In the Rabbanut's weekly newsletter yesterday they published information on 2 interesting changes in policy as part of their supervision. These two changes are not directly related to supervision of actual kashrut, but they are meant to make identification easier and to minimize chances for mistakes.

The first change in policy is regarding the gloves that kitchen help wears. Markets and kiosks might have a deli counter, a fish counter, a cheese counter and a salad counter. The workers at each counter will have to change gloves when moving between counters, and the gloves for each counter will be of a different color for easy identification. A dairy counter will have blue gloves, and a meaty counter will have white transparent gloves. This will make identification easier for both the consumer and also for the supervision.




The second change in policy is regarding the price markers at the cheese and deli counters. They use price markers with a small placard on a spear. The spear is stabbed into the block of cheese or the hunk of deli meat declaring the name and price of the item. Those spears will now be made of different colors for each of the different counters, with the dairy-cheese counter using blue spears and the meat counter using red spears. Again, this will make identification much easier all around. As well it will prevent the spears being used first in a block of cheese and then in a hunk of meat without first being washed off. 


I think it is a good and relatively simple policy change with clear benefits. Anythign that makes it easier for the consumer (and the mashgiach) to see what is what is good - and this does not even require any extra work on the part of the employees and shop-owner.