay okay so which one would well I'll give you the floor what do you want to start with let's start with let's go stretch down the water oh yeah I'm the one you love you know okay I do want to mention which I put into the emails that we do have a group of how many how many people enough for four people who spend quite a bit of time and that's what they do I mean besides learning right time part time but they spend their time going through like if an alert comes out there's kid while there's bugs in quinoa there's bugs and barley whatever whatever comes out you know there's some new information so you guide them to study to see where when what is it a big problem not a problem that's probably the least of what we do oh yeah we're not trying to be you know reactive we're trying to be proactive and you're right so many times when Laura comes out we'll check into it but most of the time we have a lot of information on various topics where we're really busy most of the time researching items that currently aren't lists as either requirement checking or not requiring checking but are known maybe not to have as much clarity the point of this whole project started about five years ago when it just seems that you know all the different agencies we try to feel like we're all more or less on the same page even if we have different suck and different things but sometimes it comes out that a policy might contradict another agency's policy and it looks like there's a difference in the mid CS and the actual facts you know neither it isn't faster it isn't infested and there was a few of the situations that came up until we decided that maybe we should just create a forum that is just for facts meaning everyone could take the facts from there and obviously there's going to be different Sock'em in different situations that's understood but create a forum where we can upload and gather facts about all different types of vegetables this way at least everyone's on the same page so other agencies have access to the information that we gather and she's do someone to do some work also Starrcade we have for people who focus on this and do this a lot other agencies have other people who know they have some time they're all Mosquitia more other people I don't know if they actually hire other people outside I don't know but they have other people also joined in and they add information as well and all of it is just fact factual information on you know some recent projects would be for example would be corn on the cob which we'll discuss we did look into quinoa for we've been looking at the quinoa for a number of years already okra was a onions sometimes we're gonna talking about here scallions just as a matter of reviewing making sure the procedures are good our strawberry procedure was reviewed again also by the group so so I should mention that how do we get this information out to the public we have a web portion of our website right our in second page on our website inside chicken paste which you can get to with a quick link check for insects calm that's right so if you go to check for insects calm you'll see this information it's updated the rabbit tunnel takes care every to make sure that the new information is put up there and so that we you know we get that information to the public which is really the point of exactly exactly sorry if people ask the question all the time how will I know if things change so the answer is first all you can sign up for the email alert list and if there's a significant change we will issue an alert but our information on the website is kept up to date and in real time when changes happen and again if there's a specific change that requires you know people being notified about it will notify everybody bad about our website is the most up-to-date accurate information available I would like to mention that we have people joining us from all over the country from New York from Washington from Baltimore from Miami and we have Alba from Spain who is a regular or used to be a regular now she's back and you know people from all over the world and we have people from marriages well and we want to welcome everyone okay so you man oh by the way just mentioning since you don't feel from all over the world I just want to emphasize that the procedures in the research is based in North America the produce that we get on North America which comes from different parts to the world but primarily is sold in North America I refer to Canada as well in this but things could be different other parts of the world for example internet Easter all things could be different in Europe things could be different in Australia things could be different so over there you'd have to follow the local abundance guy and the local checking guides so some of the guidelines for rice and flour and so on anyway I might have my personal opinions about it but that's not relevant here you have to follow the local Arab on them in your locale okay you have a question about bag lettuce but let's leave let's just start with the with the Kinlan first and we'll come back to that question the issue with quinoa would be the phone before we get to the pictures and and try to scare everybody let me let's let's okay what the first on overview in general most that items we're going to be discussing our dried goods quinoa figs dried fruits beans barley flour those things are all dried items the inherent problem with dried items is usually going to be improper storage conditions I mean that means is that all dried items not trying to gross to anybody out the fact of the matter is you can google it every University that has an entomology department or a food safety discussion group everyone knows that dried goods are all have microscopic eggs in them that's don't look for them you're not gonna find them anyways and if they love to incubate though they will hatch that's why pretty much all dried items whether it's spices rice quinoa even dried fruit all of them say on the packages usually say on the package keep in dry cool storage conditions because if you don't you can end up with an administration issue spice factories especially they all have cold storage or cool storage rooms where they keep their spices especially in the summer because if they don't they're gonna have an infestation issue so that's usually what happens when you have a lot of these dried items when you have an infestation problem it's usually from a storage the problem isn't at the at the at the production it's usually not to production facility which means that really the the the people packing it can't be more difficult to control it right yes so no you can get it can