Please note that the information below is current as of 2/14/05. Anything directly related to information dealing with Kehilah Kashrus has been checked for accuracy by Rabbi Kenneth Auman. Please read the entire piece carefully and please do not come to any conclusions that are not stated explicitly below.
The Situation Regarding Kosher Spot
Background
AgriProcessors
AgriProcessors, located in Postville, Iowa, is the largest producer of glatt kosher meat in the US. All of the glatt meat that it produces is under the supervision of the OU. It produces several brands of Glatt meat. These include Aaron's Rubashkin (also under KAJ), Supreme Kosher (also under Rav Weissmandel) Margareten (also under the Margareten Rebbe or Rav), and Shor Habor also (under the Crown Heights Beis Din).
Agri produces four 'types' of meat: Bais Yosef Glatt, ordinary glatt, ordinary kosher and treif. Only a certain percentage of the animals kosher slaughtered turn out to meet the standards of glatt. At AgriProcessors those animals that are found to be kosher, but not glatt kosher, are sold under the David's label and are under the supervision of Rabbi Asher Zeilingold of MN. Some animals do not qualify as kosher at all and are, of course, sold as treif.
Kehilah Kashrus
Kehilah Kashrus is a local, non-profit, Brooklyn, kosher supervising agency. It was formed in the 1990s with the goal of raising the standards of kosher supervision. Rabbi Kenneth Auman of the Young Israel of Flatbush is one of the founders and takes an active role in workings of Kehilah. Rabbi Auman told me that the organization has at times actually loses money.
Kehilah gives supervision to establishments owned by observant Jews. In general there is not a full time Mashgiach at the establishment, but regular announced and irregular unannounced visits are made by Kehilah mashgichim. There are some establishment, such as busy restaurants, where Kehilah does have a mashgiach temidi. However, in many establishments it felt that this is not necessary, since the owner is a Shomer Torah and Mitzvos.
Distribution of Kosher Meat
AgriProcessors meat is distributed to retail stores in two ways. Large retailers will purchase directly from AgriProcessors. Smaller retailers in general find it advantageous to buy meat produced at the Agri plant from a distributor. Some of these distributors carry glatt kosher, non-glatt kosher and treif meat.
Kosher Spot
Kosher Spot, located on Avenue J in Brooklyn, opened a few years ago primarily as a take-out and catering establishment. It was under the supervision of Kehilah Kashrus. Its owner and his father had at one time run the Meal Mart store that was on Avenue J. Subsequently they ran the Kosher Plaza Supermarket take-out that was located on Coney Island Avenue between H and I. Both of these establishments no longer exist. When Chaimowitz on Avenue J went out of business a number of months ago, Kosher Spot began to sell fresh meat to the public.
Shortly after seeing an announcement that Kosher Spot was now selling fresh meat, I called the proprietor and asked him whose meat he was using. He told me that he was using Rubashkin meat (from AgriProcessors). I then asked him why he didn't sell meat from Alle Packing. (Alle Packing meat is also known as Satmar meat, Weinstock meat and Nirbater meat.) I pointed out that there were very few places in Flatbush that sold Satmar meat and suggested that he offer an alternative to those who preferred to use Satmar meat instead of Rubashkin meat. He told me that Satmar meat was much more expensive than Rubashkin meat and that is why he was selling Rubashkin meat.
A few months ago I saw meat with labels indicating that it came from Kosher Spot for sale in Paperific located on Coney Island Avenue between K and L. This meat was also sold in the Paperific store in Boro Park, Friedman's Grocery in Boro Park (13th Ave and 40th) and in at least one store in Crown Heights known as the Shuk.
A Kashrus Violation is Detected
Kosher Spot did not get the majority of its meat directly from AgriProcessors. Instead, it dealt with a distributor that carries glatt and non-glatt kosher meats as well as treif meat. The cases of glatt meat and non-glatt meat from AgriProcessors carry different codes on them, so that anyone who is familiar with the system can tell immediately if a case of meat is glatt kosher or non-glatt kosher.
