Kohinoor Foods Limited

Over three thousand years ago, God commanded the Israelites to maintain a system of Dietary Laws designed to keep them nourished physically and blessed spiritually. Today many people of all faiths adhere to these Dietary Laws by eating only Kosher food which is believed to enhance health and spiritual well being. If you keep Kosher for its spiritual or material benefits we are pleased to present you new delights and experiences under the JK Kosher certification.

If you are Jewish and keep Kosher as a religious commitment, JK Kosher wants you to know that we are an association of observant orthodox Jews, founded and directed by Rabbi Joshua Kolet, a descendant of the ancient Jewish community of India and one of the first ordained Rabbis of India in modern times. Rabbi Kolet and his students have worked extensively with international Kosher Certification Organizations. In addition, Rabbi Kolet has an intimate knowledge of Indian languages, agriculture, foods and culture which makes his supervision detailed and decisive. Rabbi Nathan Glick, an acclaimed Talmudist and scholar, assists Rabbi Kolet in the theoretical and practical aspects of Jewish law. Our ideal is to chart a solid “middle of the road” course, without using questionable leniencies, but without forbidding food which is in fact permissible. We usually follow the practice prevalent in North America.

Many observant Jews today make a point of trusting only specific Kosher Certification Organizations with whom they are familiar or who practice a certain level of stringency. If you rely only on specific Kosher Certification Organizations, we at JK Kosher hope that you will read our “Supervisor’s Log” section. There you will find, for each company we supervise, a complete overview of the issues related to the Kashrut of that company and how these issues are dealt with. We encourage you to read this section and discuss it with your Rabbi. At JK Kosher we hope to earn your trust.

Supervision Log
Kohinoor Food Company

We are proud to present to you delights from Kohinoor foods. We believe that the vegetarian Indian variety that they offer must truly be made available to be relished by the Kosher consumer!

1) Ingredients:

Fro a Kosher perspective all ingredients have passed screening and examination. The company’s owners are strict vegetarians and avoid using additives, food colors or preservatives in their Kosher fare. Instead, products with a long shelf life are vacuum flash heated to preserve freshness.

A Special note about Paneer:

Paneer is an acid set, compressed cottage cheese somewhat resembling Tofu in its texture and ability to pick up flavors. It is edible without cooking. According to most authorities, it is not prohibited as “Non-Jewish Cheese” because it is not rennet based. In fact, it may also be acceptable to those who are otherwise careful to avoid “Non-Jewish Milk”.as according to the Talmud, milk from a non-Kosher animal cannot curdle, and would inhibit curdling when mixed with acceptable milk. It would be impossible for a mixture of Kosher and non-kosher milk to be used in cheese making, hence (some authorities rule) that milk meant for curdling was never included in the enactment against non-Jewish milk.

The Paneer used is from a dedicated plant that only manufactures Paneer from Kosher milk hence a question of Kosher utensils is irrelevant.

2) Non-Jewish Cooking (Bishul Akum)

There are numerous points to be considered.

a. The prohibition against non-Jewish cooking pertains to foods which may be served on a king’s table. Only food which is “Honorable” enough for an esteemed guest falls under the prohibition. It has been argued that pre-cooked and pre-packaged foods are simply not fresh, and not worthy of being offered at a state banquet. Canned foods have often been considered permissible for that reason alone, and one can extend the argument to Kohinoor foods as well. Whatever is not prepared fresh is not an “honorable food.” Nevertheless we are reluctant to rely on this leniency in the case of Kohinoor because their packaging process maintains a high level of product freshness over the course of several years, such that one might be hard pressed to find any difference between the freshly cooked and packaged varieties.

b. A more solid reason to be lenient is the opinion which holds that if the cooking is done in vessels which are of industrial proportions, such cooking was never included in the prohibition of Non-Jewish cooking. Indeed all the cooking in the Kohinoor plant involves utensils that could not even fit in an ordinary kitchen.

