The Kashrut Department of Israel’s haredi-controlled
state-funded-and-sanctioned Chief Rabbinate and the owners of large
commercial bakeries and cookie factories recently met in Jerusalem to
determine a course of action to resolve a crisis – the currently unregulated shape of baked
goods.
Rabbis Bar-Giora, left, and Sabag, right, carefully examine the shapes of baked goods
Israel’s Haredi-Controlled Chief Rabbinate Wants To Regulate Shape And Size Of Baked Goods
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
The Kashrut Department of Israel’s haredi-controlled state-funded-and-sanctioned Chief Rabbinate and the owners of large commercial bakeries and cookie factories recently met in Jerusalem to determine a course of action to resolve a crisis – the currently unregulated shape of baked goods.
Radio Kol Hai reports that the rabbis want to set standards for the shape baked goods. Dairy-filled pastries would have a set series of shapes, pareve pastries another and meat-filled pastries like Moroccan cigars another.
The shapes were discussed as the rabbis and bakers sat around a table full of various types of baked good that no one ate. The bakery items were there so the rabbis and bakers could see how difficult it is to distinguish between milk, pareve and meat pastries and compare and contrast their shapes and sizes.
Rabbi Bar-Giyora reportedly opened the meeting by listing many complaints he had received about accidentally mixing up milk, pareve and meat pastries that came from from consumers and retailers alike.
Bar-Giyora cited the halakhic (Jewish law) principle that people are required to be more stringent in matters pertaining to danger to life than they are in ritual and other halakhic areas. He reportedly recounted stories of “lactose-intolerant” people who were rushed to hospitals after taking a bite out of a cheese boureka is shaped like and looks like a potato boureka.
Bar-Giyora then started a powerpoint presentation he had prepared. It recommended assigning various shapes for the different types of pastries. For example, he wants to make the triangle-shaped bourekas cheese only, while square bourekas would be parve only. Another idea of Bar-Giyora’s is to change the shape of mini-bourekas. The open-top variety would be dairy and the closed-top parve ones. Regarding meat “cigars,” Bar-Giyora recommended the parve one’s length be doubled to distinguish them from the meat-filled variety.
The bakers are said to be open to the proposed changes – provided they can find ways to adjust their multimillion dollar equipment to accommodate them.
The Chief Rabbinate will reportedly release its new pastry shape guidelines in the near future, regardless.