Kosher certification services

Courtesy: Kosher certification services

The agency and client sign a one-year contract which is renewed automatically, unless either party notifies the other of its desire to end the relationship.

Symbol

The circled U at the upper left corner indicates that this product is certified as kosher by OU Kosher. The word “Pareve” indicates that this product contains neither milk- nor meat-derived ingredients.

Juice certified as kosher for Passover by OU Kosher

Upon approval, the client receives permission to display the kosher certification agency’s symbol, or hechsher, on its product packaging or on a certificate displayed in its food-service venue. Each agency has its own symbol, usually a registered trademark, that is the property of the agency and can be used only with permission. If certification is withdrawn for any reason, the client must destroy any packaging bearing the agency’s symbol, as well as remove the symbol from its advertisements.

Agencies are constantly on the lookout for fraudulent use of their symbol. Both agencies and consumer bulletins publicize the names of companies and products from which certification has been withdrawn. If a symbol is trademarked, unauthorized use is a Federal crime in the United States.

In addition to the symbol, many agencies indicate whether the product is dairy (“D”), meaty (“Meat”), pareve (“Pareve”), or kosher for Passover (“P”).

The letter “K” by itself cannot be trademarked, and therefore can be affixed to a product by anyone. It carries no legal or halakhic significance, and is therefore, with few exceptions, not a guarantee of kosher status.

The mashgiach/mashgicha, or rabbinic field representative, is the kosher certification agency’s “eyes and ears” at the point of production or distribution. They must ensure that kosher and non-kosher production runs are kept completely separate. They must be familiar with all ingredients and the way they are produced to ensure kosher status. Most large certification agencies maintain a database listing “hundreds of thousands of ingredients and formulas” to provide up-to-date information to their mashgichim.

The mashgiach/mashgicha makes frequent and unannounced site visits during a production run to ensure compliance with the terms of the contract. If they see something suspicious or have any questions about the ingredients or production process, they immediately contacts one of the agency’s rabbinic coordinators, who is the decision-maker for issues of compliance and certification.^[1] For a food-service event, a mashgiach/mashgicha must be on hand at all times to ensure that kosher standards are enforced.