Hidden Supermarket Tax: What I Found in My Pantry

HOME DISINFORMATION KOSHER TAX

"What we have stumbled upon here is a Jewish tax on food which appears to have spread throughout the kitchen to non-food items so as to become a Jewish tax on food plus kitchen products, and from there made its way to the laundry room so as to become a Jewish tax on food plus kitchen products plus laundry products, and from there metastacized to the medicine cabinet so as to become a Jewish tax on food plus kitchen products plus laundry products plus over-the-counter medications." — Lubomyr Prytulak

Read also why the kosher business is a criminal conspiracy under Canada's Competition Act at Canadian Jewish Congress Criminal Conspiracy Under The Competition Act and at What Oreo cookies and Campbell's Vegetable Soup tell us about Canadian Jewish Congress criminality.

What I Found in My Pantry
One hundred fifty six discoveries
I made by reading product labels

Had someone asked me a few days before 14-Dec-1999 how many products I had in my house that bore a kosher label, I would have said none. At around that time, however, I learned something about kosher labelling, and actually made a count, and was astounded to discover that my count reached 90. Yes, to my amazement, my initial screening revealed that I had in my possession 90 different products that bore a kosher label.

In the days following, I located more kosher-labelled products lying hidden throughout my house, or sometimes just the container that had been conscripted for other use. Wittingly or unwittingly, I purchased many more as well. Two were purchased by family members in Ontario. In three cases, the item was not purchased: (1) a free sample of Tide laundry detergent was left on my doorstep, (2) a package of almonds was handed to a family member on an airplane, and (3) a potato chip bag was thrown, or blew, onto my lawn. Well, OK, it had blown across my lawn and was actually just over the line on my neighbor's property stuck in his hedge when I found it — but it had a label that I had never seen before (turned out to be Winnipeg Kosher) and I had to have it for my collection. Anyway, with such additions, all but three being purchases for family use, the total was brought up to 156 on 21-Apr-2000:

Date	Count
12-Apr-2000	152
20-Apr-2000	155
21-Apr-2000	156

That is 156 different products, mostly purchased, and as any product could have been purchased many times, with some being purchased a great many times, then the total number of purchases of kosher-labelled products was much higher than 156, conceivably in excess of one thousand, but I cannot say with any accuracy as I did not keep track. And although the discovery of previously-undocumented kosher-certified products clearly levels off over time, purchase of kosher-certified products both previously documented and previously undocumented continues high.

In retrospect, I can see that a more thorough study of the nature of my kosher purchasing would have recorded the date of purchase of every kosher product, whether the brand was one that had been purchased previously or not, and would have recorded the price of each purchase as well. Some interesting graphs could have been drawn.

And it is possible also that a more dedicated monitoring on my part would have yielded a higher total of different products purchased — the dedication manifesting itself in more dependably checking packaging for a kosher label before throwing it out, and in more tenaciously hunting down the meaning of presently-unrecognized symbols, as for example the "10" enclosed inside a circle which appears on a can of Campbell's tomato soup — I emailed Campbell Soups six times, and sent a hard-copy letter once, enquiring whether this signified kosher certification, but have not yet had my question answered, and so for the time being I do not count Campbell's tomato soup as being kosher-certified:

As the smallest change in ingredients or in the manner of processing requires an independent rabbinical review and an independent certification of kosher, any variation by a producer is considered to constitute a different product — to consider just three examples, Astro Strawberry Yogurt is considered to be a different product from Astro Raspberry Yogurt, and different even from Astro Strawberries and Cream Yogurt; or Bertolli Extra Light Olive Oil is considered to be a different product from Bertolli Extra Virgin Olive Oil; or Kraft Unsweetened and Unsalted Peanut Butter is different from Kraft Light and Smooth Peanut Butter, which is different from Kraft Smooth Peanut Butter, which is different from Kraft Crunchy Peanut Butter.

The case of Häagen-Dazs Vanilla Ice Cream proved unique in that it appeared to receive certification from two different kosher-accreditation agencies, the Council of Orthodox Rabbis (COR, Toronto) and the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations (OU, New York). Although the label for this product is shown under both categories below, it is counted only once, in the COR category.

