... when Halal is unavailable.

More holy business. Another buck for the rebbi.

Shark Energy Drink is also a Kosher Drink - Kosher products are setting new highs in the food and beverage industry Kosher = Top Quality

"Kosher = Top Quality " No, it's called marketing. Go ahead and pay the extra fee. Suggest re-reading the article.

Hi, I think it should be noted that 'Kosher' is G-d's prescription for the Jews. It is what He, who creates the universe, instructs a certain people as being fit for their diet. However, non-Jews have no advantage whatsoever from eating Kosher. For a non-Jew, non-Kosher food *is* Kosher! In other words, the same G-d which instructs the Jews to eat x y and z, also allows non-Jews to eat z y and x. Of course there are certain things which non-Jews should not eat as well, such as are described as part of the Seven Noahide Laws (such as a limb or piece of and animal which is still alive etc...) The point is that 'Kosher' and 'clean/pure' are not the same thing. There can be a pure and clean food in cleanliness, but it is completely not Kosher, and vice versa as well. Kosher is a diet for the soul of a Jew. Is does not imply anything relating to cleanliness etc... (although another commandment demands that one not be filthy. And another demands that one watch very much their health etc... However, these are not fully related to 'Kosher' per se...) Although many in America eat Kosher if they are, for example, alergic to certain things, and they can be certain that if the label says Kosher and non-dairy, then it is in fact so. Whereas if it merely says 'non-dairy', leagally, there can still be a minute amount of dairy... (or likewise with meats and meat products etc...) All the best, and a Happy Chanukah!

by Don Harkins If you look in your own pantry or up and down the aisles of your neighborhood supermarket, you will notice that nearly every household-word name-brand food, beverage or soap has a little (K) or a little (U) inside of a circle discretely displayed on the label. These symbols indicate a product is “certified kosher” and are issued by rabbinical societies for a fee. The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations (UOJC) with headquarters at 333 Seventh Avenue in New York City, has reportedly sewn up 85 percent of the kosher certification market in America. Jewish people are instructed to consume only those products that are certified kosher. This is how a religious sect is able to run what may well be the most successful private extortion racket in America. Major corporations are compelled to pay the yearly kosher certification fee or lose their access to Jewish consumers. To maintain their certification status, the corporation must hire, at their own expense, independent production supervisors to inspect production processes to insure kosher standards are maintained. Some companies, such as cheese manufacturers, must have full-time rabbis on staff to perform specific functions during the production process. The UOJC employs some 1,200 kosher cops in America. Ernesto Cienfueges of the Hispanic newspaper La Voz de Aztlan recently reported that, when asked what they pay in “kosher tax,” major corporations such as Proctor & Gamble and Clorox were not willing to say. However, in 1975 the New York Times reported that the cost to General Foods' “Bird's Eye” Corn, for example, is 6.5 millionths (.0000065) of a cent per unit. In 2002 the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), in an effort to justify the kosher certification industry reported how “a representative of the Heinz Company said that the per item cost is 'so small we can't even calculate it,' and that such labeling actually makes products less costly by increasing the market for them.” The amount may seem small, but so do most taxes. The devil is in the mathematical details. Depending upon whether a “unit” is a package or the number of things, such individual kernels of peas or corn in a package, the revenue generated from kosher certification, if every American purchased an average of 35 kosher products per week, would be somewhere between $117,554,118 and $58 billion over the last 35 years. If the UOJC would just tell us the numbers, such conjecture would not be necessary. The ADL report went on to label anyone who believes kosher certification to be anything other than a process intended to protect the purity of food as “anti-Semitic.” In contrast to the ADL view of kosher certification, former prominent New York business broker Michael Santomauro commented, “One of the major unspoken reasons for anti-Semitism in the business world is the kosher tax.” Santomauro indicated that he knows a lot about what he calls the “kosher” tax. “Someday, I will tell the full story about the kosher tax that we are all forced to pay,” he said.

We keep a kosher home and it is disappointing that so many kosher products such as canned soups, "TV dinners", and other processed items have a very high salt content. Other brands that are not kosher have products that are much healthier and I am stuck between a rock and a hard place when trying to buy kosher. Why don't the producers of kosher food produce healthier products?

