Badatz KF London--Is It a Good Hechsher?

Hippi Dippi

Tue, Mar 22 2011, 12:57 pm

I noticed a couple of products at my local health food store that bear this hechsher. Is it reliable? English women out there, please speak up! And if it is reliable, how does it compare to OU, for example? I would greatly appreciate any feedback!

yOungM0mmy

Tue, Mar 22 2011, 1:59 pm

cc wrote:

It's a bit difficult to ask such a question on here. Imamother is made up of so many women, all on different levels in kashrus. Not everyone eats ou and some never heard of people who dont eat ou.

of course it's difficult cuz we're all on different levels. For the record, I only use Kedassia meat, only eat chalav yisrael, don't use OUD or OU meat, and I still think KF is a better hechsher, if that helps at all.

nylon

Tue, Mar 22 2011, 2:37 pm

I'll put it this way: I hold by a fairly typical MO level of kashrut, which is to say, I hold by most major hechsherim. I would have no problem eating KF and did so when I lived in the UK (I also hold by the LBD and didn't insist on Kedassia meat, if that helps you place me). I'd say KF is a little more stringent than the OU, and IME, is fairly well accepted in the UK though there are some people who don't accept it for meat. But that's a bit complicated and has to do with the general situation for meat in the UK.

I really couldn't compare it to Israel, but if I had to, I'd say above the level of regular rabbanut but not on chareidi Badatz level.

bubby

Wed, Mar 23 2011, 7:42 am

Hippi Dippi wrote:

Thank you so much everyone! The products were all pareve (organic corn flakes and whole wheat pasta, etc.)

Aah, you mean healthy stuff. In that case, I can't help you, I never touch healthy food. sigh. Wink

But youngmommy's analysis sounds good, although as everyone's nitty-gritties in Kashrus vary you may want to call them for more specifics. When I find something over here (NY) that has an unfamiliar UK hechscher I call the supervising agency, or phone-a-friend (DD) in UK.

amother

Apple

Tue, Jan 17 2023, 1:38 am

I'm from England and I disagree with some of these responses. KF is unlikely to be a better hechsure than the OU. The OU are the biggest hechsure have the most food scientists and are kashrus experts. Nearly every hechsure outside Israel will rely on the OU for some of the ingredients in the products they certify. So not eating OU but eating KF makes no sense. It's true that KF doesn't certify chalav stam products and I think they are makpid about Chodesh but the OU are fully transparent about their policies and what foods have chalav Stam. I eat any OU products and KF products that have a few ingredients. The candies that KF supervise with a lot of ingredients I personally wouldn't rely on them for. But, I would eat their meat. I don't believe they have the food science expertise to supervise these products. Anyway, what I do is irrelevant, I'm an annonomous women on an Internet site. If you want to know if KF is a decent hechsure you need to ask someone in the kashrus industry. If it's enough for you to know that people who wear black hats in England eat KF then the answer is a lot do and some don't. Have must of them looked into the hechsure, definitely not. Anyway, ask your LOR.

amother

Crystal

Tue, Jan 17 2023, 3:02 am

Good is a funny word for hechsherim. You have to know which hechsher matches your standards.

For example - We eat OU everything and chalav stam. We don't eat heter mechira. We also don't eat gummy candies with the KF because, having grown up in communities that only allow fish gelatin, we don't eat it.

Eating standards don't always match up with a certain style of dress. That's not a reliable indicator.

Definitely ask your local Orthodox rabbi to talk to you about your community standards.

amother

Magenta

Tue, Jan 17 2023, 4:18 am

amother Lily wrote:

So it would be acceptable for a curry paste product?

My husband went to a kollel where almost everyone was from England (in Yerushalayim) none of them ate KF and they said it's on par with triangle K. One of the Rosh Kollels was also from England and held this position.

juggling

Tue, Jan 17 2023, 4:54 am

amother Crystal wrote:

Good is a funny word for hechsherim. You have to know which hechsher matches your standards.

For example - We eat OU everything and chalav stam. We don't eat heter mechira. We also don't eat gummy candies with the KF because, having grown up in communities that don't allow fish gelatin, we don't eat it.

Eating standards don't always match up with a certain style of dress. That's not a reliable indicator.

Definitely ask your local Orthodox rabbi to talk to you about your community standards.

Interesting. I never heard of not allowing fish gelatin. What's the issue with fish gelatin? Aren't fish kosher?

jewwoman

Tue, Jan 17 2023, 4:57 am

I'm from the UK my husband worked in the kashrus field for years. He worked for KLBD but we also use KF a lot. Both great hechsherim but again hechsherim come with controversy so the best thing to do would be to ask your LOR.

amother

Daisy

Tue, Jan 17 2023, 5:23 am

We eat KF, including dairy restaurants with that hechsher, they have similar standards as KLBD , we don’t eat their meat. But as far as I know they use the shechita of London board of shechita which is the same as what KLBD uses.
I would compare it to rabbanut mehadrin in Israel, but slightly better since in the UK we don’t have the issues of shmitta and truma and maser for fresh produce which some ppl won’t rely on rabbanut mehadrin.

amother

Crystal

Tue, Jan 17 2023, 6:30 am

juggling wrote:

Interesting. I never heard of not allowing fish gelatin. What's the issue with fish gelatin? Aren't fish kosher?

Sorry, that should have said, ONLY fish gelatin. My bad. I will correct it in the post also. Some hechsherim allow bovine (cow) gelatin and call it pareve. There is room to be lenient, but it's not what we do. Thanks for the correction.

Ruchi

Tue, Jan 17 2023, 7:05 am

amother Daisy wrote:

It's not only about using the same Shechita. They are other things like salting with open backs, checking the feet etc

amother

Maple

Tue, Jan 17 2023, 8:38 am

Can you ask your own rav? We personally eat it for milky but what is "good" is different in other people's eyes and we don't even know what "good" means for you

Do you mean good that it's kosher and has a high level of checking and stringencies or good as in politics wise? Not sure how to express that properly but a lot of factors are based on politics so eg people will say .. is a great hechsher. Well actually maybe it just has a name and who says it really is?

And there is such a wide range of people on here that not sure how accurate your information will be