Thus, with my participating in the purchase and consumption of the 156 kosher-certified products (in let us say approximately one thousand purchases) documented below in about four months, there can be little doubt that I am a solid member of the club of 8.5 million kosher consumers alluded to below — but if most of these kosher consumers are, like me, either unwitting or unwilling, what does this tell us about the legitimacy of the kosher-certification business, and what does it forebode for its longevity?

For 1998 the Kosher market was estimated to be 8.5 million Kosher consumers who spent $3.5 billion annually on Kosher food. In general, $45 billion was spent on kosher products in the year of 1998. Sales of Kosher food have been increasing at a yearly rate of 13-15 percent since 1992.

From the Orthodox Union (OU) webs site at: http://www.ou.org/kosher/kosherqa/food.htm

But why such modesty from the kosher business? In view of the pervasiveness of kosher-certified products, almost every Canadian and American must consume them, such that the number of "kosher consumers" in Canada and the United States in reality cannot be a mere 8.5 million, but could readily exceed 200 million. Another way of viewing the phenomenon, of course, is that the number of consumers paying the Jewish kosher tax in Canada and the United States, almost all of them unwittingly, exceeds 200 million.

In any case, the main kosher symbols that I found in my possession and whose origins I was able to ascertain, rank ordered from most to least frequent, were the following:

SYMBOL	KOSHER-CERTIFICATION AGENCY
	Council of Orthodox Rabbis Kashruth Council of Toronto 4600 Bathurst Street, Suite 240 North York, Ontario Canada M2R 3V2 Rabbi Mordechai Levin, Executive Director Phone: (416) 635-9550 Fax: (416) 635-8760 Website: http://www.feduja.org/rellife/kashintr.stm
	Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations 333 Seventh Avenue New York, New York USA 10001 Phone: (212) 563-4000 Fax: (212) 564-9058 Rabbi Menachem Genack, Rabbinic Administrator Website: http://www.ou.org
	Montreal Kosher Montreal Vaad Hair 6333 Decarie Boulevard, Suite 100 Montreal, Quebec Canada H3W 3E1 Phone: (514) 270-2659 Fax: (514) 739-7024 Rabbi Peretz Jaffe, Rabbinic Administrator Rabbi Saul Emanuel, Executive Director Website: http://www.mkmontreal.org
	New Jersey Kosher Kof-K Kosher Supervision 1444 Queen Anne Road Teaneck, NJ USA 07666 Phone: (201) 837-0500 Fax: (201) 837-0126 Rabbi Aharon Felder, Director of Kosher Standards Rabbi Ari Moshe Senter, Halachic Research Rabbi Dovid Senter, Rabbi Yehuda Rosenbaum, Rabbi Daniel Senter, Administration Rabbi Dr. H. Zecharia Senter, Executive Administrator Publication: Kosher Outlook Supplement Website: http://www.kof-k.com/
	British Columbia Kosher Orthodox Rabbinical Council of British Columbia 8080 Fancis Road Richmond, British Columbia Canada V6Y 1A4 Rabbi Levy Teitlebaum Phone: (604) 275-0042 Fax: (604) 277-2225
	Star-K Kosher Star-K Kosher Certification 11 Warren Road Baltimore, MD USA 21208-5234 Phone: (410) 484-4110 Fax: (410) 653-9294 Rabbi Moshe Heinemann, Rabbinic Administrator Website: http://www.star-k.org
	Committee For The Furtherance of Torah Observance The Organized Kashrus Laboratories 391 Troy Avenue Brooklyn, NY USA 11213 Phone: (718) 756-7500 Fax: (718) 756-7503 Rabbi Don Yoel Levy, Kashrus Administrator Website: http://www.ok.org
	Beverly Hills Kosher Kosher Overseers Associates of America A Division of the Orthodox Rabbinical Association, Inc. P.O. Box 1321 Beverly Hills, CA USA 90213 Phone: (213) 870-0011 Fax: (213) 567-4371 Rabbi Dr. I. Harlod Sharfman, Rabbinic Administrator Rabbi Chaim Hisiger, Kashrus Coordinator Rabbi Shalom Meir Ohana, Supervisions Administrator Publication: Global Guide to Kosher Foods & Restaurants Website: http://kosher.org
	Michigan Kosher Metropolitan Kashrut Council of Michigan
	Los Angeles Kosher Kosher Supervision of America P.O. Box 35721 Los Angeles, CA USA 90035 Phone: (310) 282-0444 Fax: (310) 282-0505 Rabbi Binyomin Lisbon, Kashrus Administrator Publication: KSA Supervised Establishments
	Massachusetts Kosher Vaad Hakashrus of Massachusetts 177 Tremont Street Boston, MA USA 02111 Rabbi Abraham Halfinger, Rabbinic Administrator Phone: (617) 426-2139 Fax: (617) 426-6268
	Rabbi Ralbag Kosher Rabbi Joseph H. Ralbag 225 West 86th Street New York, NY USA 10024 Phone: (212) 877-1823 Fax: (212) 595-7966
	Winnipeg Kosher Rabbi Peretz Weizman VAAD HA'IR of Winnipeg, Inc. #C306-123 Doncaster Street Winnipeg, MB Canada R3N 2B2 Phone: (204) 487-9571 Fax: (204) 477-7405

