England – Kellogg’s ‘Suitable for Vegetarians’ Rice Krispies Bar Not Kosher

    12

    England – Kellogg’s has apologised to a Jewish man who ate a cereal bar containing pork gelatine because its wrapper incorrectly stated it was suitable for vegetarians.

    Join our WhatsApp group

    Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email


    Oberon Gardner and his family bought the Rice Krispies Squares bars at a supermarket in Colchester, Essex. Labels on 5,000 multipacks carried the words “suitable for vegetarians”, even though the full ingredients list explained that around one per cent of the marshmallow bar contained pork gelatine.

    It was only later that 21-year-old Mr Gardner inspected the individual wrapper more carefully. “After my sister ate one bar and I took a bite of mine, it occurred to me that I had never seen any marshmallow without some form of gelatine in,” he said. “I decided before I ate any more to see what was substituted in its place. I was absolutely disgusted to find that the ingredients list stated it had pork gelatine in it.

    I felt so sick. I have been vegetarian all my life, so it was a real shock to the system.
    “When I rang Kellogg’s, they were at first very rude and said I was lying, but then they went away and discovered it was on all the multipack wrappers.”

    Mr Gardner was offered a refund, but had a request for compensation turned down. A Kellogg’s spokeswoman said: “We would like to apologise sincerely to the Gardner family. We have a strict quality-control process in place and labelling issues are extremely rare.”

    She said the company halted production after being made aware of the error and now plans to cover the “suitable for vegetarians” label with stickers on remaining misprinted packs.

    The company also contacted the Manchester Beth Din in an attempt to understand the implications of the incorrect labelling. A spokesman for the Beth Din said: “At no time did Kellogg’s portray the product as kosher – and any consumer worried about their consumption of kosher food should not buy items which only state ‘suitable for vegetarians’. “They should look for a kosher logo on the packaging or take guidance from the correct kosher authorities.”

    The kashrut division of the London Beth Din lists all Kellogg’s cereal bars as not kosher.


    Listen to the VINnews podcast on:

    iTunes | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Podbean | Amazon

    Follow VINnews for Breaking News Updates


    Connect with VINnews

    Join our WhatsApp group


    12 Comments
    Most Voted
    Newest Oldest
    Inline Feedbacks
    View all comments
    Simon
    Simon
    15 years ago

    The Manchester Beis Din do have their logo on many Kellogs things in Europre tho – lets hope they don’t put their logo on the wrong products.

    Kosher  Man
    Kosher Man
    15 years ago

    Thats what you get for only looking at the “ingredients” rather then looking for a Kosher Heksher and I mean KOSHER not Heksher Tzedek or Circle R (Reform) Heksher.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    MBD have never certified the cereal bars, only the cereals themselves – and, until recently, not all the cereals were certified. It has only been through Kellogg’s co-operation that so many cereals are now kosher certified. When they had a promotion with free cereal bars attached to the cereal packs, they carried a special warning that they were NOT kosher certified. Your safest bet is to ALWAYS look for the logo and not rely on suitable for vegetarians, often the product is manufactured on the same line as products containing non-kosher ingredients.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    Are the companies that put a hechsher on Kellogs allowed to inspect the plants (without an appointment) or are just given a list of ingredients? Maybe the cereals are processed on the same machines as the marshmallow bars.

    Oy Gevald
    Oy Gevald
    15 years ago

    Well said, “Kosher Man”. In this day and age, there is absolutely no reason to “assume” anything by reading labels. No Hashgocho, no eating! No one will starve!

    T.
    T.
    15 years ago

    What vegetarian would eat “pork gelatine” anyway? We’ve moved greatly away from times when ingredient reading would be at all acceptable.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    no big deal rav ovadia yosef permits gelatin

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    My wife had a non-jewish co-worker who was a strict vegetarian, and she started eating only kosher cheese because she decided it was the only stuff she could trust.