get when they're sitting on the shelf for a long time so that that's they could go in fact that's that's all considered so it's not like lettuce for example we're it's a problem from the field you have insect strips a Pistons like that coming from the field these items are gonna happen if a station problem is usually going to happen later now in in production of grains generally in they're usually pretty careful into actual harvest and production to make sure that they're clean quinoa for example is actually washed most of the Kin was actually washed as you know no wonder when they're processing it the problem then comes on two fronts number one two areas number one is gonna be in the packing machine if they're using that packing machine for quinoa and more quinoa and more Kenwyn other many items and they don't necessarily clean it out so well in between so you have a lot of schmutz or dirt or old grains that are just sitting in that that that packing machine that can create an affair station and the Machine and that can cause an infestation in the item that's something that we've seen a number of times so one item that we do look for when we give a house call on places that pack grains or dried items is to make sure the packing equipment they have a cleaning procedure in place which most companies do by the way but it's something that we would certainly look for because that is something that can work well for the company if people find that they don't want they don't want my belt OSHA nothing to do with code astray if people couldn't complain that they have bugs in there in the quinoa I mean the glue sale that's right 100% and represents they don't want to find bugs either so this is something that they work hard to make sure it's not a problem and we also try our best to work hard to make sure there's not a problem there but then the issue becomes storage where you have items that have a long shelf life for example there are some companies in kin was the case where they are or were putting giving it a three year shelf life now from a quality standpoint there's no issue with that the quinoa will be just as good in three years as it is now the problem is is that depending on where it sits so in three years it can transfer to a lot of places and sit around for a very long time and what's been happening with quinoa over the last couple of years we've checked hundreds and hundreds of samples of quinoa from many many different companies and suppliers and sources and we've been seeing is is that a lot of times with quinoa most skin while overwhelming majority of quinoa let's get up front is clean we have not seen any issues with it it does seem though that regularly in one place or another we've just seen an issue of lot here a lot here from different companies of different places but what we realized someone recently is at that Santa Shaba the common denominator amongst pretty much all the samples that we found was that they were quite old usually at least a year and a half to two years old from the package on the packing that's only been finding issues so so we discussed recently menu that that the harvest is in in April and you like themself in South America South America so if you're if they're bringing it up you know that takes a few months right and they're packing it let's say now it's already you know nine months old erase so and from then they put on a Best Buy date on the on the package right so the consumers should try to forget the best by date that's that's further out right that's further out there that shows that it's that it's fresh as fresh as possible right now you don't know you have to know you can call the company or find out how long from the best by date but mine was a pack my experience in one company I work with it's two years let's say right so if it's you know year and a half out that's good if it's next month I'll throw a monkey wrench into the conversation that is that I would visit akin with packing plastic in what packing plans one time and they were packing for different companies private labels and some of their companies had a six month shelf life they gave it and some of the companies had a three year shelf life so it is a little bit hard to know the best idea would be to call the company go ahead and find out and ask them what the situation is now kinwa is what they call a super food right super foods are are you know what the world is evolving on so fourteen percent protein right it's very high protein it's basically items that in a small serving you get a lot of punch and vitamins and nutrients so Keenan was certainly one of them other items we'll get here are also some other super foods but skin wah is a very big seller right now so one of our companies that we certify also had had an issue with sometimes and they they were going when with three year shelf life they wholeheartedly agreed right away they had no problem putting it down to one year shelf life he said it sells so fast they have no problem putting on your shelf life on it so the best idea would be to call the company and make sure so that's the practical thing to buy product that it is as fresh as possible especially possible okay so let's take a look at some of you and also from standing this is a general account for everything we want to talk about and buy it from stores also that are reputable that have decent or you can think have decent quality control they rotate their stock and things I don't let things sit around too long so here's this these are pictures of the common found items that we've been seeing in quinoa and again I want to emphasize we're saying that you must check in wha I want to be very clear on that but these are the bugs that we've been finding when we've had lots of quinoa that were old and had infestation these are not the size not the size but you can see them you can see them yeah they're very they're not hard to see at all this is what magnified we can I don't even know how many times okay um the ones on the left at least in my left I know everyone else is seeing it the book lice I was opposed to them the mites the one with the tooth picking that are the mites and the other picture of the book lights the book lights are the most common both of these come from improper storage who is asking how big are these so I don't know how big they're saying but the book lights are probably about a millimeter in size which is the size of well usually we say like on the rice it's small I think smaller the bottom of of dollar bill there's a number of the year it was printed let's say 2019 so the one over there is a small maybe but they're usually gonna be many of them so it's not