Details concerning kosher labelling

Kraft Peanut Butter, Unsweetened, Montreal Kosher

PAREVE or PARVE (from the Yiddish, parev) accompanying a kosher symbol signifies that the product is made without milk, meat, or derivatives of milk or meat, and therefore safe to eat under all circumstances for the kosher-keeping Jew.

Cascade Dishwasher Detergent, OU

P stands for Passover, and indicates that the product is considered kosher throughout the year, particularly during Passover at which time more restrictive standards must be met.

Kraft Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Montreal Kosher

Kraft Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Montreal Kosher

Häagen-Dazs Vanilla Ice Cream, counted by the Ukrainian Archive only under COR 95D, but certified by OU as well

DAIRY or D or the French LAIT accompanying a kosher symbol indicates that the product contains a milk derivative, so that although it may safely be eaten alone, it may not be eaten together with meat, which combination happens to be prohibited by Jewish law.

Nestle Carnation Evaporated Milk, Montreal Kosher

Nestle Carnation Evaporated Milk, Montreal Kosher

NOT CHOLOV YISROEL or NON CHOLEV YISROEL or the French PAS CHOLOV YISROEL accompanying a kosher symbol signifies that although the milk product in question is considered to be kosher, in fact there was no Jewish supervision of the milk-production process. Had the milk been produced on the farm of an observant Jew, or had the milk been produced on a non-Jewish farm but under Jewish supervision, then the milk would be considered to be Cholov Yisroel. Thus, for a milk product to be labelled kosher and yet not cholov yisroel constitutes a partial or qualified certification of kosher, which the producer could turn into a complete and unqualified certification upon the hiring of Jewish supervisors.

It follows that if a product is labelled Cholov Yisroel or Not Cholov Israel, it must contain milk, even if the words Dairy or Lait or the letter D are missing. In the box below is reproduced an excerpt from a longer discussion of Cholov Yisroel that can be found on the Star-K web site which can be accessed by clicking the Star-K logo below:

Cholov Yisroel: Does a Neshama Good
Rabbi Moshe Heinemann, Rabbinic Administrator

[...]

It was common practice among farmers to mix milk of various species together, unbeknownst to their customers. Since it was conceivable to have a farm mixture of Kosher and non-Kosher milk, our Rabbis issued an injunction several thousand years ago, against the use of Cholov Akum, milk from a non-Jewish farmer. This restriction did not apply if there was supervision of the farmer by a Yehudi during the milking. The Rabbis ruled that unsupervised milk may not be used, even though most of the milk available in the area came from Kosher species and the likelihood of tampering was slim.

Our Rabbis stipulated that in order to ensure that the milk of an Akum is Kosher, a Yehudi must be present from the milking until the bottling. The Yehudi must be able to identify that the milk production has not been compromised, or that the milk has not been adulterated. The supervisor must be a G-d fearing Jew in his personal activities so that his credibility regarding Kashrus issues is beyond reproach. Milk produced under the auspices of this Mashgiach is called Cholov Yisroel.

[...]

However, other writers leave the impression that government supervision alone is sufficient to qualify milk as Cholov Yisroel. The more complete discussion from which the excerpt below is taken can be accessed by clicking on the logo. "OU," by the way, stands for "Union of Organized Jewish Congregations."

External link to Union of Organized Jewish Congregations web site

[...]

DAIRY PRODUCTS

A. Cholov Yisroel:

A Rabbinic law requires that there be supervision during the milking process to ensure that the source of the milk is from a kosher animal. Following the opinion of many rabbinic authorities, OU policy considers that in the United States, the Department of Agriculture's regulations and controls are sufficiently stringent to ensure that only cow's milk is sold commercially. These Government requirements fulfill the Rabbinical requirement for supervision.

