1-
None of the current Glatt shechita’s
certifiers allow non- broiled poultry hearts or livers to be sold to the retail
market.
2-
At the Aroma kosher
supermarket in Boca Raton, Florida, kosher certified by the ORB of Florida they
do sell non-broiled chicken hearts (we did not check about non-broiled livers).
3-
The package on the shelf
states that it’s OU-Glatt. The OU says that is unauthorized, as they do not
allow any non-broiled hearts or livers to be sold in the retail market.
4-
The package states “must be
kashered”. To an average consumer that means, soaking, salting, rinse.
5-
Hearts must be “Broiled”, so
standard Kashering is unacceptable.
6-
The pack date box is blank,
the sell by date is 5/08/2020. We were there on the 5/7/2020. Therefore, it was
there more than 3 days, so the package should have also indicated, “should not
be cooked after broiling”.
7-
We don’t know if the hearts
were from any kosher certifier as the Aroma super-market, when questioned,
management said they don’t know the brand nor the Hashgocha of the hearts.
8-
We wanted to talk to the
Mashgiach (if there is one). The Aroma store will not reveal the contact
information for their Mashgiach. If there is a mashgiach, he’s definitely not
in charge and his competency is questionable at best.
9-
The ORB kosher certifier
only responded that after the OU contacted the ORB, they notified all stores
that they can’t sell any raw Hearts or livers on the retail market.
10-
The distributor says they
haven’t had any poultry hearts from before pesach (April 1, 2020).
11-
The Hearts at Aroma on May
7th were very fresh looking to me, not 6+ weeks old. Where did Aroma
get those hearts?
12-
I question the source of
the hearts at Aroma as there was no blood leakage at all in package, which is
usually an indicator of a non-kosher kill which electrocutes prior to kill.
13-
We also asked the ORB (by
email) for more information re: above issues, they refuse to respond.
14-
We also asked, “what are
the ORB standards re: checking for infestation”, the ORB refused to respond.
15-
We did observe many of the
produce items that were certified by the ORB as clean from infestation. We were
very dissatisfied with the end result of the ORB certified pre-checked produce.
More on this another time.
16-
There is no longer a
“kosher enforcement bureau” in Florida, we tried reaching out to the Consumer
fraud division.
I think that if we would ask the ORB “what
is the RED-LINE in kashrus that they will not cross”? they will respond “we are
color-blind” so there are no red lines. All for the Franklins.
We may have brewing another Shevach/Finkel,
Doheny, Netzach, King David, Gough in Manchester & Liverpool (Europe),
Queens and Flatbush situations.
When a store or a hashgocha refuses to
respond to serious questions, standards,
mashgiach, etc. we know we have serious kashrus issues.
At this time, we would not rely on the Florida
ORB in their butcher departments and their pre-checked produce. What about
their other hashgochas? It’s Russian Roulette.
I remain,
Kosher Consumers Union, Inc.
Yehuda Shain
PS there is more to the above, read
between the lines.
Why are the other Florida Hashgochas
sleeping?
Did Rabbi Pesach Weitz leave ORB for
kashrus violations, or was he just pushed out before it’s revealed what ORB is
for the Educated kosher consumer.