Aroma
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Two Tel Aviv branches of the Aroma café chain which had used kosher certifications provided by the Tzohar organization have transitioned to the state-sanctioned kashrut system of the Chief Rabbinate in Tel Aviv-Jaffa.

The religious council in Tel Aviv reports a wave of restaurants seeking to join the rabbinate’s kosher system. Some of these restaurants have not been kosher before, while used alternative certification providers, like Tzohar.

“We are pleased to see that the demand for kashrut in Tel Aviv is not a passing fad, but rather a clear trend in recent years, which enables the kosher public and restaurant enthusiasts to enjoy a wide variety of kosher restaurants and food houses," Religious Council Chairman Eldad Mizrahi said.

“This trend of business transition from Tzohar to the Kashrut of the rabbinate in Tel Aviv expresses and strengthens our trust in our kashrut certification system, both from the business owners and from the public and constitutes a direct continuation and a result of our prolonged activity. It is an increasing transparency in the work of supervision and fairness regarding business owners.”

Mizrahi notes a few names of the prestigious restaurants that operate in Tel Aviv and enjoy rabbinic ordinances, such as, the Georgian restaurant “Racha”, the vegan “Za’haim”, “Nomi” by Chef Yoram Nitzan, “Donya” by Chef Meir Adoni, “Malka” by Chef Eyal Shani, Alma Lounge”, “Bar Pavela” and more.

In a response to the report, Tzohar said that Aroma's two Tel Aviv locations which had ceased to use their certification services were rare exceptions, claiming that by and large, few restaurants were dropping Tzohar's kosher certification.

“The decision of the Aroma Tel Aviv Café to stop accepting our kosher supervision services is a prime example of the fact that since the establishment of the system, very few have decided to leave. The kashrut project succeeded in breaking the monopoly that had been practiced in the field of kashrut since the establishment of the state and the market opening to healthy competition that gives business owners the opportunity to choose.”

“We wish Aroma Tel Aviv success in the future and hope to see them return to being supervised under Tzohar Food Control together with other chain branches. We will continue to improve the service we offer to a hundred and twenty restaurants and hotels under our supervision, of which some ninety were not kosher at all before Tzohar entered the field of kashrut.”