A century ago, the kosher food market was very different. Nearly all food was freshly made, “prepared from scratch.” Basic materials were purchased, and, with regard to meat and fish, the animals were bought and then brought to a local butcher for proper kosher slaughter, then prepared according to kosher laws at home. Now, processed/packaged products are plentiful and numerous. This created a multitude of complications for the kosher supervision agencies.
The KOF-K is known globally as one of the most trusted kosher certification agencies, certifying thousands of products annually—flavors, chemicals, ingredients and other food items. Field inspection teams are made up of more than 100 expert rabbis, all provided with printed lists of thousands of ingredients to be meticulously matched against each item in customers’ facilities and warehouses. The next step in this cumbrous process was to scan forms, manually input data and submit information via fax, email and telephone.
After four months of intense work, the Android and iOS-compatible app was created by using Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Apache Cordova. With these mobile devices, verifying ingredients is simplified and seamless with all information available in real time. Those four months that Michael Brukman, chief information officer at the KOF-K, and Lazar Weisz, chief technology officer, and their team had spent working on this new wonderfully designed app, is revolutionizing the way that the KOF-K can certify and supervise the myriads of ingredients and products now available through current food production.
“We are so excited to have created this new app,” says Michael Brukman, chief information officer at KOF-K. “It’s the best of both worlds: traditional meets digital.”
“With this amazing app, there is no more printing, faxing or scanning—greatly reducing the potential for errors,” explains Rabbi Ari Senter, kosher administrator. “Even the rabbis who have been doing this job for 30 years, writing everything on paper, quickly embraced the new technology because of its ease and efficiency.”
Kosher foods must meet the dietary requirements of Jewish law. A quality kosher-certifying organization, such as the KOF-K, is staffed by rabbis with years of education and experience in checking the source of all ingredients, equipment used to manufacture products and ensuring meat and dairy are never mixed.
The actuality of kosher is as follows:
Kosher is not a matter of a rabbi’s blessing over the food. It is about the strict dietary laws—permitted/prohibited food sources, preparation of meat, separation of meat and dairy, kosher ingredients and utensils/equipment, kosher certification.
This means that “kosher cooking” or foods from “kosher delis” are not necessarily kosher unless they have been prepared properly and approved by certification of an official kosher agency.
Kosher is also considered a diet for the Jewish spiritual health. A significant note about kosher-certified food is that there are a number of sectors—not specifically bound to kosher dietary laws—who are attracted to foods with ideal kosher supervision. Fitness and natural-food enthusiasts, vegetarians/vegans, Muslims, Seventh Day Adventists, and people allergic to dairy or gluten are all consistent consumers of kosher foods.
“There’s a lot more to kosher than bagels, lox and matzo ball soup,” half-joked Brukman.
The KOF-K maintains its position at the leading edge of contemporary kosher supervision, bringing higher standards, service and responsiveness to those who adhere closely to laws of kosher but are also working and living in the modern world. Keeping kosher is as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago. And with the new mobile app built through the use of Microsoft Visual Tools for Apache Cordova, the interface of kosher tastes more and more like progress.
