by Rabbi Don Yoel Levy

Eurokosher, the first ever large-scale kosher trade show in Europe, was a tremendous success. Held last May in Paris, the show attracted over 5,600 buyers, with 200 exhibitors from thirty-five countries. The OK was pleased to have a booth at Eurokosher, and I can report that the interest in kosher food in Europe is surging. In fact, the materials we brought to last for the two-day show were gone before the first day was over.

This development is noteworthy, for Europe has severely lagged other markets when it comes to kashrus. Indeed, the profile of kosher in Europe, both at the consumer and the manufacturing levels, was quite low.

The reason? Jewish demographics. Before World War II, the world’s main Ashkenazic Jewish community was located in Europe. The United States did have a substantial Jewish community, but as my father, of blessed memory, used to say, many Jews came to the U.S. to escape Yiddishkeit, not to build it. Judaism started to truly grow in the U.S. only after the war, with an influx of observant Jews.

Today in Europe there do remain a few centers of Yiddishkeit, the largest being in France. There are Orthodox communities in Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, and Sweden, and in other countries as well. But many of these communities pale in comparison with their size and prominence before the war. France is a prominent exception: its Jewish community of 700,000 is double the 350,000 who lived there before World War II. One reason for the sizable population there is the mass immigration from Algeria after that country gained independence in 1962. The Jewish population in the European countries does not approach the size of today’s American and Israeli communities, and the impact on kashrus has been profound.

The lack of demand has resulted in less products being available for the kosher market, and has affected kashrus on the producer side as well. There is not a great quantity or variety of kosher ingredients available for production in Europe. In the U.S., by contrast, we have a very large demand for kosher products. Therefore, when a producer here wants to manufacture kosher products, he can find a full array of kosher ingredients from which to choose.

The workings of a typical flavor house provide a perfect example. Such a manufacturer may utilize in excess of 4,000 ingredients. In the U.S., it will readily find the great majority of these ingredients with reliable kosher certification. Indeed, the flavor house generally will have a variety of choices within each ingredient. This is quite different from the situation in Europe, where the infrastructure of kosher ingredients is not yet well developed.

Another example is dairy derivatives. Kosher milk powder, whey, lactose, and butter oil are easily available in the U.S., while they are very difficult to obtain in Europe. The lack of dairy resources has a significant impact on the chocolate industry, which uses such ingredients extensively. And other industries are similarly affected. (When it comes to chalav Yisrael, the availability is even more limited.)

There has been some improvement in this area. For instance, the kosher oil/shortening/oleochemical industry has taken great steps forward. While fifteen years ago there were very few facilities with reliable kosher certification, today the OK certifies nine such plants in the Netherlands, Germany, and France, and the list is growing. The monitoring of these plants includes port facilities in the Netherlands, Germany, and Spain.

The availability of mashgichim to monitor plants in Europe is also an issue. Due to the small numbers of Jews in Europe, qualified mashgichim are harder to find. Nonetheless, the OK has over twenty mashgichim working for us in Europe. They are headed by European Representative Rabbi Shimon Lasker, who lives in Belgium but travels extensively. The lack of mashgichim and the distances they must travel increases the cost of kashrus in Europe to the companies, which is a factor in the decision to acquire certification.

Indicative of these supply issues, consumers in the U.S. are blessed with a wide variety of kosher products. The challenge is much greater in Europe, where consumers have until now relied on a rather primitive system. They have consulted “approved lists,” lists of products accepted as kosher, developed by rabbis who visit facilities not to grant supervision, but to determine on an unofficial basis which products meet kosher criteria.

images from Eurokosher, held last May in Paris.

This system was the only one available for a long time. It was by definition inexact. While a product might be kosher today — based on the assurance of the inspecting rabbi — there could be no guarantee that the situation would remain static. Perhaps a company was using kosher glycerin in a product, and the rabbi added the product to the approved list. What would stop the company from substituting non-kosher glycerin the next day? The company was under no obligation — whether by contract or any other form of agreement — to continue using only kosher ingredients. And even if the ingredients in the particular product stayed the same, perhaps the company would start using the same equipment to make non-kosher runs.

Moreover, under this system the visiting rabbi does not have any contractual agreement with the company requiring it to abide by kosher rules or to let the rabbi visit whenever he deems it necessary. The company is doing the rabbi a favor by letting him visit the plant.

The good news is that Europe is changing. Kosher-approved products are becoming much more available to the consumer public, which is beginning to wean itself from the approved lists method. The change is significant, reflecting the overall change in supervision that has occurred in the U.S.

At one time, when the plants certified were few, it was sufficient to visit a company, make a few handwritten notes, and then send a mashgiach to supervise. In order to monitor large companies in today’s mega-production climate, one must have a sophisticated infrastructure.

At the OK, we require detailed computerized information from each company we certify. The company submits to us all its ingredients and formulas/recipes for approval. Kashrus agencies in the U.S. have invested heavily in this area. The OK’s computer database, which is the talk of the industry, is equipped to record, monitor, and cross-reference all relevant kashrus information. Due to the vast amount of information we possess, we can bring along a laptop to a manufacturing facility and find needed ingredients on the spot. Of course a company can e-mail or fax our office to obtain assistance or can reference our website.

The OK has been pleased to assist European companies adjust to computer monitoring. Last May, I called upon Barry Callebaut, the OK-certified chocolate giant. Barry Callebaut, with the aid of the OK, has installed a sophisticated computer system for handling kosher production. I was very pleased to find the system functioning properly. With this system, once an ingredient is deemed not kosher, it is impossible for it to be put into a kosher-approved formula. Neither can it be placed on a kosher production line. The computer will not permit the run to proceed!

Moreover, if dairy is introduced into a product, the computer system will only permit the OK Dairy designation, and it will not allow the formula onto a pareve line.

It is this sort of sophistication, enabled by state-of-the-art technology, for which we strive. As we witnessed at Eurokosher, we are taking positive steps, and the kosher revolution in Europe is finally underway.