Is Quinoa kitniyos?

amother

Beige

Tue, Mar 24 2015, 1:30 pm

Title says it all. TIA Smile

Ema of 5

Tue, Mar 24 2015, 1:30 pm

amother wrote:

Title says it all. TIA Smile

Best to ask your rabbi. There are those that say yes and there are those that say no.

ra_mom

Tue, Mar 24 2015, 1:31 pm

Ask your lor.
We hold that it is not. Star k has held this way for years and the ou recently switched over to this veiw as well.

ROFL

Tue, Mar 24 2015, 1:32 pm

Ou and star k say it is ok for Ashkenazim

Sanguine

Tue, Mar 24 2015, 1:34 pm

Our rabbis have said it's not for a few years (though all hechshers in Israel says it is). The Rabbis here said no one will officially say it's not but it's not kitniyot.

Well this year it's finally changed. The O-U says it's OK for Ashkenazim!! I'll try to scan their article about it

water_bear88

Tue, Mar 24 2015, 1:43 pm

From what I understand, what made some kashrut organizations declare it kitniyot in the first place was the fact that it's often processed in the same factories as wheat (which is one of the original reasons for the minhag- the risk that someone might not check their peas or rice and fail to discover a grain of wheat or barley that had fallen in). It's not botanically similar to other kitniyot- it isn't a legume or a grain. So if it's processed and certified KLP, no reason for it to be assur.

imasinger

Tue, Mar 24 2015, 1:58 pm

Ancient Harvest is certified klp without additional hechsher by OU and star K. Other brands need a pesach hechsher to be used.

AFAIK, everybody says you can keep non klp quinoa over pesach.

AYLOR to be sure.

FranticFrummie

Tue, Mar 24 2015, 2:04 pm

Quinoa is a seed, a member of the rhubarb family, so not a grain.

The problem isn't with kitniyot, it's with mesorah. Just like when many Jews came to America, they didn't know if they could eat turkey, because they had no mesorah for the bird and didn't know if it was kosher or not.

DH says that if our ancestors knew about potato starch, they'd ossur that too, because it looks too much like flour.

So, depending on the mesorah of the group you identify with, ask your rabbi.

(Personally, quinoa saves my sanity on Pesach. I can't live on non gebrokts hand made matzah and boiled potatoes for 8 days. I need some healthy starch in my diet!)

Sanguine

Tue, Mar 24 2015, 2:08 pm

here's the article from the OU pesach guide (I'll try to scan it better tomorrow) (maybe I an do each page separate tomorrow)

amother

Beige

Tue, Mar 24 2015, 2:39 pm

OP here. Thanks everyone!

I imagine most rabbonim in my community will say it's not okay due to FF's DH's reasoning - not mesorah! Oh well, doesn't harm to ask.

Sanguine, when you have a chance to re-post that article I'd appreciate it as I can't see it.

seeker

Tue, Mar 24 2015, 5:25 pm

Amother, it could be the opposite - there is no mesorah for it being kitniyos so it is not kitniyos. Some hold that way. Ou official policy is that it isn't, they certify quinoa as ou-p without kitniyos specification

ra_mom

Tue, Mar 24 2015, 6:26 pm

seeker wrote:

This.

We were told by rav usher ekstein 7 years ago that it is not kitniyos as there is no mesorah of it being kitniyos. He gave us the ok to use it and we have been using it since.

greenfire

Tue, Mar 24 2015, 6:37 pm

a lot of people eat it - based on knowledge of it not being kitniyos ...

if you're worried enough you don't have to eat it ... same with all those processed foods - we don't have to eat them either not for the fortune not for the fact that they taste like cardboard Cheese

Sanguine

Wed, Mar 25 2015, 5:53 am

amother wrote:

Sanguine, when you have a chance to re-post that article I'd appreciate it as I can't see it.

Sorry, my scanner is on strike Sad

(don't know what happened)

Here's a link to OU about qinoa but it's not the full article https://www.ou.org/news/quinoa.....ver_/

try putting your mouse on my picture of the article and click. It will come out big (did for me) but I didn't scan the left so well so those words aren't there no matter how big

Sanguine

Wed, Mar 25 2015, 6:00 am

OOPs - Just realized. The one I scanned wasn't even the right article embarrassed

. That was Kitniyot in general embarrassed

Here's a qinoa article from the OU

QUINOA
OU Kosher Staff

Quinoa, the grain-like seed grown in South America, is Kosher for Passover when processed with special OU Passover supervision and bearing the OU-P symbol. Rabbi Genack, CEO of OU Kosher, has released the following statement:

“It is only recently that quinoa has become popular outside of its high-altitude growing area in the Andean mountain region of South America. Known for its nutritional qualities, it has been referred to as a “superfood.” In recognition of its unique properties and growing popularity with consumers, 2013 has been proclaimed by the UN “The International Year of Quinoa.”

