The religious-owned "Almost for Free Warehouses" chain has bought up three unkosher "Tiv Taam" food stores - for the purpose of koshering them.

Brothers Ronnie and Adi Tzim, owners of the Kim'at Chinam ("Practically Free") chain, say they have no economic interest in buying the stores.  They explain that their only goal is to rid the country of the sale of pig meat and other unkosher items for which Tiv Taam is noted for selling. 

Sources in the chain say the brothers continue seeking out other unkosher stores that they can acquire and make kosher.

The newly-purchased stores are in Modiin, Nazareth Illit, and Haifa.  Koshering work on the Modiin store has already begun, carried out by kashrut inspectors of the Kashrut LeM'hadrin organization.  The work includes pouring scalding water on and/or blowtorching various surfaces and equipment that may have come in contact with the unkosher meat.

The stores in Haifa and Nazareth Illit will undergo the same process in the coming weeks.

Jewish law prohibits the eating of non-kosher foods, including most notably food of unkosher animals such as pigs, camels, rabbits, lobsters and bugs; animals that have not been killed in the prescribed manner; and products with milk/meat mixtures.