New York – Concern that cocoa powder from China is unfit for use on Pesach have proven to be nothing more than unsubstantiated rumors.
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In an interview with VIN News, Rabbi Don Yoel Levy, head of OK Kosher Certification, said that even after countless hours on the phone, he still does not even know exactly what the problem with cocoa is supposed to be and that he will indeed be using cocoa powder in his home on Pesach.
Rabbi Levy and his staff have, over the past 33 years, visited cocoa factories worldwide, explained that pure cocoa powder is an ingredient that is kosher year round without special supervision.
“All the major Kashrus supervision agencies agree that cocoa is 100% kosher and does NOT need a hechsher for Pesach,” said Rabbi Levy. “I have never seen any question at all on cocoa powder as far as being kosher for Pesach in factories all over the world. No one has EVER had any shaylos on pure cocoa powder. Cocoa powder used in drinks can have other ingredients mixed in, but plain cocoa powder is 100% kosher.”
Dont you have to be 1000,000% sure that it’s kosher? Never understood the leniency from those that proclaim that a item doesn’t need an hasgacha.
So why do we have to pay a masgiach to supervise the process? He isn’t saying that he had a masgiach at the plant, he says it does need a hecher, but I guess the Rabinim need to get paid.
Appearently the “chasidish” hechsher is supposed to vouch for the ‘kosher for pesach’ status and they removed the hechsher cuz the contract was over. Looks like it never needed that extra hechsher and the chasidishe bal machshir saw an oppertunity to get revange now (otherwise why come forward now and not months ago?) Whatever. Just one man’s opinion
u mean i can buy pure cocoa powder all year without a hechsher?
The reason why gruber didn’t give this year wasn’t other than the fact that CRC has changed their policy and started to give a hecsher KP them self other nothing about because it was from china and required a on site masgich
who was the one that first started this rumor
does anybody know what’s the rumor and from where it comes
Gruber sad that he did not give the hecher this year but last year yet that means some thing is going on here we have to find out the truth.
Rabbi Gruber claims that his name was falsly printed on the box,Last year he did give the Hechsher.
Hisachdus only gives the Hechsher year round not for Pesach on the box it says Kosher Parve (not Pesach)
Only the OK gives the Hechsher.
It is misleading people read the label and assume it has Hasgucha from 3 Kashrus orgainizations. Weather it needs a Hechsher is not the point there are people that are Medakdek to eat from only with a Hechsher and only from certain Hechsheirim .
who ever created this rumor will pay for it….erev pesach waisting presioucus time
I stopped buying items produced in China a few years ago. Too many horror stories with tainted food, lead in toys, etc.. I just don’t believe they care about the safety of anything they manufacture.
What is clear though is that the OK is clearly standing behind their hechser without bubbe meises….and publicly inviting anyone with information about a real problem to come forward…
refreshing.
How are you supposed to know it’s from China? I searched my box and it doesn’t say so. This is disturbing, I don’t want food from China.
forget coccoa what about cocaine?
Now you say it is OK – just threw out all my dishes.
I don’t understand, if rabbi gruber did not give hachsher this year why didn’t he come out publicly a couple of weeks ago to say that he removed hechsher
I don’t trust OK and was relying on gruber will never buy shufra again
Its one of 2 things.
1) politics
2) leftovers from last years run
Nobody panic, it smells political.
OK is reponding in a way that makes me not want to use their hechsher. One thing is sure they did not have a mahgiach there. Otherwise, Gruber would have used the same one. And this nonsense that it does not need any hechsher because its raw, is a simple lie. Cocoa does have an additional ingrediant that makes it look and feel better. Hence the difference between shufra and other companies in the quality of cocoa.
So its safe to conclude,
1. Ok does not give a good hechsher.
2. Gruber does.
3. Shufra is not ok. 4. The cocoa has a chashah chumetz gumir.
5. Even if it is chumetz, it gets butel.
TO number 1 firstly you assume that a hechsher makes something more kosher, some might argue it makes it less kosher.
Secondly learn some shulchan aruch, some things simply do NOT require hashgocha e.g. pure spices produced by themselves. So why pay for something which is unnecessary?
Too bad the OK cannot read this blog.Call them up and you get a run around – girls paskening questions, like the OU in the1970’s. No one knows what the other peson does. They have to check their database to see if they give a hechsher.
Case in point – the OU started to give a hechsher to kitniyos. They decided to do the obvious – rice products, for example. The OK also gives a hechsher to kitniyos. A friend in the meat business said that an item like liquid smoke came in and was kitniyos. Why? it is not rice and lif’ney ey’ver definitely kicked in. No one knew about it – not the company, not the salespeople, until the item came in. All they knew was tha the item was ‘pasover’ approved. What a farce for a Kashrus organization.