Recently, there has been a rash of unauthorized baked goods for sale in Brooklyn stores. Without giving any names, we relate the stories exactly how they occurred, how they were corrected and why they will continue to occur.

One Shabbos morning, after davening, the gabbai came up to me and asked for help with a problem. It seems that after shopping for years in a local store, he discovered a kashrus problem.

This particular store is open seven days a week. The former owner was Jewish; now an Italian owns the store.

In the front of the store was a section for fresh bread and danishes. Each week, challah wrapped in plastic bags with the name of a respected kosher bakery were on sale. What the gabbai discovered was that the Italian was putting on the stickers from the bakery. Presumably, the store was buying bread and challah from the bakery and then packaging it themselves. The bakery had given them stickers for XYZ Kosher Bakery.

In addition, there was a large sign that the danishes were also from that bakery. But since they were sold loose--the buyer must pick them up with tongs, bag them and pay at the counter--my friend never bought them. The bread, however, he had always thought was different.

Shocked, my friend ran to the kosher bakery (which has three hashgachos) and confronted the owner. Yes, he sold them the bread and danishes. Yes, he gave them the stickers. They were good customers and trustworthy. No, he had no interest in stopping the repackaging.

I called the kashrus agencies. The first to return my call promised to act immediately, and did. The stickers were gone immediately from the packaging. The sign saying that the products are from the XYZ Kosher Bakery however, is still hanging.

 

Yes, they did correct the problem, but no, they did not inform the community that any labeling errors had occured.

Our second story concerns another mom-and-pop store located only a few blocks away from the first. The owner, an Arab married to a Jew, has a sign in his store window that his danishes all come from another Brooklyn kosher bakery. This sign even sports the kosher symbol of a well-respected kashrus agency.

Spotting this problem myself, I approached the owner of the kosher bakery. "Yes, I know about it; he is a very good customer. He asked me for a letter, so I gave it to him. Anyway, everyone can see that he's an Arab and the danishes are sold loose. No one frum should buy them."

The sign didn't go away. I called the kashrus agency. "Thank you very much, Rabbi. What is the address? I will take care of it right away."

He didn't. I called again. So far the sign with the kosher symbol is still in the window.

The final story scares me every time I recall it. In another state, I recently found that the supermarket bakery, which was certified kosher by the local vaad, had a bit of a problem. It seems that the kosher dairy and the kosher pareve stickers were left in the hands of the non-Jewish supermarket staff. They stickered at will what they thought was kosher pareve and kosher dairy. I discovered errors and the loose stickers. The rav hamachshir was shocked. I was shocked that he was shocked. Yes, they did correct the problem, but no, they did not inform the community that any labeling errors had occured.

All these incidents lead me to ask two basic questions.

1. How do kashrus agencies know where their kosher-certified products are ending up and whether their kosher symbol is being abused by the baker? It should be common practice by these certifying rabbis to check the bakeries customer base. In the first two cases mentioned it behooves the kashrus agency to check if there are not other stores with the same misuse of their kashrus symbols.

2. Is it right to leave it up to the baker to reclaim his signage? Shouldn't the kashrus agency visit the sites of abuse and check for themselves?

I suppose I still have a lot to learn.

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