Fresh Express allows Mashgichim in to check?

Mevater

Thu, Sep 11 2014, 3:52 pm

I bought a bag of Fresh Express with a "checked" sticker on it in Brooklyn.

Fresh Express seems to be a huge national company.

Do they allow Mashgichim in to check the produce, or are the Mashgichim depending on the fact the the grade and supervision of this produce and the packing is the highest?

Ive heard that the big well known highly regarded frum produce checking companies open ONE box of a huge shipment of a thousand, and if they dont find bugs, ALL the boxes get checked stickers. This is a special heter/halacha that applies only to businesses, because its not humanly possible to check every piece of lettuce.

I remember a famous Rov being quoted as saying this and recommending that people check their own lettuce and theyll save money and it will be better more reliable checking.

http://freshexpress.com/produc......aspx

ra_mom

Thu, Sep 11 2014, 6:08 pm

Mevater wrote:

The fresh express lettuce with stickers are packaged during a separate run that is supervised. The regular fresh express bags you find at a chain supermarket are not supervised.

Mevater

Thu, Sep 11 2014, 7:51 pm

sheifelah wrote:

I found a bug in a fresh express bag about two weeks ago. Sad

No surprise, "supervised" means they check one box of many, like the well known Rov said, is the Heter for those in the business!!!!!

Theyre not looking at every piece of lettuce, no way!!!!!!!!!!!!

The industry Heter is that they are supposed to inspect one case of many and if they dont find bugs, its all ok.

Id like someone to prove me wrong, with a quote from a Rov, that they check every bag or case, etc.! Not happening.

amother

Foxglove

Tue, Nov 28 2023, 6:33 am

Also I don't think that anyone is checking huge amounts of lettuce, I was wondering if they maybe run it through some sort of process like vingar or salt or gd knows what.

amother

Foxglove

Tue, Nov 28 2023, 9:58 am

I’m aware of that. Now on vacation in a supermarket I saw the bag, much cheaper than the ones where I live with a sticker. The company name was the same and I was checking imamother to see if this topic and question already came up. And it had. I didn’t actually see a clear answer in the thread and was looking for further clarification. But I’m glad you got to make fun of me. Hope it enhanced your day. I’m in a bad place and it hurt mine.

Genius

Tue, Nov 28 2023, 10:02 am

Maybe start with, I know this is an old thread, but would anyone have an idea whether…?
It will save your fragile mental health. Also it’s ok to make a mistake. Feel better.

amother

Foxglove

Tue, Nov 28 2023, 10:31 am

It’s okay to make a mistake. I happened not to have. And even if it’s old, how isn’t the question the same? If I’d start a new thread people would say this was discussed and point me to the old one?
Gee. Fragile mental health. I didn’t say that, I’m sad about something and having someone poke fun didn’t help my day. This site is just great.

amother

Ginger

Tue, Nov 28 2023, 10:41 am

I don't know about Fresh Express specifically, but a mashgiach for CRC spoke to us when we were in high school about the process of lettuce checking in companies. He said they check a sample of the batch, something like one bin out of the 300 bins that are being prepared, to prove that the washing is effective at removing bugs.

He said that he has his wife check even the bagged lettuce, and that if you find 3 bugs in a single bag you should call the hashgacha.

amother

Foxglove

Tue, Nov 28 2023, 7:43 pm

Thank you so much! So the answer sort of is that the stickered ones may be better because it was part of a batch that had some checked but it’s far from knowing for certain it’s clean.

But we’re also not saying that buying the one without the sticker is as okay as buying the one with it I guess?

Two relatives told me they buy the bag in supermarket cause it’s the same brand but significantly cheaper and then I saw it so was asking.

(I personally buy the checked large romaine pieces because many of the bagged ones have no crunch and also go bad really quickly once opened.)

ra_mom

Tue, Nov 28 2023, 7:46 pm

amother Foxglove wrote:

I'm sorry I made you feel bad. That was not my intention and I ask mechilah.

amother

Pewter

Tue, Nov 28 2023, 8:42 pm

amother Foxglove wrote:

So one of the general rules of this site is you don't bring up old threads by randomly typing in a new response. You only respond on an old thread if you're updating something on the thread. If you have a question like yours, then start a new thread.

The previous poster wasn't making fun of you. When we see a thread just randomly brought back up, generally the person isn't aware and this reminds them.

Hope you have a better day.