STAR-K KOSHER CERTIFICATION rtnhyktcs ,urafv sgu Kashrus KurrentsVOLUME 27 NO. 2 Winter 5767-2007 KosherKosher ChickensChickens PPieie in the SkSkyy RABBI TZVI ROSEN STAR-K KASHRUS ADMINISTRATOR fromfrom CoopCoop toto SoupSoup EDITOR, KASHRUS KURRENTS RABBI MOSHE HEINEMANN Much has changed in air travel over the past RABBIRABBINIC MOSHE ADMINISTRATOR HEINEMANN decade. With all of the security scrutinization that a RABBINIC ADMINISTRATOR passenger has to undergo before boarding a flight, flying will never be the same. Slowly but surely airline travel is getting back to its place of prominence before the disaster of 9/11. The FE Traveler cover story article, There is a strange but true phenomenon “The Five-Star Inflight Experience”, should come as no that has resulted in our society’s tech- surprise to the international traveler. It states, nologically motivated, highly competitive marketplace. If a manufacturer or producer “Food is an integral part of the overall inflight desires to remain viable and competitive, he experience. Inflight services play a very never loses sight of the fact that successful business important role in appeasing the discerning demands innovation, creativity and growth. Status business traveler and nothing takes the edge off quo in the manufacturer’s lexicon often means stagnation, a hectic day like a well prepared meal served on and no company wants to stagnate. In turn, the fine porcelain. In most airlines today, most First manufacturer on the move continues to innovate in and Business Class passengers enjoy inflight an environment that encourages survival of the fittest. a la carte meals where they can decide what This presents additional challenges for products they would like to eat. Inflight food and wine requiring kosher supervision from a kashrus agency. service is getting more delectable. Menus are These axioms are very keenly felt in the production of being designed and prepared with both eyes kosher poultry, where halachic ingenuity and technological advances firmly fixed on the customer’s tastes.” converge. The average kosher consumer rarely, if ever, has the opportunity to see a large or small slaughterhouse in action. Therefore, Kashrus Kurrents offers its readers an inside Although we are still living in an era of downsizing look at the policies and procedures of kosher shechita, ritual slaughter, in a modern and cutbacks, airlines continue to spend considerable kosher poultry production facility. dollars for food service expenditures. Why? Airlines are still a very competitive service industry. Although Kashrus considerations are taken into account, literally from coop to soup. A price, punctuality and performance are a traveler’s scientifically researched highly nutritional diet, high in protein and low in primary considerations, no food service or poor food carbohydrates, has been proven to produce quality kosher chickens. This regimen service is a big turn off to those expecting airline meals. provides healthier skin to the young chickens and more easily facilitates cold feather removal, a must in a kosher processing plant. The Rav Hamachshir visits Economy or Coach presents the traveler with a the hatchery to make sure that proper protocol for diet and inoculation are being more cost-effective alternative. While offering a better followed. Modern techniques for kosher chicken breeding address the problem of deal on inflight seating, amenities such as comfortable halachic inoculation against disease. To avoid the possibility of puncturing an seating, reading material and meals are usually organ or cranium membrane, the chicks are carefully vaccinated in the skin at the back of the neck. The chickens are raised until they are seven to eight weeks old, CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 too young to lay eggs, yet suitable for processing. As a rule, chicken breeding is an equal opportunity enterprise, with no discrimination made between male and female chickens. this issue Today, chickens are shipped to the processing plant in newly designed shipping Inside units instead of conventional crates. Each truck holds between 8,000 to 12,000 chickens Kosher Chickens . Page 1 that are shipped in metallic cages, with 600 birds per unit. These are open trailers that Pie in the Sky . Page 1 are subject to the elements. Temperature extremes are not healthy for cooped up chickens. Heat and steam are worse for their well being, some chickens even die in transport. It goes What You Don’t Know May Surprise You . Page 6 without saying that the shochtim, trained ritual slaughterers, make sure that only live chickens are shechted (slaughtered). New Under Star-K Certification . Page 7 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Star-K Shidduch Program Up”date” . Page 8 Now Available!. Page 8 Star-K Comes to China . Page 8 Leadership in Kashrus Education KosherKosher ChickensChickens fromfrom CoopCoop toto SoupSoup RABBI MOSHE HEINEMANN RABBINIC ADMINISTRATOR Another very important precaution drained and