Can The OU Be Trusted? Tainted Peanut Butter And Kosher Supervision

Details:

Kosher Consumers Question Certifiers Vigilance In Wake Of Salmonella Peanut Recall; OU Responds
VIN News

New York — An unprecedented nationwide outbreak of deadly salmonella bacteria centered on peanut products has thus far killed nine people and sickened more than 600 in 43 states. But the outbreak also has many in the frum community asking whether the conditions at Peanut Corp. of America facilities said to have triggered the outbreak could also represent a laxity on the part of the OU and other kosher certifiers whose inspectors regularly oversaw the plants in question.

Via numerous e-mails and its contacts at the Orthodox Union, VIN News has learned that many kosher consumers are directly querying the OU whether the salmonella outbreak represents a kashrus problem—and that many others are simply pondering that same question without calling.

Reports of salmonella-spreading mold, rats and roaches at the plants in question have alarmed kosher consumers because their presence in or even near production machinery could render the otherwise acceptable products non-kosher.

If the allegations are true, kosher certifiers' competence and reliability may be called into question not just at PCA, but at all food production facilities where pests and mold may also be present.

However, Rabbi Moshe Elefant, Executive Rabbinic Coordinator at the OU, asserts that the OU is "taking the issue very seriously."

In a Wednesday phone conversation with VIN News, Rabbi Elefant said that OU kosher inspectors are trained to spot and report unsanitary conditions and pests such as those that allegedly triggered the salmonella outbreaks at the PCA's production facilities.

Case in point, the rabbi claimed that a few weeks ago, the same OU inspector formerly assigned to PCA found unsanitary conditions in a plant unrelated to the salmonella outbreak—and "right away told the owners to fix the problem or face removal of certification."

Rabbi Elefant explained that "salmonella is caused by a microorganism. This contamination can only be detected by a lab, and by federal and state inspectors. Our mashgichim will report anything visible, but contamination requiring testing can only be done by the appropriate authorities following the appropriate testing methods. The bottom line is, the Orthodox Union will not accept filth, contamination, or anything that can prove to be a health hazard. We will pull our certification from companies where such contamination is found."

Still, the fact remains that a month-long FDA investigation uncovered multiple violations at the plant in question, with the most disturbing revealing that products had been shipped after salmonella had been found in 2007 and 2008. The OU withdrew its certification from PCA because of those violations, according to Rabbi Elefant.

According to the most recent information, PCA discovered the dangerous bacteria at its Georgia plant as far back as 2006.…

Should the OU be responsible for detecting microscopic organisms?

I think the answer is no. (Of course, the funnier answer is, "they check for bugs, don't they?")

In the much more flagrant Agriprocessors case, the OU missed or ignored clear violations of law. It missed open mistreatment of workers, child laborers in the plant as young as 13 years old, and dozens of health and safety violations. It also endorsed animal mistreatment and torture.

The OU pulled its supervision from Peanut America, but only after people died, and only after the company's violations were made public by the media.

Why "frum" (read "heimish," haredi, Orthodox) consumers think the OU should have somehow acted strongly in the case of peanut butter when these same haredim urged the OU to ignore Agriprocessors' copious violations of US law escapes me.

If Peanut America should lose its hechsher because of violations of state and federal health and safety codes, so should Agriprocessors.

And that is something the Orthodox Jewish community seems unable to understand.

This scandal should also be a lesson to the many non-Jewish consumers of kosher products who buy those products because of perceived health benefits and "purity."

Kosher does not equal healthy. Kosher does not equal pure. Kosher means edible according to Jewish ritual law – nothing more, but sometimes less.

[Hat Tip – a reader.]

Comments

[nobody]

Shmarya, please provide Pure Sephardi with my email address, (or provide me with his as he requested - at my email address, the one I'm posting under), so that we may engage in discussion off-site on a topic raised in the king david payos entry. Thank you.

[Garnel Ironheart]

Why should they lose their hechser? The peanuts were kosher. Salmonella isn't a treif ingredient so why should the OU care?

