Oif Mehadrin chickens — oif is Yiddish for poultry,
mehadrin describes a stricter standard of inspection — are being distributed by
wholesalers Lewco Pak under the label of the London Board for Shechita.
Lewco Pak owner Stephen Grossman said on Tuesday:
“We’ve had several trial runs and now we are in full production. They should
start to filter into outlets over the next week or so. They should find their
place in the market at a very competitive price compared to the current
offerings of mehadrin chickens.”
The birds also carry the kosher seal of Rabbi Eliezer
Schneelbag of Edgware and Rabbi Binyomin Eckstein of the Belz community in
Stamford Hill.
Mehadrin chickens come under closer rabbinical
scrutiny than those under the ordinary kosher label and are therefore more
costly to produce. For example, the back of the bird will be fully split after
slaughter and the insides brushed before the application of koshering salt.
Until now, Kedassia, the kashrut arm of the Union
of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, has held a strong grip on the Charedi market
in the capital.
A source close to the Union said he would be
surprised if the new mehadrin birds “made a big impact in Stamford Hill”.
Coincidentally, the new LBS line arrived only days
after Kedassia experienced problems with poultry supplies ahead of the busy
pre-Pesach period.
Kedassia circulated notices apologising to
consumers after 80 per cent of the chickens killed under its auspices last
Thursday were deemed non-kosher by its supervisors.
An unusually high number of birds were found to
have torn sinews — an injury rendering them unfit according to kashrut
standards.
This was “despite the fact that the poultry was
purchased from farms with good quality chickens”, the notice stated.
A Kedassia spokesman claimed the problem had “eased
this week and we hope by the end of the week to have caught up. We hope to make
sure we have enough supplies for Yomtov.”
Although the
problem with the birds’ legs occurred from time to time, he said, he could not
recall it happening on such a scale before.
No comments:
Post a Comment