[4897] in Depressing_Thoughts
Re: Stupid capitalists
amgreene@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (amgreene@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Mon Jul 29 15:09:08 1996
In the case of supermarkets, since the kosher food is in a sealed
package with the service mark of a supervising rabbi printed on it,
you can assume that the food was prepared and packaged under
supervision (and that no one has stuck a syringe of lard into it).
At that point, it doesn't matter what touches the outside of the
package; the food inside is protected.
A factory that manufactures both kosher and non-kosher foods,
however, needs a rabbi on site to make sure that the machinery
used for the kosher food doesn't have any non-kosher food
coming near it.
So, in this case, the bakery is giving up their rabbinic supervision,
which means that there's no guarantee that they're not using non-kosher
ingredients. And that means that we have to assume that they might
do so, and can't trust their food.
And the cost of supervision depends on a lot of factors, including
what sort of food you're making and who's making it -- Shalom Hunan,
which is a meat restaurant owned and satffed by non-Jews, requires
"permanent supervision" -- ie, there's a rabbi there whenever they're
open, since there's so much room for error. A pareve (neither meat nor
dairy) bakery owned by observant Jews (who are assumed to know the
complicated rules very well) might be spot-checked once or twice
a week. Obviously, the first case will cost more than the second.
