I always find kashrut discussion interesting. I have a particular affinity for the topic.

Kikar brings us a clip from the recent shiur of Chief Rabbi Rav Yitzchak Yosef in which he says explicitly that the hechsher of the Eida Hachareidis is the lowest quality of all the hechshers regarding meat. He says there are many hechshers, ben porat yosef, but the hechsher of the Eida (on meat, not regarding chicken) is the lowest of them all.

Unfortunately he just says it is no good but does not explain why. I always like to hear why. People say things about all the hechshers - this hechshe risn't good, that hechsher isn't good, but rarely does anybody know what the problem is with any given hechsher. it is all word of mouth and rumors. By saying the Eida is no good for meat but not saying why, he is leaving his statement as basically a rumor and perhaps (i.e. meaning, someone would have room to suggest that it is) somewhat "politically" (the word often used regarding kashrut-disputes) based.

So, while the Chief Rabbi has gravitas when he says something, he also has the interests of at least two other hechshers in his mind - the Rabbanut and his family hechsher of Bet Yosef. An explanation would have been valuable, but he did not offer one.

Interestingly, when YWN posted about this they added something Rav Yosef never said - they put words in his mouth (instead of Eida meat), claiming he said Eida is the worst hechsher "for Sefardim". He never said that. Also, even if one might say that is what he meant because he was talking to a Sefardi crowd, he still needs to explain why Eida would be worse for sefardim than any other ashkenazi hechsher (such as Rubin or Landau or Kehillos or many others)...

So, is the Eida hechsher on meat not reliable? I know people who believe so, including followers of the Holminer Rebbe, and now Rav Yosef says so, but we do not know why.