gonna be hard to see and many times they're also gonna be alive even as yummy as that sounds so you know if it's there you would see it pretty clearly and again I mean I mean ice Tom and regular you buy back you know from the store you do not have to be concerned if you have to check it it's just there is it is becoming more popular people to check quinoa it's actually something that's not so hard to do so people are doing it so this would be what you would be looking for Kayla's asking this good question well the storing the Kin one the freezer to help prevent the bugs yes so I was gonna get to that in a few minutes but let's talk about it now for a second in general with all dried items you're gonna be stocking up on it for long periods of time particularly if you were talking about yashna which we'll get to storing items dry items in the freezer for 96 hours it effectively kills any pertinent that are there this is not that's four days it's four days in the freezer at 32 degrees Fahrenheit or zero centigrade or below for four days will kill on eggs rather than as long as it's kept airtight then you will not have any I mean like a ziplock bag you'll not have any more issues that's what I do i buy the kinwa from costco its cheapest it's like four pounds for ten dollars right very cheap and I throw it in the freezer right that's the best thing you do and this is not this is real peer-reviewed research from all the universities you live online you can google it it's all over this is a wall that's true with any drug and he tried to item and rice rice also the same thing and again rice we're not really follow an infestation it's just a flower if you're stocking up for your son also you know keep it in your freezer for four days but once it once those four days are gone finish the mean so then you can take it out you can't but keep it keep it sealed because otherwise eggs more bugs and get in there okay let's move on to the next picture that's that's what green beetles that's another type of bug that would look like inside a bag as you can see these are very very easily visible and you'll see it right away it's just a matter of open up the bag and looking at it and again I cannot gonna keep emphasizing throughout this webinar this is not required to be checked this way but this is just information that's out there you who this asking if the buzz bugs explode when they frozen and now they don't become but don't they know they can become nullified okay freezing preserves bugs perfectly okay so we have a video that we're going to show you it's a YouTube video how to check it's very brief those that can't have some people have YouTube blocks because of their browser so we'll have to try to find the way to get it to you but here I want to show you this video here this seems that recently there have been some number of batches of quinoa that have come to have infestation and then typically due to improper storage this is the proper way to check quinoa if you would have such a concern take a regular strainer which can be found in most stores for the quinoa in [Music] and agitate it over either a light box or a white surface like a piece of paper like this so approximately 25 seconds then you check the surface to see if there's any insects present over a white piece of paper is the same technique and you would do the following and then examine the surface with good overhead lighting and the insects present would be clearly visible on the surface it's not required to check quinoa that way but if you do have a concern about your quinoa that's been sitting around in a pan chef a little bit too long then then you might want to be it might be but I did it check it Josi says you can't see the picture of the bugs I'm not sure why cuz we obviously some of us can see that so I'm not sure what the problem is does the freezing method work with dried herbs and spices as well yes yes okay so that's a very practical very apparent idea take body spices bring them home put them in the freezer for four days I always recommend people who are buying the big things of spices from Costco or Sam's Club and they're gonna have it in their kitchen over long periods of time keeping in the freezer the added advantage also that keeps it fresher and it keeps the taste I'm longer as well ok so we have we want to move on to the next topic but but let's say try to take some of the questions because we do wanna get that involvement this is our topic but bagged lettuce it has a sticker stating it was pre checked can it be trusted I mean it doesn't it depends on pens with hatches who that sure is Right who is certifying it those cornflour without a hex Ernie rajagaha if it's if it doesn't if it's just plain cornflour and it's not from manna from marriages well not from Israel then it would not need that gopher it's called a Group one it doesn't require any supervision the link if the link doesn't work try adding WW check for insects calm that should work you do all falfa sprouts in the Heckscher do they need to be checked or not they do not they're okay what if it's sitting in your cabinet for a while you buy it and you don't use right away what lead levy is asking I mean then you could get a problem it could be in the winter you tally it you bought it and you left it sitting in your in your you left it sitting in your your cabinet for a while does it help them to put it into the freezer it could assuming it's not infested at that point if it's not infested already you can put it in the freezer back in the winter months it's not really such a concern the bigger issue is people go away for the summer this we always get a lot of questions during ll people go away from the summer go to the mountains and on the East Coast particularly this area where it can get up to 90 degrees easily and very humid outside they turn their air conditioner off they come back their house is 85 90 degrees very humid and they open their pantry and it's crawling with bugs it happens to a lot of people so the best recommendation is there you'd want to put it before you go either don't turn your air conditioner off completely or put your ID at your dry goods in the fridge or the freezer so you can avoid that problem Alba says I bought dried dill weed and some three days later that explode with teensy red bugs yeah that's possible what might have what might they have been what kind of bugs sounds like mites mites yeah that's a improper storage and it probably could have been you know it could have been sitting in the store for a long time and we had this situation moving on to the next thing on the same ton on the same note you know let's talk about beans barley and