Due to conflicting reports regarding growing conditions and final usage of this new world, gluten-free pseudo-cereal plant, OU Kosher was hesitant to conclusively declare it Kosher for Passover and non-kitniyot.

(Kitniyot is a category of foods that were forbidden by Ashkenazic custom during Passover because 1) they bear similarities to and might become confused with forbidden grains and 2) can become intermingled with those grains. Included in this group are: beans (all), buckwheat/kasha, caraway, cardamom, chickpeas, corn, fennel, fenugreek, grains-of-paradise, lentils, millet, mustard, peas, poppy seeds, rapeseed/canola, rice, sesame seeds, snow peas, sorghum, sugar-snap peas, soybeans, sunflower seeds and — according to some — include even cottonseed.)

Following extensive research and on-site investigation of cross-contamination issues by OU Kosher personnel at all quinoa growing areas including: Puno, Cuzco, Arequipa, Ayacucho, Junin and Chiclayo in Peru; and Alto la Paz and Chayapata in Bolivia; as well as the collection, washing and milling stations of quinoa, OU Kosher is pleased to announce that, for the first time, it is recommending quinoa for Passover, when processed with special OU Passover supervision and bearing the OU-P symbol.

In addition to quinoa, OU Kosher has concluded that related canihua, kiwicha and maca seeds processed under supervised conditions may also be approved for Passover (OU-P).”

Sanguine

Wed, Mar 25 2015, 6:04 am

This is the one I meant to scan

QUINOA FOR PASSOVER!
Michael Orbach

The status of quinoa, the grain-like crop, was the most-asked question for the last few years on the OU’s various kashrut forums across the web and in person. Following an intensive, multi-year investigation and an internal debate into quinoa’s status, the Orthodox Union has decided that it can certify quinoa for Passover. In addition, OU Kosher has concluded that related new world items canihua, kiwicha and maca, if processed under supervised conditions, may also be approved for Passover (OU-P).

“The decision was the culmination of painstaking research and the resulting evidence,” said Rabbi Nachum Rabinowitz, a senior rabbinical coordinator for the OU. “There were doubts, but we had seen enough growing fields and processing plants and had studied the traditional uses for quinoa, that there was enough information for a consensus.”

Quinoa’s Passover status is dependent on whether the popular health food is considered part of the category of foods known as kitniyot. Prohibited by custom for Ashkenaz families since the early Middle Ages, kitniyot is a group of foods that include legumes and grains like rice. There are two reasons given for this custom: kitniyot foods are able to be made into products that resemble chametz and will therefore lead people to mistake one for the other. Alternatively, kitniyot foods were grown in close proximity to grains and therefore might have been cross-contaminated with chametz.

The fact that quinoa wasn’t a known food when the prohibition was enacted, while an important factor, is by itself insufficient to exclude quinoa from kitniyot, explained Rabbi Rabinowitz. “The question is how do we treat a new world crop: do we just say whatever the rabbis forbade is forbidden but whatever is not forbidden is okay? Or do we say: if it looks like kitniyot, acts like kitniyot and grows like kitniyot, it fits into that category?”

The question was taken up by the poskim (halachic decisors) of the Orthodox Union’s kashrut division who reached a consensus that under appropriate conditions, the OU could certify quinoa for Passover, providing it has been processed with specific supervision for the holiday. An added factor in the decision was that quinoa was traditionally not used like grains in the preparation of bread and similar wheat-like applications. While the popular quinoa is finding all kinds of new-fangled uses, similar to potatoes and tapioca which are universally accepted as non-kitniyot, we are primarily concerned only with the traditional uses.

Much of the legwork was performed by Rabbi Shoshan Ghoori, a New York-based rabbinical field representative, who visited the quinoa fields in Bolivia and Peru. Through his work he discovered that due to their different harvesting times and remote locations in the Andes mountains, quinoa is grown and stored separately from other crops.

At the opening of a new plant, one company asked Rabbi Ghoori to bless the children of the farmers. While blessings are not part of Rabbi Ghoori’s kashrut inspection routine, he was happy to oblige.

naturalmom5

Wed, Mar 25 2015, 6:11 am

When the ou spoke in Lakewood last year they said
They realize that people can live without rice for a week but they can't live without sushi
So they are endorsing quinôa

DrMom

Wed, Mar 25 2015, 6:23 am

As far as I learned, no, quinoa is not kitniyot.
We had it at our seder last year.

b.r.a.c.h.a

Wed, Mar 25 2015, 6:35 am

Thank-you for posting that informative and easy to read article. I was also told to just quickly check the quinoa to make sure nothing else accidentally got mixed in.

etky

Wed, Mar 25 2015, 9:21 am

OK, so now the quinoa issue is solved. What about cumin? It's so annoying that we can't get cumin here in Israel that is KLP for non-kitniyot eaters too. Once upon a time it was available, but not for at least a dozen years or so. I use a ton of cumin in my cooking and I really miss it over Pesach.