Kelloggs UK - “Vegetarian” is Not Necessarily Kosher or Halal October 10, 2008
Kelloggs UK has issued an apology to a Jewish man who ate a cereal bar that said “suitable for vegetarians” — when it actually contained pork gelatin.
From the Charedi Orthodox news wire VIN:
Oberon Gardner and his family bought the Rice Krispies Squares bars at a supermarket in Colchester, Essex. Labels on 5,000 multipacks carried the words “suitable for vegetarians”, even though the full ingredients list explained that around one per cent of the marshmallow bar contained pork gelatin.
It was only later that 21-year-old Mr Gardner inspected the individual wrapper more carefully. “After my sister ate one bar and I took a bite of mine, it occurred to me that I had never seen any marshmallow without some form of gelatine in,” he said. “I decided before I ate any more to see what was substituted in its place. I was absolutely disgusted to find that the ingredients list stated it had pork gelatin in it.
I felt so sick. I have been vegetarian all my life, so it was a real shock to the system.
Both the London and Manchester Rabbinical Courts were quick to note that all Kellogg’s cereal bars have been listed as not kosher, and at no point did Kelloggs UK misrepresent the cereal bars as kosher.
Still. This is just a mini-wake up call. The “suitable for vegetarians” logo may not mean anything, depending on the brand and the product. For kosher consumers, this shows the importance of the kosher certification seal (hechsher). For all consumers, this shows we have to check labels regardless of what is touted on the external packaging.
It would behoove all halal-observant Muslim customers — for whom “one percent pork gelatin” is far too much to be acceptable — who buy these products to check their labels and throw out any of these “suitable for vegetarians” Rice Krispies Squares multipacks. Perhaps a refund may be available.
Here’s to a year of increased consumer awareness.
It still makes me wonder why someone would think that Vegetarianism = Kosher. Even Vegan is not necessarily Kosher, there are to many variables to make such a blanket statement. From worrying about whether the dishes and utensils have been “toiveled”, whether any one ate anything on the production line, or simply that someone might have made a mistake regarding an ingredient, there are just too many possibilities for something to go wrong.
I know of one restaurant that was Kosher, that when a Mashgiach (kosher supervisor) found that some of workers were offering actual sacrifices to an idol (the employees were Hindus, and offered some of the food to one their deities), he had no choice but to withdraw their Kosher certification.
Kosher is about more than just ingredients.
I love my faith but sometimes people make it difficult, especially muslims. It’s like they automatically hate me for belonging to my Jewish faith. I remember one guy in particular Tarek Abdel Aleem used to say nasty things about all these religions during school when I was in California. He had a big chip on his shoulders and a big gap between his teeth. He probably fucked a camel after putting a burkah on it. It seemed like he thought the world was against him just because he was a muslim.