Suuure, kosher tax is right up there with certified organic, peanut free, vegetarian. Any niche marketing that expands the customer base and increases sales ultimately reduces the cost per item. Food manufacturers don't seek kosher cerfication out of fear - they do it is because it's good business. If you really believe kashrut raises the price of food, compare the cost with other foods with a smaller customer base, and think again!

Doing the salting process necessary for kosher meat products will naturally increase the salt content. Can't explain why other products would be saltier, too, except to say that it's probably a taste demand - they do consumer surveys on that kind of thing, and if you're not in the majority, you lose. Except for low/no salt breads, low salt products, local or imported, are difficult to find in Israel

It's all a matter of money. It took the influx of Muslims into the US to make business realize that there is a big market for kosher. While there were still kosher meat markets around, many Muslims bought the meat because kosher is Halal but Halal is not kosher. By seeing that a product is kosher it captures two birds with one. I shudder to think of what will happen when Islam becomes stronger in US. We will se Hallal and to hell with the Jews.

Lenny writes: they can be certain that if the label says Kosher and non-dairy, then it is in fact so From articles I have read it seems that that may be a fallacy. Traces of milk left in equipment after kashering before a parve run may be halachically insignificant and not present an obstacle to parve/non-dairy labelling but significant enough to a consumer's allergy to trigger a reaction. That said, for those who keep kosher, the supervision is critical because a minute amount of "treife" material which is intended to be significant may make a product non-kosher even though the quantity is too small to make it onto the ingredients list.

Ans SO WHAT if HALAL is stronger then jew kosher. To most christian,buddhist etc. AMERICANS who do not want the little jew symbols on their food- it doesnt matter if its halal or kosher- what gets me is your OUT AND OUT RACIST comment- I think you need to wake up- jews are a monority in the USA.

enjoy being a bigot...let us do our thing and whatever people you are from, you do your thing...i'm not worried, but apparently you are.

I could not have said it better.

would you want a little HALAL sign on everything? or a CROSS? for blessed by a priest? COME ON - jews would flip out in ISrael if the " minority' , muslims, (20 percent, right-) had their symbol on most foods in ISrael-

There are now many, many products that have both Kosher symbols and the word "Halal" printed on packages. No one is going to get freaked out about it. Halal slaughter is done in a particular way and if unavailable, then Kosher slaughter is preferable to non Kosher slaughter of animals. When a dairy product contains gelatin and is marked Halal, then the gelatin was produced from animals slaughtered in the Halal tradition.

The post of #6 is a rant that makes no sense at all and is the product of someone who is either a hater of religious Jews or someone who wants to rationalize his non-observance. Nobody forces anybody to buy food products that are labled Kosher. There are thousands of products that are not Kosher to choose from. So where is the tax? We keep a kosher home and pay much more for meaqt and poultry products from a kosher butcher than if we simply bought meat from a supermarket. That is our choice and we don't consider the extra money as a tax. Second, the many inspectors hired by the certifying agencies have to pay their bills---just like everyone else and the certifying organizations have expenses. As long as these organizations charge a reasonable fee for their services and do an honest job, where is the problem? Obviously, the writer, if Jewish reminds me of a friend who refuses to join a synagogue because of the dues ($1500/year). Yet while driving his $100,000 Mercedes, he argues that organized religion is a racket and people should not have to pay money to pray. Well, no one forces a person to join a synagogue and a person can pray anywhere. To deny that synagogues have expenses is the height of chutzpa and to want a free ride when you choose to drive a $100,000 auto is beyond the pale. Sort of like complaining about a non-existant tax.

It is sad that an innocuous article that describes the popularity and acceptance of Kosher proucts would inspire the sort of sick hatred from creatures such as Whoa and #15. Both of these writers(I hope they are the same nutcase) are illiterate and spew out venom about a "Jewish symbol" being somehow offensive. To these cretins, the symbols certifying Kosher are by private organizations, are voluntary, and are important to some Jews and non-Jews. To take offense at something like a letter symbolizing Kosher is like the burning of Jewish books by the nazis. Second, What does Israel have to do with the growing popularity of Kosher products in the U.S? Only a brainwahed bigot would bring Israel into the article and accuse it what the bigots would do. It's called projection. Israel does not object to symbols certifying Muslim dietary observance. Their accusations against Israel re nothing but lies.

actually in israel most labels have arabic on them for the arab minority