Kosher brands

A Kosher authorisation may be a printed and signed certificate displayed at a commercial venue or on a media advertisement advising the consumer that the subjected product is Kosher. Such certificates usually display the name of the rabbinical court issuing the hechsher, the name of the business or product, date of issue, expiry date and stamp of rabbi who issued the certificate.

It may also be a certification marking on individual retail packaging of items which have been certified as Kosher. This marking is usually a basic stamp or emblem indicating the issuing rabbinical court. Modern hechsherim display sophisticated holograms and seals which are hard to forge.

The dietary laws of kashrut specify food items that may be eaten and others that are prohibited as set out in the commandments of the Torah.

Observant Jews will generally only eat permitted foods. To assist Jewish consumers, rabbinic authorities produce and regulate their own Kosher methods. It is usually Orthodox rabbis who assume the jobs of mashgichim (“supervisors”). This means that they will “supervise” the products and processes that manufacture kosher food or beverage to ensure compliance with the required standards. The “supervisor” will allow the manufacturer to apply a KOSHER to the packaging of the product only if found to contain only kosher ingredients and produced in accordance with halakha.

The rabbi may also apply additional words or letters after the hechsher to denote whether the product contains meat (often denoted “Meat”), dairy (D or Dairy), neither meat nor dairy (Pareve), whether the product is Kosher for Passover.