With Chanukah approaching, bakeries and shops are ramping up their preparations for sufganiya production.
The Rabbanut's instructions are for mashgichim to kasher any relevant equipment that will be used to ensure they are not fleishige or have any kashrut problems. As well, the fryers should be lit properly ensuring no bishul akum issues. As well, they should ensure halacha is separated properly and the flour is sifted properly.
I am not sure why these reminders need to be mentioned for mashgichim. This is exactly what their job is.
More interesting though is the following instructions:
any sufganiyot with dairy filling should have some of the filling cream also exposed on top of the donut, so that it will be easily identifiable as dairy. Dairy and pareve sufganiyot should be kept separate on the trays. The dough itself should not contain dairy ingredients. Sufganiyot sold as either dairy or pareve should be packaged properly in appropriately labeled bags and containers, stating their dairy or pareve status.
Interesting that the dough cannot contain dairy, and only the filling can. It is a qualification of the halacha of not baking dairy breads. They are saying that this does not apply just to breads, but to all doughs.
Another point, I, as a consumer, was not aware that donuts with dairy cream have cream on top, while donuts with pareve cream do not. I will look for it this year when I eventually go donut shopping, but I was not aware of it until now. I wonder how many consumers are aware of that and how many are not. It does not really change anything, but it makes me wonder how effective this rule is.
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I am understanding your English translation of the cream-on-the-top requirement, differently -
ReplyDeleteIF there is a dairy filling, it MUST be visible on the top so people will recognize it (as caramel for example). Jelly could also come out of the top but people would realize it's only jelly and not something dairy.
So the confusion could come in for some of the dairy-imitation fillings, I believe I've usually seen pareve custard even though the "look" and original recipe is dairy. At least in that case I wouldn't mistakenly take a donut that I'm sure has jelly - I would inquire if the custard is pareve or not (or look at the sign).
The dough cannot be dairy because, unlike Burekas, they don't make it in different shapes, so it would be impossible to distinguish. And that is a invitation for problems.
ReplyDeleteYou know what? If the mashgichim would actually do their jobs well, there would not be any restriction or rule on how a dairy/parve/fleishig must appear. Same for bourkas. Just make sure the shelves and products are labeled accordingly and let the consumer take some responsibility and be careful, as humans tend to do when something is important to them. Its paternalism at its best dictating how food must be structured and appear because some people may make a mistake. They're makpid on all the halachot of shabbat & kashrut, davening and other 613 mitzvot? They really should not have a problem differentiating between doughnuts no matter what shape they are. The State of Israel should not have rules how certain food should be shaped. It's comical and sad at the same time.
ReplyDeleteWhat "halacha of not baking dairy breads"?
ReplyDeleteIn American supermarkets you can buy any number of our dairy breads.
OU dairy breads (autocorrect, drat)
Deletenormally dairy breads would be baked into unique shapes so they are easily identifiable as being different than normal bread. It is a halacha
DeleteI do recall when the Kof-K stopped certifying a bread altogether because it was dairy and shaped like any other loaf. They candidly said it had nothing to do with any problem ingredients, but they don't certify dairy bread period. I'm surprised to hear that the OU certifies dairy bread.
ReplyDelete