flour for example okay so these are items that have a presentation in there too right yeah but we'll get there in a second let's just give a refractometer to it these are items also that generally do not need to be checked we do here as barley flour dry we do have checking instructions for barley in our checking guide if there is a concern about it usually there's no concern about it and the reason we have the instructions there is simply because throughout the year especially people who keep Yasha and from companies that that only process Yasha on inevitably there's one or two batches that get infested somewhere and 100% of the time 99% of the time 100% of the time it's because of the distribution level or on the store level it didn't store it right m'lady ones called us briefs I mean I guess most of our listeners know what your shin is but it's hard to give a one-sentence yes it is Yushin is from last year's harvest ok literally translate as old as from last year's harvest certain stringencies about it and some are careful for it than some hold that it's not a problem becoming more and more popular Malo right so obviously since it's older right since it's older it has more correct baggage you could have more issue so people who want to stock up at the end of the summer which when the ocean season starts on flour barley things like that we certainly recommend putting those items in the freezer even cereal putting them in the freezer for four days and then keeping them in you know it was a really cool bake it was cooked doesn't matter it's a dried item sitting in the box but that's not gonna kill the there's no microscopic they come afterwards after speak-o after the painting I mean while it was in the store while it's in the store or in them in the plant when it's paying packed oh really yeah the people had issues with it so if you're going to stock up on that best ideas put in the freezer for four days then keep it in your in your storage room and you should not have any issues with it but but on that note but with barley for example the check instructions are very simple it's something that most people do anyways you soak the barley in water for 15 minutes I don't have in a presentation of that it's in our checking guide don't you do not have to do it with barley however as a shikaka would have it as we say in a Chicago practice so just this morning at exactly 11:00 11:00 so a little over an hour ago I got an email from rabbi T Holland one of the Starkey administrators who deals with Washington and Silver Spring area works with of out of Washington and he said in their stores in Washington they found that Unger's barley with a lock code of B zero seven three one two zero was found to be infested so right away since that time eleven eleven eleven I've had other mushky come in all in our area in our region checked the other stores the barley that's in their stores and it was found to be clean so it was certainly a localized issue but nevertheless in Silver Spring they pulled that brand of barley with that lab code from the shelves because in their specific situation and must have sat around somewhere for a little bit too long I don't I don't it was not hungers fault because we're not finding that problem here it was some distributor or maybe the stores problem whatever was was a localized issue which is something that's very typical and classic of all these types of the station concerns isn't it really did you know I once had a nothing to do with bugs but I once bore the product I remember where it was in one of the stores and I and it was spoiled or bad there was something wrong with it I called the company to complain and they said you know they're very sorry and they sent me a coupon or something but they they said they have no no control no control it so he told me sitting somewhere it's too it's too long it's too old once it leaves there there's their factory there's nothing they can do right that that is correct and that that's I'm not gonna mince it it's an issue because again I'm gonna stress again these are not items that you're required to check but it just seems that it does come up we do get phone calls once in a while people find infestation is I'm so people should be aware and educated or where the problem comes from I will tell you though that the you want to buy you know people like to buy Jews like bargains you ever hear that before it's like things on sale so you want to go to your dollar store and closeout stores so that do not buy food items and closeout stores you want to buy anything else in closeout stores there's no problem but really should avoid buying food items and close up stores we had a question a couple years ago someone called us about a half-share on a bag of pretzels and we didn't recognize the Heckscher whatever we did some research into it turns out the company had gone out of business eight years ago and they had bought the item then in a closeout store right so no that's what you're looking at many times in many closeout stores dollar stores things like that's why it's cheaper that's why it's cheaper so you're more likely to be more likely so food I am some closed up stores are generally more likely to have issues you buy it in reputable stores you're less likely to have an issue but again if you're doing me stock now free on stron or you have things that you're gonna be buying large quantities of it's a good idea to know how to store them properly so you avoid problems now move on to the figs they're good do that yes okay now one last thing on flour I'm in the United States we do not think that flour has to be sifted some of the brands will say you should sift it that's just to cover their tracks and and you know I certainly understand that because you know they have no control like we were just they have no control how long the product sits and where it sits but in the United States you know we do not think that flower has to be sifted as a matter of policy in other countries it could be very different okay very good let's go to move on to fix okay so figs are a very popular dried fruit item with a lot of nutritional value to them you know there's been a lot of talk many we've been saying for years that figs have to be checked it seems recently we've been getting more questions about it so we figured we were discussed in the webinar briefly and show you some pictures of how you would check what you're looking for when you open up some figs particularly we're saying here from Turkey that's where most of the figs that you know pretty much worldwide that are sold at least United States anyway come from but you get it from many other countries as well