c. Furthermore, almost all the cooking is done in utensils heated by steam, not directly by fire. According to the Halacha, smoking is not considered “cooking” even though roasting is. Were the transfer of heat from the fire to the food by way of the smoke considered problematic, smoking would most likely have been considered a kind of roasting. It is sometimes countered that since the final product is obviously “cooked” that it doesn’t matter whether the heat comes from fire or steam. On the other hand, it might equally be argued that the transfer of heat through a secondary medium was simply never included in the original enactment. Nevertheless we are somewhat reluctant to rely only on the steam leniency.

d. We have found a way to insure that part of the cooking process is actually accomplished through a “Jewish Fire” in much the same way that Ashkenazi practice permits a non-Jew to do the cooking if a Jew has added some wood to the fire. Sefardim do not generally accept this solution, although they might accept the leniencies of paragraphs a,b and c when taken together.

e. Some amount of sauté is done by non-Jews directly over a fire, but only to ingredients which can be eaten raw.

f. We have refrained from placing our JK Kosher insignia on those products which are deep fried. The deep fry machine is turned on by non-Jews and is heated directly by electricity. However, if you are willing to accept the leniencies in paragraphs a and b (as many often have) there is nothing “un-Kosher” in them.

g. There is a flash heating process which is used in some products but after the product is packaged. However, this is only for the purposes of insuring the products shelf life. The food has been cooked completely before then.

3) Non-Jewish Bread (Pat Akum)

The general Halacha is that non-Jewish bread is permissible if it comes from a bakery (as apposed to a private individual) and one is certain that there is nothing un-kosher about it. Some are stringent and refrain from eating non-Jewish bread in places where Jewish bread is available, or during the High Holy Days.

The concept of bread includes cakes and pastries because they are baked. There is some disagreement about fried dough. If frying is viewed as a form of cooking, then fried dough (like donuts) would then be subject to the prohibition of “non-Jewish cooking” A common practice in North America is to view deep fried dough as a kind of bread, even though one would never make the blessing over bread upon it. This is because the word used for bread here (the Aramaic word Pat ) is more inclusive.

We have refrained from placing the JK Kosher insignia on deep fried dough products. The JK Kosher insignia will be placed upon those fried breads which are prepared on a flat griddle (which can reasonably be considered “baked”) However, if your usual practice is to eat such products, you may consume these as well, assuming you accept the leniencies stated in sec 2 para a, b and f

4) Insects

Kohinoor makes great efforts to insure that no insects find their way into the finished product. The reasons for this are self evident. Consumers do not like finding insects or parts of insects in their pre-cooked meals. A screening system keeps insects out of the plant. Produce is checked for infestation upon arrival, before entering the plant. Rice and legumes are checked carefully. Leafy greens are subjected to a strenuous washing process. Flour is carefully stored and sifted prior to use.

In general, insect concerns fall into two categories. The first involves obvious and visible hard bodied bugs and larvae. These are easily seen and washed out so they do not make it into the product. The second category involves those insects which go unrecognized because of their small size, which may make them indiscernible against the background of their habitat. The current consensus is to deal stringently with such insects, since they are visible in of themselves, even if for all intents and purposes they are indiscernible in their usual context.

Nevertheless, there are dissenting opinions about “near-visible insects” which claim that the Torah’s laws only apply to creatures which can be seen in context. More importantly, such tiny insects, in our estimation, do no remain intact through cooking and baking. Once they are rendered incomplete and indiscernible in the final mixture they are considered nullified.

The Halachic texts make use of numerous doubts and double doubts concerning insects in such situations, the most prevalent being: “Perhaps there is no bug here, and perhaps there is. Even if there is a bug here perhaps it has become indistinct and incomplete and is thus nullified.” In our estimation, the washing and checking procedures are at least sufficient to create a reasonable doubt (if not a near certainly) that there is no bug in any given package of product. Consequently, the second doubt that perhaps the bug has been nullified can come into play.

Insects in Dried Spices.

Dried spices are not considered problematic. Then when the bugs are dried they simply become traces of dust and empty shells, which are permissible.

BeTa'avon!