the chickens are ready to be up to 120,000 chickens per day. The answer mashgichim take is making sure the chicken processed. Processing kosher chickens is a is a specially designed moving soak tank, units are not dropped off the truck at the modern food science. In some plants, where 3,000 chickens are continuously unloading dock. This prevents nefulos, chickens are first soaked in ice water to delivered by conveyer from beginning to dropped chickens, that are disqualified from toughen the skin and give the chicken end. At the end of the soak cycle, the shechita. For that reason, these specially longer shelf life. Hot water is never used for chickens are hung and salted manually or formulated units are moved with a forklift processing before salting, as it would by automated salt machines, and conveyed and the birds are loaded onto a conveyor render the chickens treif. The chickens pass around the plant for one hour. After the belt leading into the processing plant. Once through a modernized plucking machine, required three hadochos, rinses, the the chickens are placed onto the conveyor, where the feathers are peeled off. After chickens are cooled in giant chillers to 34oF. they are pushed through a door leading to plucking, the head and feet are At this point, the chickens may be singed the shechita room. At one well known automatically removed. In the U.S., due to and sealed with plumbes, kosher wing clips, company, the chickens remain in their a great risk of infection, the feet of the and are ready for packing. metallic cages until the drop, where the cage chicken are not used. is gradually lowered onto the moving belt. What does the company do with the The cages are tilted on the moving belt until At this point, the chickens are inspected chickens that have been rendered non- they open and are emptied of the chickens, by mashgichim at different checkpoints kosher due to questionable status or which are subsequently shechted. while the chicken’s organs are being improper shechita? The non-kosher chickens eviscerated. The mashgichim inspect for are collected in gray totes and are placed off Measures are taken to compensate for the broken bones, holes, punctures and to the side. They are physically placed into a increased volume of production by adding bruises. They make sure that all the large cardboard crate called a combo, which shochtim to the shechita line. For a quality required organs of the chicken are present, holds up to 1,000 lbs. of product. When the shechita to be successful, it is imperative to there are no chicken pox on the intestines, combo is full, it is staged in the designated have a staff of shochtim and mashgichim who and there are no breaks or swelling that non-kosher area of the plant. The rabbi are true yirei shomayim (G-d fearing) and would render the chicken treif. Any issues each combo a specific number, as well experts in their field. The job of a shochet as tags, and enters the number onto a requires mastery of the craft, with logsheet. The workers sign the shipping attention to detail and a sharp mind. It logs at the end of the day when the also requires ensuring that the “maase combo leaves the plant. This is to make shechita” is executed “k’dos uchedin”, sure that the non-kosher product will according to the letter of the law. The not inadvertently be mixed with kosher shochet should also exhibit care and chickens. concern that everything goes smoothly and efficiently. There are various How are the kosher chickens recommended methods of holding the shipped? Kosher chickens are packaged chickens when they are slaughtered. in various forms, sizes and amounts – Reputable kosher shechitos frown upon a retail, wholesale, family packs, cut-ups moving line during the shechita. This (pieces) and cutlets. At the packaging tends to impede the shochet’s ability to point, a mashgiach checks for cut-ups shecht properly. Therefore, reliable and makes sure that all chickens are supervisory agencies will not permit it. packed properly and bear kosher plumbes on every piece. The boxes Large poultry processors have multiple chickens deemed questionable are taken off are triple taped for shipping. Of course, once shochtim on line at one time, with one roving the line and placed on hooks over to the the chickens reach the butcher shop, the Rav Bodek Sakinim, a rabbi to check the side. The Rav on-site paskens, rules, as to opened chickens are under the watch of each chalofim (knives). A pegima, nick in the whether these chickens are kosher or treif. store’s Rav Hamachshir. However, if an order knife, will disqualify the shechita. Therefore, Any treif chicken is marked with a black comes directly from the plant and is each knife must be constantly checked by the wing clip, while the kosher chickens are improperly sealed, or if any irregularity is Rav Bodek Sakinim, in addition to the shochet sent down the processing line to be found in the shipment, it should be returned himself, who must check his chalaf every few kashered, soaked and salted.