California for example has figs also which tend to be cleaner in general but these are some pictures from Turkish figs which is a typical you know what what it could look like on the inside of some figs let's assume that's what inside of a fig looks like that's a fresh fruit that's a fresh fig as you can see there's a lot of things in there that could look like worms or bugs so it's not necessarily something that's so easy it's hard to check it's hard to check no one said that this is easy but it's something you should most most people don't get figs as dry as dry I was I lived in California once and they you know my neighbor had a it's really it was really very much better they're better and they happen to be little bit easier to check because you can tell when things stand out are they morning festive the fresh it really depends okay let's go to the next one and those are dried figs would look like this is just a sample oh yeah this is what opening of a dried fig looks like on the inside ways you can tell it's smashed it's dark there's all these little pieces inside so it certainly is a little bit harder to check so that is what a beetle would look like actually inside a fig a dried fruit beetle it's it's again it most of the time that's coming from improper storage somewhere along the chain that's magnified many many times but it's but it's recognizable it's ours problem is it is very much recognizable as a bug but the problem is it's sitting inside the gooey inside of the fig so it can get you know covered with that goo and makes it harder to see that's alone that's what it looks like looks very appetizing and that's a picture what a dried beetle looks like so you can see it's a little bit darker it does stand out if you look at it for it carefully we went to the next picture that's what looks like when it's covered in schmutz as you can tell I see it's a little bit harder to tell that's the same thing there you move on some more pictures next smooshed next that would be inside a fig also well that's actually a worm what a worm would look like inside inside a fig also it stands out if you know what you're looking for that's what the bug another type of model looks like there we go that's fig moth larvae that is misspelled I didn't write that that is missing I apologize for that but it wasn't me so that's what fig moth larva looks like that those were all taken out of that fig that's right there those are larvae which is baby stage insects and you know it is not so easy to see them because it is hard to see them inside the mush that is the inside of a fig nevertheless we were sitting in the office of weeks ago and checking with the next slide we're sitting or see write whatever it says next that one yeah we're sitting in the office with people in the office who don't have any experience in insects and looking through figs and you know we had an batch that was infested and it wasn't that hard to find them you just have to open up the fig and you know invert it inside out and then you know maybe use a toothpick or something - move aside the mush that's the inside of a fig any you you if you you should be able to see if there's any insects a lot of work you need one fig listen you know you want to eat them we don't want to eat them that's up to your skin figs are also super food so you want to get that power punch so for you know for for your day this is what is required nothing like starting your day digging through a fig and then eating it then feeling the fruits of your labor literally that you cleaned that you got a clean and you ate it and you enjoyed it it's listen some design freedom - so ok that is just a hole in the bottom of a favorite fresh fig Guinness and it says again but look go to pictures down I think that is the way the way figs grow which we won't get into the people look at it online the way this grow is that they're pollinated by a wasp and the wasp ends up inside the fig and it disintegrates inside the fig but sometimes it's not fully disintegrated and gonna see parts or pieces or sometimes even the whole wasp inside a fig and those are that's also what is not so uncommon it's even in dried figs to see that you see this picture to see that picture now now a lot and dried figs particularly you're not gonna find live bugs because most companies go doing organic not organic I won't get into that discussion now I'm they fumigate them and so they will last longer it doesn't have insects that are already inside either from you know these insects to be the the moth and the sorry the the wasp the wasp and the larvae are going to be inside already from before so they're gonna get killed right by the fumigation but they're not going to get destroyed by the fumigation so therefore you're still nail defined actually would be easier if they were alive is even moving oh yeah it's only bees you're in first days you could find live worms we've seen that many times inside live inside fresh figs that's a picture of a wasp and you see you see that that looks like a bug in the bottom of the jar that confuses you see that very clearly yeah same idea okay okay we have a couple questions about the fresh figs that we discussed that could be a problem Fig Newtons that's a is another candy bar what is it yeah those are cookies little cookies I heard of those in years it's a Fig Newton is a cookie it's like a little cookie with a figure with like a fig filling so Fig Phillies in general that's already been mushed up it's been totally much time when I've been worried about them right yeah I wouldn't be a problem yeah Jeffrey yes what about blending something like a fig to make fruit leathers other similar items it's the same thing same once it's been right process like that it's gonna be all right it's not gonna be able to find it at all it's gonna be but though right now we're behind it always says about that as far as you know crushed up things like that is is that if if a couple we know we want to give a hatchet to it but if you're doing if you're doing it at home there's certainly not a problem to grind these things up unless they're organic if you're not doing it in order to get rid of the fig paste or run a fig paste because that's what the throats are you making a strawberry smoothie for example you're buying frozen strawberries not a haschke on them as long as they're not organic as long as they're conventional and your intention is not to get rid of the bugs your attention is because you work hard to make a smoothie it's not an issue but again we won't give a sh Gohan such a think because we people don't want both right we have a company that just one of our companies wanted to add fig