Wait, does a rich Jew NOT own Peanut America?

[Isa]

The joke is
peanuts do NOT need a hechser
Alright, I know maybe they MIGHT use something screwball someplace somewhere like vinegar that came from wine, vegetable oil that was contaminated with animal oil (lard)etc etc.

This peanut place only provided ONE check, so what is one less check? Whereas Agriprocessors was writing checks to EVERYBODY and MANY people depended on them for their living.
To pull their hechser is something else altogether! Money talks!

[state of disgust]

To this day, Agriprocessor still has hashgocha from the OU and Wiesmandel.
I can think of no other single institution of Jewish life that has done such harm to the image of kashrut, then the OU. They don't have rules of kashrut, that only have the golden rule.

[steve]

I wonder if Avi Shafran will be defending the Peanut Corp. of America like he did Rubashkin. After all, it's still kosher. Maybe he'll use the smelly poet analogy.

[malach.hamovess]

while this website may have a strong antipathy to the OU, some of which may stem from reasonable differences, this isn't the fight to pick.

The OU certifies kashrut; it's not there to certify health, organic status, political correctness, or the absence of trans-fats or other harmful ingredients.

[steve]

The OU is there to affix their logo and collect their paycheck. They have certainly redefined kashrut.

[ah-pee-chorus]

it seems the only way to lose a hashgacha is if company uses as its main ingredient sliced pig cooked in its mothers milk wrapped in an idol which is dressed inappropriately,cooked by the pope in a mosque,sitting in melech hamashiachs chair next to the dead rebbe and a you tube video to prove it. then the mashgiach must call HQ for resolution of the safek.

[chayimito]

Most of the discussion about Agriprocessors revolves around their labor law violations. As egregious as they appear to be, it is clear to me, having witnessed correct shechitah hundreds of times, that based on the PETA videos, the meat that came out of that plant was / is treif.

[Jon]

Is meat obtained by stealing kosher?

[Shmarya]

Is [kosher] meat obtained by stealing kosher?

Yes, it is kosher.

But it is forbidden l'chatchila (as a first option) to consume it. (It could be consumed in times of pressing need, perhaps.)

[jew]

A man who is mattir an eishes ish and is involved in utter thuggery. You must be mad

http://aunorthodoxjew.blogspot.com/2006/09/vile-fraud-that-is-yisroel-belsky-part.html

[state of disgust]

Food produced under conditions of OSHEK is trief. The only question is whether or not conditions of OSHEK exist.

[Shmarya]

Food produced under conditions of OSHEK is trief. The only question is whether or not conditions of OSHEK exist.

No, that is not true.

The kosher status remains the same, but the food is forbidden because of oshek.

If that food got mixed up into regular kosher food, I'm not even sure the normal rules of negation would apply.

I would think knowing rov, the majority, is kosher w/o Oshek would be enough to permit the mixture.

But if you have any sources that dispute this, please tell us.

[Aaron]

I thought Kosher is about food that won't make you sick on the lines of "choose life."

[Aaron]

Just another thought - the public outrage on peanuts pales in comparison on the Rubashkin's front. I would point out that perhaps the Rubashkin's issue is really nothing more than an attack on eating meat and/or Jewish ritual shechitah. I do not eat Rubashkin's anymore for obvious reasons that something was definitely wrong there, but I worry if this is just an overall attempt in smearing meat eating. And, I love a rare steak once a month. I think if these Kashruth blow-ups say anything is that these Ksharuth organizations have to really go above and beyond the letter of Halachah to keep those who have a motive to smear ritual shechitah at bay.

[Shmarya]

I didn't see Congressional hearing about Rubashkin or massive product recalls.

For that matter, I didn't see front page stories for weeks on end.

You conflate several varied Rubashkin scandals – PETA and the meat hook shechita, EPA, treatment of workers, undocumented workers on a massive scale and the horrible treatment of those workers, the child workers, and previous health and safety issues.

The peanut butter scandal is all of about 2 weeks old, and so far only includes tainted peanut butter and poor plant maintenance.