Jerusalem's Co-op chain of supermarkets has made all-out
efforts recently to provide the city's mitzvah-observant
residents with fruits and vegetables of the highest standard
of kashrus. The produce which it markets is under the
strict supervision of the Jerusalem Rabbinate's special
Department for Land Related Mitzvos, headed by HaRav Yosef
Efrati.
During recent months, this department has posted supervisors
in Tnuva's central warehouse in Givat Shaul, where the most
meticulous and stringent kashrus procedures have been
put into effect.
Directors of the Co-op and of the retail warehouse are
currently cooperating with department supervisors in order to
guarantee that procedures for the purchase and sale of the
fruits and vegetables are carried out in full. These
procedures begin with supervision over orla, and the
bringing in of fruits only from agricultural areas approved
by the department's agronomist, and end with the separation
of terumos and ma'asros lechumra of all fruits
and vegetables in the warehouse itself, including those which
arrive with certificates signed by packing houses.
The stringent supervision includes control over Shabbos
observance, so that no produce which is picked on Shabbos or
involving other types of Shabbos desecration is approved for
sale. In addition, strict enforcement methods are maintained.
The warehouse foremen of the Co-op's many branches are under
constant, close supervision, in order to ensure that all
produce entering the fruit and vegetable departments meets
the department's stringent requirements.
The improvements in the kashrus of the Co-op network
have been made possible by constant surveillance in the
retail warehouse, and by the Co-op directors' heightened
awareness of the importance of the value of kashrus..
Today, the Co-op of greater Jerusalem is the only supermarket
network to maintain kosher lemehadrin standards in
every one of its Jerusalem branches.