paste to their to their letter certification to their product offerings with a star candidate and we turned it down you know unless we have a lot of things that we would check and it was just too big of a deal to do so we turned it down I had the company that was making a guava which is a type of fruit like puree and mushy I said that when they come in they're mushy and they can be infested and behind him and said well you know we're not gonna give a Chicago to that anymore and actually the company left us because they you know they that's that's what happens we wouldn't do it okay we move on to the sushi nori let's mother's fish you know yeah okay okay so as as right Goldberg is pulling up the slides over here so nori is something that is become synonymous with either site for some reason as much as herring sushi which means nori as much as as herring is been known for you describe for dari there is already you know sushi is certainly the new herring herring also is coming back in but nori is something has become very very popular and Marie has some very very serious conscious concerns associated with it and nori certainly is something that requires a very very strong haschke on it and the reason is the following there's really two issues with nori nori by the way for those who don't know is the seaweed that is used in inside sushi after the wrap it wrap it around right in the rice it's also they make seaweed snacks there was little chips that you can buy in Costco with a star K from check nori by the way okay but they make it many companies make them and there's also seaweed salad which is also kind of popular which is refrigerated or frozen item which is you know all kinds of it has Connie and it's like a sushi salad with Connie and seaweed all kinds of things mixed together those items certainly require a very strong cash go on the reason is the following let's talk we'll go through the slideshow quickly about the nori harvesting and and pronto reprocess yeah so this fire there's pretty much six five parts and this is a bridge from a full after we finished test on this really test oh yeah okay nobody should leave right if you pass pass we'll send you a free package of stock a certified alright to eat enjoy it even without the fish okay so the first part is they grow the seedlings in a nursery and this primarily happens in Korea or in China then they put it in the ocean in the ocean in in which is harvest which is grown in the ocean but right near the shore which is where they know where the seaweed grows until it gets a little bigger than they harvest it which is a process using boats and then they bring it to a dried nori sheet processing facility where they shape it into the sheets that we know of it and they roast it so it becomes as we know what nori looks like in those those crispy sheets then they send it for a second roasting process because the first roasting process only gets it to a certain color taste and quality and then they do it a second time and the final processing facility now at that final processing facility is where we're gonna focus on four to conscious issues go to the next slide number one is that there's some serious kosher concerns with nori in those facilities where they roasted they also many many facilities also make flavored nori which includes very popular oyster and clam flavors move from oyster and clam oils which are certainly not kosher and the way it works is they put them in an oven which is a very hot oven on a conveyor belt right before it goes into the oven they spray it with the seasonings that are there and those goes and it's the same conveyor belt that's used and it gets caked on and burnt on to the conveyor belt so that entire oven is completely traif so even if they then run unflavored nori on that same wine it is 100% safe so there's many unflavored nori on the market that if you look at the ingredients there's just seaweed right but it's really creating the same economy on the same equipment efforts trave so we'll only certify from companies either that don't have flavor it or only have kosher flavors or we'll do wash cloth to me this kashering is is a difficult proposition for those ovens because they're very dirty it's it's not so easy to do but many companies will have lines that are dedicated for unflavored nori so we'll give our scruffa to me this on those lines to certify the nori so that's step number one so therefore even if before we get the step two which is gonna be the insects even if there are no insect concern even if you want to check the nori and don't see any insects you still can't buy nori without a haschke on it because of the issue of the non kosher oils and flavors moving to the second point and that is the insect concern that exists with nori so many times nori has in station and even if you're gonna ask a question which we don't have time to go through all the stages in the processing its processed it's smashed its rolled out it's roasted all these things how could there possibly be bugs there see them you can still see them and we've all in this office we've all seen them I'll show you some pictures here as you can see them it's not hard not even so hard to see and you know I was last week last week two weeks ago in Los Angeles for an ore production at a company there and they we tried with it was eight or nine different lots of nori and out of those lotsa nori we got exactly one to pass one lot one lot how many sheets is that we check a couple check about initial sample is gonna be about 200 full sheets which is about 400 servings of nori that's the initial sampling then we check further afterwards if that passes but but you know it didn't take none of those Lots got passed you know the first 50 sheets I would say before we rejected it that's a disappointment for the company right they sent much give their car the money to to arrange it and then they only get one tenth of what they were that's what produce that's cut but that's what we tell the companies are advanced there's no guarantee that anything's gonna pass but it certainly Stark a policy now that we require that every single lot of nori has to be checked by mascius not obviously a sample checking there's there's the lots are very very large but our experience based on our understanding of how the harvest works don't you sent muskie from to the harvest also is that the Lots are either going to be clean or they're not going to be clean it also depends on the region they're from but is there gonna be clean or not going to be clean so we feel that checking large samples of it is very indicative of the second one mention that this PowerPoint the extended PowerPoint