Update from the Guide to Chodosh

[Y. Herman]

CHODOSH NEWS AS OF DEC 16 01

We have noted that a few copies of the second edition of the Guide had 
their pages bound out of order. Those who received such faulty copies can 
call the Hot Line and leave their full names and addresses. We will (bli 
neder) mail them a replacement copy free of charge. Alternately, they can 
go to their local distributors for a corrected copy.

LIEBERS update: The following are Yoshon under hashgocho for Yoshon of Rav 
Weissmandl: All cereals, Yoson up to purchase date of Jan 31. All soups to 
pesach. All cookies, crackers to pesach, except those containing oats that 
should be considered Chodosh now. All candies to pesach. All bread crumbs 
to pesach.

OLD CITY pasta Yoshon at all times, under the hashgocho of Rav Weissmandl.

ARROWHEAD MILLS code change. The old code for Sept 25 (for example) is 2681 
as stated below. The new code is an open date that is 1 year after packing 
for cereals and flour.

BROOKLYN BAGELS, 1903 South Taylor Road, Cleveland Heights, OH 
(216-321-0738). All challahs, bagels are Yoshon. Some pastry products are 
also Yoshon. Under the hashgocho for Yoshon of Cleveland Kosher.

AMNON'S KOSHER PIZZA, 4814 13th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11219  (718-851-1758). 
All items baked in the retail store are Yoshon after Dec 12 (not before). 
All frozen pizzas are Yoshon only with Yoshon label. No special hashgocho 
for Yoshon.

OSEM PASTA from Itali and elsewhere, if under the hashgocho for kashrus of 
the Badatz of Yerushalaim, are always Yoshon.

BADATZ OF YERUSHALAIM confirms that their policy is never to give any 
hashgocho for kashrus, unless it is also Yoshon.

SWISS GOURMET Italian Cookies are Yoshon with Yoshon label only. No special 
hashgocho for Yoshon.

TRADITION SOUPS the Guide correctly lists the date on the package as being 
2 years after packing, but gives the incorrect example. The probable 
Chodosh code should have been, Aug 2003.

GOLD MEDAL flours from factory K. All purpose flour and Better for Bread 
flours, Chodosh date Sept 13.

MALT update. Cleveland Kashrus reported on one source of malt that became 
Chodosh as of Nov.1. As a result, I rechecked with several malt 
manufacturers. They confirmed that on special orders it is possible to 
produce Chodosh malt as early as October. However they do not recommend 
this to their customers and very rarely do it because, good quality malt 
requires aging that would almost always make malt Yoshon until Dec. 15 or 
later. Therefore, we plan to continue our earlier malt date guidelines. 
Namely, we will continue to assume that all malt is Yoshon up to a packing 
date of Dec 15 and probably up to Jan 15.

*************************************


CHODOSH NEWS AS OF DEC 2 01

The following changes and additions to the Guide are since the printing of 
the second edition:

KEMACH macaraoni, spaghetti and lasagna. According to the Guide, the 
Chodosh date is Oct 1. In fact the Chodosh date is later, Nov. 1, package 
code Nov. 1 2002 (1 year after packing.)

ARROWHEAD MILLS. The following items are now from winter wheat only: Wheat 
bran, wheat germ, regular whole wheat flour, whole wheat pastry flour, 
vital wheat gluten, bulgur, puffed wheat, cracked wheat cereal. Still from 
spring wheat is puffed kamut. Chodosh date for kamut is Sept 25, code 2681 
(268=day of the year, 1=year.)

WILLMARK makes mixes used by bakeries. The following mixes are Chodosh at 
this time: donut mix, yeast raised dough. These mixes are available in 
Yoshon form only to those establishments that reserved Yoshon before the 
start of the Chodosh season. Cake mixes are always Yoshon.

LAKEWOOD HEIMISHE BAKE SHOP, 225 2nd St. Lakewood, (732) 905-9057. This 
bakery has now provided the requested information: All challahs, rolls, 
cakes, pastries, as well as 2 lb rye breads, white bread, whole wheat 
bread, club bread are all Yoshon.  The kashrus hashgocho does not take 
responsibility for Yoshon. However, six-grain breads, breads not listed 
above and bran muffins are NOT Yoshon.

MARTISCO, UNGER AND BENZY'S BARLEY STILL NOT RECOMMENDED AS YOSHON, DESPITE 
THE CLAIMS OF MARTISCO: I have received a copy of a letter being sent out 
by Martisco to "prove" that these barleys are Yoshon. The letter states 
that all this barley comes from Yoshon crop that was sealed by Rabbi 
Abraham Juravel (of the O-U). It invites all interested parties to check 
with the owner of the bins that contain this barley or to go to Idaho to 
verify this information. The fact is that Rabbi Juravel did seal bins of 
Yoshon barley in Idaho. However, we explained in detail in Preface A-3 of 
the Guide, barley takes several steps between the storage bins mentioned in 
Martisco's letter and your grocery shelf. It is first transported from the 
bin to a pearling company that removes the outer shell of each barley 
kernel. This company does pearling of barley from all sources, most of them 
being Chodosh at this time. This is also done in Idaho. Then the pearled 
barley is shipped in bulk to Martisco in New York State which packs the 
barley into individual 1 pound bags. We have explained to the 
representative of Martisco and Unger that in order to be considered Yoshon 
throughout the Chodosh season we need to have reliable mashgichim verify 
that Yoshon barley that leaves the bins sealed by Rabbi Juravel is the only 
barley that is contained in the shipments that go East from Idaho and are 
packed by Martisco. This representative explained to us that they can not 
afford to pay for the additional hashgocho due to the small profit that can 
be earned by selling barley. We do not insist that they hire any mashgichim 
when they can not afford to do so. However, we do feel obligated to inform 
the Yoshon-observant public, that so far the company has not been able to 
show how they verify the Yoshon status of this barley in a manner that 
Orthodox Jews consider reliable. We have contacted Benzy's which originally 
claimed that their barley is Yoshon based on such assurances from Martisco. 
So far as we know, they understood our objections and are no longer 
claiming that their barley is Yoshon. The management of Ungers refused to 
discuss this matter with and referred the questions back to the 
representative that does not return our numerous phone calls. (Yoshon 
barley seems hard to find now. People are urged to look for Geffen barley 
that is Yoshon at least up to the packing date of Oct 15, code 15 OC02 or 
Goya barley which has a revised Chodosh date of Nov. 1, code 030501 (0=not 
important, 305=day of the year, 02=year +1.)



CHODOSH NEWS AS OF 22 NOV 01

The second edition of the Guide to Chodosh for the current season has now 
been printed and most have been mailed out to the paid subscribers. To 
request an unformatted E mail version to be sent to you (free of charge) 
send a message to:

Chodosh-request at jif.org.il

On the first line of the message type:
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(This only works if you copy the message exactly, including 
capitalization.) The file is large, 200 KBytes. It will be sent to you by 
return E mail.

Meanwhile, attached below is the summary of changes and news taken from the 
beginning of the new Guide. This contains some new information, plus all of 
the information which I had been sending out piecemeal in earlier E mail 
updates.


Yoseph Herman

********************************************************

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