Kashrut supervisors
Kashrut supervisorsFlash 90

After about 300 restaurants and food businesses throughout the city of Petah Tikva completed arrangements for the transition to the new kashrut system, for the first time a list was officially published of businesses that completed the transition and now bear a kosher certificate from the Petah Tikva Rabbinate.

Today's list includes all types of food businesses from restaurants, pizzerias, and falafel stands to public catering companies catering to workers, supermarkets, and factories.

For the entire list in Hebrew click here.

The rabbinate and the religious council of Petach Tikva recently announced separation between overseers and businesses - supervisor and supervisee. The move was aimed at ending the problematic state of affairs in which the overseer received his salary from the business owner he was responsible for overseeing, constituting a conflict of interest that both violates kashrut according to halakha and is also legally invalid.

The new scheme also has significance for those who strictly adhere to Badatz certification, since the Badatzim employ a mashgiach (overseer) who is also employed by the rabbinate itself, so that wherever the new arrangement has not been implemented, there remains a conflict of interest problem in any case.

Kashrut supervisors who transitioned to the new system report that they already feel the change: "As a mashgiach, I often find myself in a situation where I have to fix a certain problem even when there's a lot of pressure in the kitchen," says Yosef, who serves as a supervisor in one of the city's largest businesses. "Knowing that I'm no longer subordinate to the owner and have full backing of the rabbinate allows me to operate with much greater tranquility on behalf of the rabbinate and the public, without ancillary considerations causing me to hesitate even for a moment from worrying only about kashrut." Israel, another overseer who moved to the new system also welcomed the change, which he said "removes us from the problematic burden of conflict of interest.

"We congratulate the many business owners who completed the process in order to improve the level and quality of supervision," he said. "We'd like to thank the general public for making sure to buy in places where the kashrut programs were arranged so they become partners in fixing and improving true and proper kashrut supervision."