I know you shared with many many other agencies because we did really we really did yes a lot of research on this shout out to our team in China especially right they they really became really expert in the in the production and how it works and where the bugs are and all that yes almost if you're watching it and I real thank you very much so moving on let some folks of what the insects look like that you were gonna find in nori that's what it looks like by the way right that's the in the ocean but that's where they put on these nets in the ocean and it grows on these nets doesn't look so appetizing it doesn't in the plastic bag by itself it doesn't look appetizing anywhere I don't look exam times once it's in a roll of sushi and then it's harvested as you could see in the middle picture is and as a harvest boat that it dries underneath the nets and it shaves off the nori from the Nets so in fact many times in the lots were rejected besides finding you know all kinds of shrimp and things like that and they also found pieces of wood and pieces of netting and things like that which you don't want to eat it either now that's a picture of the roasting machines that they use so you could see the the line in the middle over there where it says transport Blanc was seasoning that's where they spray the seasoning on and I see it's a conveyer belt that goes right into the ovens that would transfer transfer onto transfer onto there's no I'm saying what if you put on season there then we get the same at the same time right yeah now skip the next picture for a second so this is what it person would look like as you can see it's a pen pointing to a piece of shrimp and that's it magnified over there it's actually not the same one I'm not sure how that happened but it's a piece of shrimp and if you look at it yeah you know it's not the same one how could you see so that's I'm the same as you can see it's does stand out it does stand out if you just look at it carefully hold it up you know hold it up like like this not directly in light because otherwise you get a glare and you can't see anything hold it up like this at an angle in the light and you look at this sheet you should be able to see pretty clearly if they don't have to check if they buy with a X all right and you should only buy you can only buy it with a heck sure you can only buy what I have sir because otherwise you don't know that it wasn't made uh non-kosher machinery we're just explaining what we do and is what we don't do it but people could comfortably buy with without I'm saying with a hatchet and not be worried that there's all right you know the conscious world in general is is is coming you know of aging this coming around on this you know I I know what we do I know what's number what the fuh lover does I don't know what other agencies do I know I'm gonna contact with a lot of them and and everyone is really working hard on this issue you know but I can only speak for Stark a really that's another picture I shouldn't see the shrimp yeah like this we see the little legs over clearly see that to be sure it isn't it's not so hard to build it's not that hard to tell now if you back up for a second to the last slide right there yeah so Stargate policy just to review again for Nora we do is we were going to require pre checking the samples on top of that we're only going to use a company that has an electronic eye which many companies do have electronic eye checks the nori as it's running through the machine for any anomalies or malformities or other types of extraneous matter and the machines are mediocre at best for captioning also insects they're not so good at it but what we do is we set the machine at a lower a higher sensitivity setting which makes the company that reject more pieces that's why they only do it for kosher a part of our Java to me this is we only accept a company that has electronic I as an extra precaution on top of our musky from actually checking the lots of nori for infestation they also have to run it through the electronic eye as an extra precaution that you know we'll make sure that this lot is actually really really clean okay that's a that's a very good overview of the whole sushi issue I want to mention that if anybody has any questions that aren't answered here or any khakhras issue you can call us at 4 1 0 4 8 4 4 1 1 0 or email us info at Starrcade org and we're going to be well if you have any questions you want to discuss about bugs or insects or fruit or vegetables whatever you can chat with us and we'll try to get there before we finish I want to go to the onion corn that's good let's go yeah let's go to corn that's very popular onions I mentioned just briefly people I didn't have a slide about onions okay onions in general you know there are there's been Tom with a lot of Appeals finding thrips in beet or if it's on those in between the layers of onions usually it's only in onions that are loose or onions that are double on you open it up inside is like two bulbs inside but in most onions it's not we're not going to finding any issues and therefore we still consider it to be me it's a no mod so you and you're not required to check your onions if they're sitting around they look old you know those they look very loose which are usually poor quality onions you might want to avoid them you probably wanna avoid them anyway but in most onions that you're going to buy in your average supermarket it's not something we feel you have to be concerned about I don't see a no I didn't put a corner as light as that point that was just that was yeah you could put that up for one second um okay so that's just an example of like what are one of our spreadsheets look like yeah I don't know if we want to probably get enough public information it's yeah so you have to read it carefully to understand it I would say you know nothing to be ashamed about there it's that's all information but that's just what it looks like it's putting it up as night they're not gonna gain much by looking through like that but Corin we've been looking at corn now for many years I'm a didn't put anything on corn we're looking at a corner for many years at least in the United States and we feel that our procedures are tried and true that peeling and rinsing is is necessary I mean II there is certainly an it was born there through one on the house top a corn on the cob doing what peeling off the husk of us can the ear the ear is the inside you eat the husk is the outside right on the heart are certainly insects and almost every time we check the hosta sometimes they feel like selling dried husks they use in the food service industry dried