[...]

No Name Pink Salmon, BCK, purchased in Ontario

BISHUL YISROEL accompanying a kosher label signifies that Jews participated in the production of a food item, and so of course NON BISHUL YISROEL signifies that there is no guarantee that Jews so participated. Non Bishul Yisroel, therefore, is the second instance that we have seen of a partial or qualified certification of kosher, with the hiring of Jewish employees being required to make the kosher certification complete and unqualified.

It is a curiousity (which happens not be be manifested in the collection of kosher labels below) that a food product can be Bishul Yisroel (produced with the participation of Jews) and yet not be kosher.

We can imagine that the analogous certification in the hands of other groups might lead to supermarket attestations such as "Genuine Italians participated in the making of this pizza" or "Pure Germans were employed in the production of this strudel" or "Certified Chinese contributed toward the creation of this chop suey" or "Some real Ukrainians helped make these perogies." Reading the excerpt below, furthermore, calls to mind that if other groups followed the Jewish lead, then we might see Germans prohibited from eating any food produced by non-Germans, and the same for Italians, Chinese, and Ukrainians:

External link to Union or Orthodox Jewish Congregations web site

[...]

No Jew — S'faradi or Ashkenazi is allowed to eat a food product that is produced by BISHUL ACU"M (food cooked exclusively by a non-Jew). The OU does not certify any product that has a BISHUL ACU"M problem. Exactly what foods fall under the ban of BISHUL ACU"M and what constitutes BISHUL YISRAEL when required are complex issues. Food that can be eaten raw, may be cooked by a non-Jew and is not subject to the ban on BISHUL ACU"M. Nor is a product that requires further cooking. Nor is a food that does not "go onto the table of kings." These exemptions from the ban on BISHUL ACU"M are the same for S'faradim and Ashkenazim. (There is somethings a dispute among poskim as to what does and does not go onto the table of kings, but that's another story.)

Where Ashkenazim and S'faradim differ in this issue is concerning what a Jew has to do in order for the food to be BISHUL YISRAEL. Ashkenazim follow the RAMA who says that if a Jew does ANYTHING in the processing — lights the fire or turns on the machinery, for example — then the product is considered BISHUL YISRAEL and is permitted. S'faradim follow the M'CHABER (Rav Yosef Caro) who requires a Jew to actually put the food on the fire (or into the machines) in order for there not to be a BISHUL ACU"M.

[...]

Longer lists of kosher-accreditation agency logos

The kosher-accreditation agency logos in the table higher above are not an attempt to be exhaustive; they are only symbols on products consumed by my family. More extensive collections of kosher-accreditation agency logos can be found at several web locations, among them:

Kosher Mall
World Wide Kashruth Authorities Listing
Kosherfest-On-Line
American-Asian Kashrus Services

How many such kosher-accreditation agencies might exist in the whole world? — Obviously, hundreds. The National Council of Young Israel web site estimates over 200 for the USA alone: "Furthermore, it has become very difficult for both Rabbis and laymen to track and judge the reliability of the over 200 Kashruth symbols appearing on many products distributed nationally."

Don't mistake the following for kosher symbols

It must be cautioned that common symbols on packaging that are unrelated to kosher labelling are © for Copyright, and ® for Registered Trade Mark. TM is also sometimes used for Trade Mark. In French, Trade Mark is most often expressed as MD, Marque Déposée, and occasionally as MC, Marque de Commerce. In one case, in the midst of French text, I came across a D inside a circle so as to lead me to believe that this had been introduced as a symbol for Marque Déposée corresponding to the English ®.

Examples of other symbols that do not indicate kosher certification are shown below. On the left below is a symbol which I found prominently displayed on a Lipton Chicken OXO box — it turned out to be issued by the Government of Canada and means that the product contains at least 3% meat or poultry, and that this meat or poultry comes from government-inspected producers. The 52 is an identification number issued by the Government of Canada to the Lipton Company. In the middle below is a 4015 enclosed in a rectangle with its corners cut off — this was found on a Dairyworld Foods, Fraser Valley, Unsalted Creamery Butter along with two other numbers similarly displayed, the three together designating "manufacturing plant numbers." As a final example of the sort of symbols that are likely to be encountered on home-product packaging, and that are not kosher symbols, is the P2919 on the right below, found on a Dairyworld Foods, Dairyland 2% milk carton, and which is a "panel number that the carton manufacturer places there for reference."

