Recently, considerable strife has been reported between the
country's Co-op food (Blue Square) marketing network and the
Yachdav fruit warehouses. The issue concerns suitable
kashrus arrangements for produce marketed by Yachdav
to the Co-op's hundred branches throughout the country. Last
week, Yachdav's representatives met with the Rabbinate and
the kashrus committees associated with the company's
central warehouse.
Yated Ne'eman has learned that Yachdav has not agreed
to accept the basic principle that the Rabbinate is to be the
sole source of kashrus instructions and
certification.
Yachdav continued to load their marketing trucks last week
with grapes which did not have a certificate from the
Rabbinate. The grapes came from the Jordan Valley, where the
incidence of orla is high. As a result, the Rabbinate
issued a letter saying that the company's kashrus
certificate is revoked immediately, and that its
mashgichim will no longer report to work in the
company's warehouses.
Following halachic guidelines, the Chief Rabbinate
continued to take ma'aser from the produce in the
warehouse last week to avoid the issur of
tevel. The Rabbinate felt that this measure was
necessary since the company has branches all over the
country, and the news of the revocation of the kashrus
certificate has yet to reach the public at large.
According to a senior source in the Rabbinate, last week,
many people stopped purchasing fruits and vegetables in the
branches of the Blue-Square food chain. But due to the
company's further lapse in kashrus observance, the
supervision has been completely removed. The Shefa Mehadrin
chain has promised the Department for Land Related Laws of
the Jerusalem Rabbinate that as long as the Yachdav company
does not accept kashrus guidelines, Shefa Mehadrin
will not buy its produce. The Jerusalem Rabbinate was pleased
with the measures taken by Shefa Mehadrin to strengthen the
kashrus system.