house are full of bugs right but if we remove the husk and peel and rinse the ear off in water then we were not seeing any further concerns but if you just have a corn on the cob that you buy frozen or whatever or without the house that shouldn't be as long as has been rinsed right was most of the time the frozen corn on the cob is been rinsed I don't know I don't have experience in frozen corn of the cop to know exactly what the process is but most of the time people are buying are buying are buying fresh corn on the cob that one is in season especially it's it's you know America is the land of the corn from ethanol to bourbon and everything in between you know we live on corn in America so you said not to throw it onto the grill one name we all recommend this people like to take the whole year with the husk and throw it on the grill that's something we don't recommend you doing we should peel and rinse also I know there's an article recently in Hama diya which you know which I was I spoke about corn and is a little bit confusion so another forum just to clarify that we do require corn to be peeled and rinsed it's not necessarily fine as is and now the thing where I was reluctant to say about frozen corn is because we didn't have an issue we had a corn production in Thailand a couple of years ago that was actually vacuum packed corn wasn't frozen corn but I presume it was rinsed I don't know exactly but we found that it was infested afterwards so now we only do corn production overseas with musk you have to media checks for it because apparently they have bigger issues there but at least in the United States we're not really seeing any issues beyond the current requirement which is the peel and rinse corn so it's really a fine line between you know we straddled we're trying to give people proper information what doesn't need a have what doesn't need to be checked we can't drive everybody crazy and say you know you have to that's right you have to spend your whole day if you're either checking or not eating any fruits and vegetables that's right so we wanted you know right so why spend their days checking so you don't have to so you don't have that good banner line right very good just quickly to sum up you know a lot of other super foods are very popular some our problems aren't arm problems will be go gee berries or lycée berries or wolf berries all the same thing those do have an infestation is show you will not find them anymore with any hash caja because they do have an infestation is shown they're too hard to get clean other super foods which are not a problem again not a problem don't require to be checking would be chia seeds Asahi does not need to be checked spirulina is not have to be checked and the hemp which is increasingly popular in the United States and is not the drug there's no THC in him does not have to be checked either hemp oils anyways that's weird is asking about about garlic you need to peel and rinse and some recipes and kosher cookbooks call for roasting a bulb of garlic before peeling is that not allowed last time I checked we didn't certifying a kosher cookbooks so it's not a revenue we recommended that garlic should be peeled and it should be peel yes so not like the kosher cookbooks correct yeah the culture cookbooks don't go to do they go to a to an agency or an expert test and what to put in there probably not right I don't know maybe they do I don't know I never wrote one I couldn't tell you can you provide a list of those that do not need to be checked it's not what a list of I guess vegetables or fruits that do not need to be checked I think on our website a website you'd have to go through one by one no it's pretty easy as I call our chart this color coded by Ana's that don't need to be checked the chart is online charkh is linked online yeah if ever Chapman has a minute he could post it if we're able to if not you could see it on our website check for insects calm I smell also I want to mention that if you want to buy a light box to do some checking you can forget them now them as alright like watch the trip cloths are available on Amazon what's the how do they find it and I'll only type in flight Kosh your legs or your vegetable cloth or is also a link to it on our website and check forensics calm and says Incept checking comb there's a link to the Amazon site it's mostly as a as a customer service consumer service to make it easier for people to find them because people were asking us for them right we wouldn't yeah the problem is is everybody expects prime service so when they call their office and take a couple days to get there so it's a little bit hard so everyone has Prime anyways so feel free to buy it you prime we would you still could get it from the obvious if you can't get an Amazon for any reason or if you're in Baltimore feel free to walk into the office and you know our our regional offices in arity strong little places we'll also be having them at some point not yet but they will have in them but we didn't go through the process I just want to mention also we didn't go through the process of the schemata check if you're checking vegetables that are not certified but right now we have with us one mission so we have a webinar on that it's available I think on on that side we link to it also the videos on that check for insects you can see rabbit only shows you how to check parsley orientation whether it's how to do that and for that you need a light box and you need a script cloth and you need the soap and everything and we have that we've done that that was actually unless the last time we got together I think we did that that webinar yeah thank you how trust you okay okay so if there's no other questions we will conclude here I want to thank everyone for joining again the beauty of this setup is that we can show you exactly what the bugs look like what we're doing you know where we know where the bugs on the vegetables and we hope that you enjoyed I want to thank rubber chapman and Miss Rosa Dean for the technical support and welke and mention that next time next month we will I will be back the same the same web address if you want to sign up for the email to know exactly what the topic is and if there's any change in the schedule please email us at webinar at star dash K org and you can sign up in that way and you know the final points are whatever you want to mention the book free have a live bug free most items don't have insects you know shouldn't take this that they have to go crazy about it you know that's not not as big a deal as it sounds right you know all right well thanks very much for joining take care of you right over be well