About two weeks ago someone was in Kosher Spot and saw a case of meat from AgriProcessors with a non-glatt (but kosher) code on it. Kehilah Kashrus was notified of this and had someone from the organization at Kosher Spot within 20 minutes of being notified. However, when this person got there, he could find no evidence of non-glatt meat. When the proprietor was asked about this, he denied that there had ever been any non-glatt kosher meat in his store.
Kehilah was still suspicious and therefore on Feb.1 put a mashgiach temidi in the store. They also began checking into the meat that Kosher Spot had been ordering from its distributor. After much checking and considerable questioning of the proprietor, it was determined that Kosher Spot had indeed been selling non-glatt kosher meat as glatt kosher meat. The proprietor then admitted that he had sold ordinary kosher meat as glatt kosher. This led to Kehilah removing its supervision from Kosher Spot last week. The store is now closed.
In ads that appeared in this past week×?Â?Â?s Jewish Press, Hamodia, and Yated, Kehilah notified the public that any meat labeled as coming from Kosher Spot that was packed before 2/1/05 was not to be used. Paperific has and will continue to give anyone who bought the meat in question from its stores a full refund if the customer brings it back. I believe that Friedman×?Â?Â?s is doing the same thing.
According to Rabbi Auman it is known for sure that Kosher Spot sold non-glatt, but nonetheless kosher, flankin from AgriProcessors labeled as glatt kosher. This may well have been the situation with other cuts of meat also.
What Should One Do?
Rabbi Auman told me that entire situation was presented to Rav Dovid Feinstein, and he paskened that someone who cooked meat that came from Kosher Spot before February 1 need not kasher their pots. I was told that Rav Dovid Cohen said the same thing in his Shabbos Drasha yesterday (2/12). However, I have been told that Rabbi Hillel David told at least one person that if it were his pots, he would kasher them. I have heard contradictory statements made in the name of Rav Yisroel Reisman. According to some he said one should kasher one×?Â?Â?s pots. According to others, he said that there was no need to do this.
In any event, all agree that one should not use any meat from Kosher Spot that was packaged before 2/1/05.
The following is from an email received today 2/14/05 from Kosher World Today.
http://www.koshertodaymagazine.com/index.asp
Rabbis, Agencies in Urgent Effort to Protect Consumers from Kosher Meat Fraud
(Brooklyn, NY) Community rabbis and certification agencies are planning to meet soon to adopt measures to protect consumers from the type of fraud in glatt kosher meats that rocked the kosher community last week. A major Flatbush retailer was forced to close after it was discovered that "kosher" flanken was repackaged and mislabeled as "glatt kosher." Sources say that glatt kosher flanken were in extremely short supply of late. In ads and flyers distributed throughout the Brooklyn communities of Crown Heights, Boro Park, and Flatbush, the Kehilah Kashrus agency of Flatbush, advised consumers of a "recall" of kosher meats purchased at the kosher takeout store prior to February 1 st. Sources told Kosher Today that the mislabeled meats were also distributed by the Flatbush retailer to at least three other stores in the heavily populated Orthodox Jewish communities of Brooklyn. The meat was traced to AgriProcessors of Postville, Iowa who sold the meat to a New York distributor who in turn sold the "kosher" (non-glatt kosher) meat to the Brooklyn store. There is a market, albeit shrinking, for the "kosher" meat, which is substantially less costly than the glatt variety. Animals that are examined after slaughter and are found to have adhesions on the lungs are sold as kosher and not glatt kosher (smooth - no adhesions). Amongst the recommendations that the rabbis are considering are tighter controls on the "middlemen" and requiring retailers that repackage kosher products to retain full time kosher supervisors. Although urged not to use the meats, glatt kosher consumers were also told by most rabbis (with some notable exceptions) that they would not have to kosher pots, dishes, and flatware because the mislabeled products were kosher in any event.