Not a kosher symbol, on Lipton OXO

Although the trade mark symbols invariably appear in close proximity to the brand name of the product, or sometimes tied to the brand name by means of an asterisk, other non-kosher symbols can appear anywhere on the product packaging. Kosher symbols too are not closely tied to the brand name, sometimes appearing near the brand name, but at other times being placed in less conspicuous spots, perhaps on the back of the package, or in the case of Heinz ketchup and Heinz chili sauce, the "COR 10" kosher symbol appears not on the main label at all, but only on the neck of the bottle. In the case of the Lactaid Lactase Enzyme, the COR 214 appeared on the box and on the loose explanatory sheet inside the box, but not on the plastic bottle which actually contained the tablets, such that if one threw away both box and explanatory sheet, as might be done with a familiar product, then a later examination of the bottle alone would give no indication that it had been kosher-certified.

Surprising variety of kosher products

Of particular interest among the edible items below are those that one would not normally think of as being susceptible to kosher labelling, such as chocolate chips, tea, coffee, cacao, flour, oats, raisins, horse radish, frozen orange juice, cinnamon sticks, corn starch, olive oil, molasses, mustard, caraway seeds, vinegar, sugar, salt, lactase enzyme, and a calcium+vitamins supplement. And of still greater interest is kosher labels bestowed on products that are not even edible, such as plastic baggies, food-wrap film, dishwasher detergent, scouring pads, and aluminum foil. Of the very greatest interest is kosher labels appearing on products which are not applied to food and not used in the kitchen or the dining room, such as laundry detergent and laundry bleach. The possibility that manufacturers have been duped into purchasing kosher labelling for products that do not require it is broached in my letter of 13Apr2000 to Moshe Ronen, National President of the Canadian Jewish Congress.

All this costs — but how much?

In my education in kosher labelling, I next discovered that these many kosher labels do not come free. They do not even come cheap. They come expensive. As one piece of evidence to this effect — more evidence will be added as resources permit — please read about the Jewish steel tax as described in Newsweek magazine.

Jewish taxation without Gentile representation

A hypothesis that readily springs to mind from the above revelations is that what we have stumbled upon here is a Jewish tax on food which appears to have spread throughout the kitchen to non-food items so as to become a Jewish tax on food plus kitchen products, and from there made its way to the laundry room so as to become a Jewish tax on food plus kitchen products plus laundry products, and from there metastacized to the medicine cabinet so as to become a Jewish tax on food plus kitchen products plus laundry products plus over-the-counter medications. And the question that the above revelations urgently presses upon consciousness is how much this Jewish tax — if it may be so described — costs the average Canadian household each year. Ten dollars? A hundred dollars? A thousand dollars? What? Why don't we know? Why is there no way to find out? Why isn't this a matter of public record?

Paying for the bullet with which you are executed

Why is this topic being broached on the Ukrainian Archive? Simply because it has been documented on the Ukrainian Archive that inciting fear and hatred of Ukrainians is an integral part of Jewish culture. The question becomes germane then of whether this incitement is financed, at least in part, by a hidden Jewish tax upon all Canadians, and thus whether Ukrainian-Canadians are in effect subsidizing Jews to engineer such anti-Ukrainian pageants as the misnamed Deschênes Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals, or such anti-Ukrainian spectacles as the current spate of half-century-old immigration-infraction prosecutions being conducted by Canada's so-called war crimes unit.

A word on format

Below, the image containing the brand name has been scaled so as to be about 175 pixels high. To its right, typically scaled to 75 pixels high, appears the kosher symbol usually found somewhere in the vicinity of the brand name. In cases where the kosher symbol did not appear near the brand name, I show the kosher symbol along with a chunk of the environment in which it was discovered. In cases where the kosher symbol within the 175-pixel-high image is at least 75 pixels high, it is not reproduced separately in a 75-pixel-high image.

A viewer inspecting the images below using a screen resolution lower than 1034x768 will find that the row order of images is not maintained, with images being moved to the next line which were intended to stay on the same line — which makes for slightly messier viewing, but is otherwise not critical.

Council of Orthodox Rabbis (70)