But What Could be Wrong with…
It is often puzzling why the reputable Kashrus agencies require supervision for products that appear to be “natural”. The following excerpt from the Wall Street Journal of September 14, 2017 makes it quite clear. This does not mean that every product on the market needs supervision. For example, laundry detergent does not need supervision. Some companies wish to supervise all of their products for marketing purposes. Some Kashrus agencies feel that there are advantages in supervising even products that are 100% innocuous. In reality though, as technology advances there are fewer and fewer products that are truly innocuous.
“Hart Perez, a 31-year-old video director, became curious about what was inside the product after he spent six months drinking only sparkling water, mostly LaCroix, and “wasn’t feeling as sharp as usual.”
He determined that the product contained “a natural flavor—and natural flavor can really mean anything.” Mr. Perez never figured out more. “I’ve had two this morning already,” he said on a recent weekday.
“Essence is something mysterious,” says Robin Scott, a 56-year-old rancher in Templeton, Calif., who has been drinking LaCroix for 30 years. When traveling, her first stop after the airport is often a supermarket—to stock up on seltzer. “I know what flavors I like but I have no idea what kinds of chemicals are in there and I don’t care. I know it tastes good.”
A laboratory of EAG Inc., a scientific-services company, said more than $100,000 of testing would be required to independently determine that LaCroix contains only natural essence oils.
Essence isn’t defined in U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations, an FDA spokeswoman said. Yet the FDA permits companies to use the word when describing “flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof,” according to food-labeling rules.”
I am including the following links to my Dropbox files from the CRC and Star-K that share the collective research which is the result of the collaboration of all the major agencies.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hm30681iqhydtyd/LiquorList-CRC-2017.pdf?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/07opayqhwidb49g/cRc_%20Soft%20Drinks%20-%202017.pdf?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/o9xc14eci463osz/BeverageList_May2017-SK.pdf?dl=0
כתיבה וחתימה טובה
May you, your family, loved ones, and all Klal Yisroel be written and inscribed for a good year.
