Not only in Los - Angeles: Israeli Kosher Scam

Not only in Los Angeles: Pe'er Habasar Veha'of factory in Be'er Tuvia industrial zone was suspected that it distributed during Pesach meat products with a regular hechsher, under the cover of kosher lemehadrin. An alert client from Ashdod called to report to the kashrus department and which made a test and discovered the deception.

Last Sunday the owner was summoned to a hearing at the rabbinate offices in Kiryat Malachi.

Pe'er meats and poultry, located in Beer Tuvia, distributes daily to shopping centers, meat products produced at the factory. On Chol Hamoed Pesach the factory marketed meat products with a standard Rabbnut kashrus with stickers of Glatt lemehadrin.

"Apparently he missed one of the mehadrin meat components, so he put on the hechsher," said the rabbinate this week. But a customer, resident of Ashdod, noticed something wrong with the meat packing. "He called us during Pesach and asked why it was missing. We immediately realized there was a problem," said Harav Yosef Bloi who is in charge of the religious council.

After a brief examination, the problem was discovered and the factory owner was immediately asked to collect from all the stores all meat products he provided, and at the same time the local rabbinate informed all factories that there is a problem with the meat of the plant. "He did not know that we have a few signs to prevent kashrus fraud," said the rabbinate.

Last week the factory owner was summoned, along with kashrus mashgiach who did not discover the fraud, to a hearing at the rabbinate in Kiryat Malachi. "We wanted to deprive him of all manufacturing of Glatt," said Rabbi Bloy, "but we decided to demand of him to hire a new supervisor and the former supervisor - who was responsible for the two hechsherim – will now supervise only the normal kashrus."

Journalist Eli Jan from Southern News, who exposed the story, wrote that this is not the first time the Pe'er meat factory gets into trouble with the rabbinate. In the kashrus update released by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel on the 19th of March last year a message was circulated to all kashrus departments in Israel as follows: "Data provided by the import department indicate that the product of frozen cod without head and internal organs, imported by Pe'er meats and poultry in Beer Tuvia, did not receive its approval and the approval of the Beis Din Chug Chatam Sofer Petah Tikva and therefore one should not take it into supervised places."

The question that remains open is whether the current mishap will be the last at the Pe'er meat factory?

Pe'er meat and poultry factory said in response: "The meat was glatt and that's what turned out in the hearing. There was a mistake in fat of the cattle, which was under regular kashrus and not glatt. The shipment came back to us and we sold it as kosher. What happened a year does not relate to us but to a shipment from abroad which reached another factory. "

Meat factory. Photograph: Eli Jan, Southern News

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