do you trust your local kosher grocery?

yo'ma

Fri, Nov 21 2008, 6:04 am

If you see something new in your local kosher grocery store, do you check for a hechsher? I'm asking this because I just bought cream cheese from a kosher grocery store and didn't check the hechsher. It was from the states, so I didn't. When I came home and my husband saw it, he asked me if I checked for a hechsher. Since I didn't, I did then and there was one.

Ruchel

Fri, Nov 21 2008, 6:24 am

I don't have a local kosher grocery LOL

There is a small (for Imamother) kosher shelve at the mall, with I think only hechshered products. We don't really buy from there unless I'm looking for decent parve stuff or something very Jewish. I don't like their charcuterie and don't need CY products (very expensive and often yuck).

I trust the kosher list of products and ingredients for unhechshered products. If something is unhechshered, I will check it everywhere, even from a kosher shop.

NotInNJMommy

Fri, Nov 21 2008, 6:35 am

I check everything 100% that's new to me. If it's something I pick up often, I admit I get lax about actually looking for it, but really I should.

I've found products in "heimishe" stores, ie. stores one expects cholov yisrael, pas yisroel, etc. , that are not appropriate for most of the clientele lechatchila, so basically I can't take it for granted that everythign is ok.

My local "store" even moreso bc it caters to a non CY, non pas clientele so I know many products may not be for my family. Somehow even conservative hashgachahs have shown up.

Chocoholic

Fri, Nov 21 2008, 7:15 am

I live in a country with over 40 million inhabitants and just 5000 Jews (most non observant). There is, however, a national hechsher that you can find on an a-brand cheeses you can buy in most supermarkets, and also on some marmalades, mayonnaise, ketchup, sauces etc.... Then there are the RARE imported products from the states.......... And there is one supermarket chain that has high standard (shechted in our country) meat, if you ask for it (they have it bt generally don't show it). Besides that, we go by our kashrut list with approved products... there is a lady who runs her business selling cakes, bread, pastries etc that's where the baked stuff comes from. Of course we're chalav stam.

In the capital of our country there is actually a supermarket whose second floor is entirely kosher! I love that! When I want something specifically Jewish or just special (marshmallows, gelatin, specialties) we can order from there.

happyone

Fri, Nov 21 2008, 7:24 am

I live in NY where there are many groceries and loads of strictly kosher food available. However, I check each product before purchasing. there have been occasions where the most machmir store owner had an item with no hechsher whatsoever. It's not his problem, but your own.

Chocoholic

Fri, Nov 21 2008, 7:36 am

happyone wrote:

there have been occasions where the most machmir store owner had an item with no hechsher whatsoever.

A product doesn't need to have stamp to have a hashgacha, there are tons of foods produced under supervision yet don't bear a stamp, this is especially the case in Europe and Latin America.

On a funny note, they will sell imported products in Israel and they all come with stamps or stickers with hechsher, while they sell THE SAME THING without hechsher but under supervision in Europe... Wink

Chocoholic

Fri, Nov 21 2008, 7:39 am

Ruchel wrote:

The very same product hechshered and unhechshered have such a price difference... BH for the list.

Yes, with the hechsher it can be doubled or tripled! Without the hechsher you can also get great sales on it in big supermarket chains!

Ruchel

Fri, Nov 21 2008, 7:41 am

Chocoholic wrote:

Ruchel wrote:

The very same product hechshered and unhechshered have such a price difference... BH for the list.

Yes, with the hechsher it can be doubled or tripled! Without the hechsher you can also get great sales on it in big supermarket chains!

It makes me sick. And CY price out of town.... Mad

(bh it's not needed for us, but when it pops up at the mall, we may buy some to encourage).

Chocoholic

Fri, Nov 21 2008, 7:43 am

Ruchel wrote:

Chocoholic wrote:

Ruchel wrote:

The very same product hechshered and unhechshered have such a price difference... BH for the list.

Yes, with the hechsher it can be doubled or tripled! Without the hechsher you can also get great sales on it in big supermarket chains!

It makes me sick. And CY price out of town.... Mad

(bh it's not needed for us, but when it pops up at the mall, we may buy some to encourage).

Never mind the quality of CY. Generally pretty nasty stuff. The prices are crazy and it's generally not even fresh.

teachby

Fri, Nov 21 2008, 10:04 am

I always check every package, whether I'm shopping at the kosher store or the supermarket. One time at the kosher store, several years ago, I started to take a package of something I'd been buying for years, when I noticed that the hechsher was not printed on this particular package. I asked the owner of the store if there was a problem. He said he didn't know. I did not buy the product. The next week when I went back to the store, the owner called me aside and said, "Mrs. teachby, I want to thank you for calling attention to that product. I made some inquiries, and sure enough that particular flavor is a problem. I pulled all the boxes off the shelf." So, in a country where hechshers are ALWAYS there, ALWAYS check!!

Mimisinger

Fri, Nov 21 2008, 10:17 am

it's funny that most of the people posting on this thread are not in the states. I almost never check. But granted, I don't buy anything I don't recognize. The only time that I questioned things were at Pesach time and there were no Pesach hechshers and I was told it was ok - I think it was coffee or something.

I almost purchase from the 3 kosher supermarkets in my neighborhood - they're all under the vaad and so everything is checked. However, I've been to other "kosher" supermarkets that were not under the vaad (in both my town and when I lived in another city) and there were items not up to my standards. So I had to check there.

Fabulous

Fri, Nov 21 2008, 10:20 am

Anything that is a jewish brand I.e. mishpacha, gefen etc..., I obviously don't check. But for things that are not and I buy them often, every once in a while I'll take a peek. If I never bought it before, I try to make sure to look.

Also, by now I know the groceries that have the more lax hechsherim that I have to check more than other groceries.

Raisin

Fri, Nov 21 2008, 10:44 am

I remember when I was a kid going shopping for my mother, for baked beans. It was a store owned by a traditional Jew, located in a mostly chareidi area, so pretty much everything they sold was stuff we ate (non chalav yisrael just not available in this store) I picked up a can and was going to pay, when the store owner told me, no, you don't want that brand, take that one. He gave me a can with the hechsher instead. I guess the other one was kosher, just not with a hechsher.

I am very lucky in that the supermarket here which sells kosher food orders from a supplier who generally carries excellent hechsherim. Most cheese is chalav yisrael and so on. Of course I am an expert on which other things are kosher in the store or not. I do get nervous buying things without hechsherim...their status changes sometimes and you have to be on top of it to know.

(I was so excited last week, shopping in town, I walked into a random food shop and they had mike and ikes - with a hechsher!)

manhattanmom

Fri, Nov 21 2008, 10:50 am

Yes. I trust my dh's kosher grocery 100% Because it's his he just brings home whatever we need--and I usually don't even look--I often don't even know what's in my fridge an pantry!

yo'ma

Fri, Nov 21 2008, 10:53 am

Raisin wrote:

(I was so excited last week, shopping in town, I walked into a random food shop and they had mike and ikes - with a hechsher!)

We started getting them here, too. They're imported, so they're pretty expensive.