Rubashkin Ships Meat Years Past Expiration Date To Conservative Camps

Would this have sickened campers if served? Most likely…

…it would have.

The JTA reports:

Camps return expired meat
Published: 06/12/2008

A group of Midwestern Jewish camps returned a shipment of kosher meat from the embattled slaughterhouse Agriprocessors.

Camp Ramah Wisconsin received a shipment that a source said was two years past its sell date. Camp Interlaken, a JCC camp in Wisconsin, received meat dated "late last year," according to operations director Jonah Levenburg.

The two summer camps are part of a consortium that purchases foodstuffs together to get preferred prices. The consortium returned the meat to Agriprocessors and told its agent, H&H Purchasing Services of New York, to find alternate sources of kosher meat. .

"We made the decision to collectively return the meat so as to ensure the safety of our children and the food product that we prepare and serve," Levenburg told JTA, adding that the decision had "absolutely nothing" to do with the recent controversy over Agriprocessors' labor practices.

The Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa, last month was the target of the largest federal immigration raid in U.S. history. Agriprocessors is the largest kosher slaughterhouse in the United States, selling meat and poultry under various brands, including Aaron's Best, Rubashkin's and Supreme Kosher.

Since the raid, which placed more than a third of the company's work force in federal custody, the company has struggled to replenish its ranks, sparking fears of a nationwide kosher meat shortage.

Some industry observers have estimated Agriprocessors' output as low as 20 percent of its normal capacity. But Menachem Lubinsky, a company spokesman, said the plant is producing close to capacity on deli foods, nearly 70 percent on poultry and about one-third of its former beef output.

Even if a shortage is averted, the company's image has been severely tarnished, particularly in the liberal Jewish world, by the raid and by allegations of worker abuse that have emerged in its aftermath.

At least three Ramah camps will hold education sessions this summer on the issue of ethical kashrut, according to Jeffrey Goodman, the national business manager for Ramah camps.

The JTA also has new blog feature, This Week in Postville, with links to some interesting stories, including the Jew and the Carrot interview with a former Agriprocessors mashgiach.

Comments

[steve]

Midwest Jewish camps will be Rubashkin-free zones this summer! Read more:

http://tinyurl.com/6c6s2u

[Garnel Ironheart]

It's crazy what you have to do to get kosher meat at decent prices, isn't it?

[craig]

Shmarya, there is allot of rubashkin meat now on the shelves in the ny area with rubashkin labels that havn't been used in more than 2 years since they redesigned they packaging. Now it suddenly shows up. It is most probably frozen stock from their "backup meat supply" that they keep frozen. Its really a health hazard.

[state of the Jews]

workers at the plant told me that every year at holiday time Rubashkin would give each employee a turkey. The birds were so old they stank and had to be thrown out.

That's what I like, an employer who thinks so much of his workers he gives them rotten meat as a bonus.

[rebitzman]

What REALLY chaps me about this is that at our local store we kept being told that they would not ship us anything more than the absolute basics because our market was so small it wasn't worth the effort (even though we were piggy backing our kosher order with LARGE shipments of back-halves to a non-kosher market).

Now we find out they keep until it rots?

Every day brings another insult.

[steve]

I have news for you all, their products are a health hazard the moment they leave their plant.

[Ariel Sokolovsky => מזמור לדוד Song of David the Movie (with Hebrew Subtitles)]

B"H
Modern Ortodox Rabbi suggesting an Orthodox alternative to heksher tzadek:
http://www.vosizneias.com/16960/2008/06/12/new-york-orthodox-rabbi-raises-halachic-question-rubashkin-meat-kosher-to-eat-but-not-kosher-to-buy/

[yidandahalf]

The Rubashkins are FOB's or they operate and comport themselves like 'fresh off the boats' and believe me I know what I am talking about having been one myself. They see the way some Americans do business or the way it is done sometimes, and they jump on it seriously. Very naive, very foolish. The only difference is that they don't cease and desist. No matter how many times they get caught, they pull themselves together and go for it again. No one can resist their money, the US government has become a whore to the meat industry and Rubbishking remains above the law. Meanwhile their supporters call us anit=semites, vermin, and mosers.

[Yochanan Lavie]

They are not FOB's they are SOB's. They think they are above the law, and have a "Let 'em eat cake" (or rotten meat) mentality.

[Yosef ben Matitya]

"The Rubashkins are FOB's or they operate and comport themselves like 'fresh off the boats' and believe me I know what I am talking about having been one myself. They see the way some Americans do business or the way it is done sometimes, and they jump on it seriously."

oh, how did i not notice! they are diamonds in the rough, gems, holy sparks!
scoundrells? well, yes, scoundrells if u wish!
but... a big but here, it's not their fault! it's the fault of the tomei amerike and the tomei americans.

"Very naive, very foolish."
yea, yea, that's a good word. 'naive'!
otherwise, holy sparks straight from the throne of glory (of holy, holy, holy, rebbe ashmedai!).

