LUBICOM CEO Menachem Lubinsky is the founder and co-producer of Kosherfest, the annual trade event for the kosher food & beverage industry and is the editor-in-chief of KosherToday.

Eye on Kosher shares Lubinsky’s personal reflections on kosher-related topics and is released on alternating weeks with My Sixth Sense, which can be found at http://www.koshertoday.com

A Central Clearing House for Kashrus?

May 11, 2009

A small kosher food manufacturer who I often do marketing consulting for was thinking of switching to another kosher certification agency. It seems that he had met with a rabbi of a competing agency who offered to certify the company at less than half of the cost. He calculated the cost of printing new labels but was afraid to go forward because of possible rumors that he was no longer kosher, even if it was for a short time.

The manufacturer was afraid that as soon as he severed his ties with the existing agency, they would post a notice in Jewish newspapers that they no longer certified the company. Although the new certifier promised to simultaneously post a notice that they were now assuming the certification, he still feared that there would be rumors that he was terminated for kashrus reasons, which was, of course, not true.

He is right to be concerned. In a world of bloggers, he risked having word get out that there was a problem with his kashrus. While in time, the bloggers might put together the correct story, there may be several days or even weeks when his reputation might be sullied. “It’s a mess,” he told me. “I’m in a sense being held captive by my current agency.”

In the past year, there were several examples of such unfortunate incidents: Companies that were rumored to have “lost” their kashrus when in reality they simply switched to a new certification. One New York restaurant said that it had lost nearly $8,000 in business until the truth “came out.”

So what’s the answer? The kosher manufacturer suggested creating a “kosher clearing house” which would be informed of kashrus changes and would be the only source of news of changes in the kashrus status of a company. In the meantime, he is staying put with his current agency.