"the US government has become a whore to the meat industry and Rubbishking remains above the law."
That's it, for those who didn't figure it out yet, the real culprit: the US Govt! who corrupted the Fresh of the Boat tzaddiqim.
:-)

[2 year old meat?]

Rubashkin meat and most other meat does not come with a manufacturing date nor an expiration date nor a date of "best if sold by this date", so how can anyone know if meat is fresh or 2 years old or maybe 10 years old?

What is the law as far as how old and how rotten meat can be before the seller goes to Jail for selling meat which is unsafe?

If this meat was in fact 2 years old, how come there is no mention of anyone taking any legal action?

[yidandahalf]

This is about hot dogs and other cooked meat like kishkes and what ever else he makes. Not fresh bloody red meat.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Given the common Orthodox contempt for Conservative Judaism, which often extends to Conservative Jews themselves, it does not surprise me that they shipped stale crap to a Conservative camp. Bet they wouldn't have done that to a Gan Yisroel (chabad camp). Look at the Ortho reaction to the Tzedek Hechsher.

Note: I know there are Orthodox Jews who do have Ahavat Yisrael in their hearts, and I know Conservative Judaism has problems (namely, that it is not conservative enough). But let's face reality here.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Loosing My Appetite (with apologies to REM)

The law is bigger
It's bigger than you
And you are not frum
The lengths that you will go to
The expiration date on your "dogs"
Oh no Shmarya said too much
We are fed up

That's me in the coroner [after eating rubbishcan]
That's rubbishcan in the spotlight
Abusing my religion
Trying to keep kosher with you
And I don't know if I can do it
Oh no I've said too much
The OU hasn't said enough
I thought that I heard you cheating I thought that I heard ICE sting
I think I thought I heard you schrei ["gevalt!"]

Every Shiksa
And every Gentile employee
Making no confessions
Trying to keep their jobs
Like some hurt lost and blinded fools
Oh no they've said too much
They've been set up

Consider this
The kosher crime of the century
Consider this
The throat hook that brought the cow
To its knees failed
What if all these nevailot
Come flailing around
Now I've parodied too much
I thought that I heard you davening
I thought that I smelled meat stink
I think I'll call the FBI

But that was just a nevuoah
Justice is just a dream

[Shmarya]

Rubashkin meat and most other meat does not come with a manufacturing date nor an expiration date nor a date of "best if sold by this date",

The institutional boxes do have dates.

[yidandahalf]

I tried to paste the above to my desktop but no can do. So pasted it to a blank email and saved it that way. Too good to lose in the archives, will go back and find some more and save ( especially The Beverley Rubash-ins ). My favourite apart from this one. gitte shabbos y'all.

[Business as Usual]

I don't think this has anything to do with conservative camps...I operate small kosher operation and will get Rubashkin's through a distributor--on my last order I got strip steak (boxes of about 8 retail packages each) that was marked 2006. I got an apology and a refund.

It could be that Rubashkin's is simply trying to keep their ahead above water amongst all the tzsoris they are dealing with and are not being diligent about checking their dates...but this is the third time in the past year this has happened to me.

I wonder if there is any law on this. The date on the package is the date *if it is not frozen* which I think is just a few weeks after packaging, but this meat they threw directly into a deep freezer. Meat can be frozen for a long time...two years may be ok? To me the color of the meat looked great, if not for the date on the sticker, I would not have balked.

Better than removing the date stickers since I don't think they are required!!

[Yossi]

According to my butcher, meat can be safely frozen for up to 3 months.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Thanks Yid & 1/2. Maybe Shmarya can provide an archive for parodies. Mordecai wrote some good ones. Shabbat shalom.

[rebitzman]

++This is about hot dogs and other cooked meat like kishkes and what ever else he makes. Not fresh bloody red meat.++

I have kids at this camp - and the above is at best a grave misstatement of fact, and at worst a bald faced lie.

[Camp Emunah]

Hecht's Camp Emunah, Girls Camp, serves little children the Chickens they shecht for kapores which is about 3/4 of a year old.

Is that against the law?

[Shmarya]

It depends how they're frozen.

If they're frozen in a regular freezer, the chickens may be be bad or may still be good – but they'll be freezer burned and have less taste and poorer texture.

But meat or chicken shechted and deep frozen can last longer. I've been told up to 1 1/2 years.

In either case, after the expiration date – 6 months at best for home frozen and 1 1/2 years for commercially deep frozen – the meat may or may not be safe.

As for what Hecht does with Camp Emunah, I'd bet the state and local health departments would revoke his license if they knew.

[Anon]

--It is most probably frozen stock from their "backup meat supply" that they keep frozen. Its really a health hazard.--

Provided the meat has been frozen at all times and not defrosted and refrozen there is no health hazard. What the meat will taste like after sitting in the freezer for two years is a different story.