Bills Aim to Better Police Food Wrongly Called Kosher

Juda Glasner worked as a kind of culinary detective from the late 1950s until 1964.

The West Los Angeles Orthodox rabbi served as a state investigator seeking out bogus kosher food products. He helped enforce a state law that makes it a misdemeanor to falsely represent foods as kosher or prepared for sale according to Jewish law.

But in a belt-tightening move, in 1964 the Legislature abolished Glasner’s position in the state Department of Health Services, which was then called the Health Department. And ever since then, state officials concede, enforcement of the law on kosher foods has been in limbo.

At least two attempts to beef up the state’s enforcement efforts failed to pass the Legislature when rival Jewish groups wrangled over exactly what makes something kosher.

Identical Bills Introduced

Now, State Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-North Hollywood) and Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) have proposed identical bills aimed at defining enforcement of the law as a consumer issue, not a religious one. Rosenthal’s was introduced two weeks ago and Hayden submitted his measure last week.

The measures propose shifting responsibility for investigating sales of fraudulent kosher foods from the Department of Health Services to the state Department of Food and Agriculture.

The lawmakers also are requesting $75,000 for the department to hire two inspectors and a clerk to handle problems with the sale of kosher products.

In a recent letter to an Assembly budget subcommittee, Hayden said he wanted food and agriculture officials to take over enforcement “because the misrepresentation of kosher foods is a good-quality issue rather than a public-health concern.”

No Cases For Some Time

Stuart Richardson, chief of the food and drug branch of the Department of Health Services, confirmed that his unit has responsibility for kosher cases but has not handled any in some time. “There’s nothing we have done recently. . . . It’s really not a health issue, it’s a consumer-based issue,” he said.

Glasner said that since his job was abolished 20 years ago, the Legislature has shied away from the kosher issue, in part because it has not wanted to give the impression that the state was enforcing religious requirements.

He said that if there are conflicts within the Jewish community over what constitutes kosher food, Hayden and Rosenthal could face a bumpy legislative road.

Glasner, 67, a refugee from Romania and president of the United Orthodox Rabbinate of Los Angeles, has not taken a position on their proposals.

Religious Background

But he questioned whether inspectors could enforce the bill without having a religious background. “I don’t see how (the inspectors) could get by without knowing what constitutes kosher,” he said.

He said, for example, that when he had the job, much of his time was occupied by the question of whether hot water could be used in dressing poultry. The answer, Glasner said, is no. “You had to use a great deal of tact and diplomacy,” Glasner recalled. But, he said, “You had to be firm and not let anyone get away with a violation of the law.”

The hot-water question is an on-going issue. At least one Los Angeles processor of poultry that is sold as kosher uses hot water in processing the fowl.

This is tantamount to precooking the birds, which is forbidden by the dietary laws, according to those who interpret them strictly. Although the chickens in question are prepared under the supervision of a rabbi, they do not meet the standards of such strictly observant Jews as Rabbi Marvin J. Sugarman of Shaarey Zedek, an Orthodox congregation in North Hollywood.

Method Unacceptable

“It has been the prevailing opinion among the most respected Jewish authorities that it is not to be accepted or used,” Sugarman said of hot-water processing. He said cost is probably a major factor in the acceptance of chickens prepared that way. “The cost of chickens that are processed in that fashion is considerably less than that of chickens processed using the cold-water method,” he said.

Sugarman pointed out that to satisfy the dietary laws, a kosher butcher must do more than buy from a kosher slaughterhouse. Meats must be soaked, salted and washed in prescribed fashion before they can be sold as kosher.

Meats must also be trimmed in certain ways. In preparing a beef tongue, for example, certain arteries must be removed, the tip must be cut off and a small bone must be removed from the base of the tongue.

“All this has to be done by the butcher. Jewish women don’t do that anymore,” Sugarman said.

Currently, Sugarman said, those who wish to promote adherence to the dietary laws can do little but pass the word about butchers and restaurateurs who don’t. Personally, he said, he hesitates to recommend any so-called kosher establishment that lacks the endorsement of the Rabbinical Council of California.

State Regulation Useful

State regulation of kosher products would be useful, he said, if individuals with both integrity and sufficient knowledge of Jewish law were appointed.

“If there’s an energetic young rabbi who’s been involved in inspection, and if he was hired without having to fear being sued, and if he has the authority and backing of the state, I think it would clear up a lot of chaos in the kosher world.”

Not everyone is so confident, however. Given the lack of consensus as to what is kosher and what is not, one Valley rabbi, who asked not be identified, said: “If someone would give me a million dollars and the responsibility of being an inspector, I wouldn’t take it.”

The problem facing Los Angeles’ kosher community was underscored last summer when the state attorney general’s office began to crack down on the sale of allegedly bogus kosher meat.

The investigation led to court cases, which are still pending, against three butcher shops. But, Hayden pointed out, the investigation was possible only because the U.S. Department of Agriculture loaned an inspector to the state.

Federal Help Sought

Herschel Elkins, senior assistant state attorney general who headed the investigation, said he sought federal help after his office received complaints from consumers who said a number of kosher butchers “were selling non-kosher meat and that no one was doing anything about it.”

Elkins said the the source of the products, primarily meat, is the issue. Inspectors can trace whether meat has been slaughtered at a kosher slaughterhouse and then lodge a court complaint, Elkins said.

“It requires no religious expertise . . . but requires (an investigator) to find out who is doing the supplying,” Elkins said.

One of the groups pushing for the legislation is the Los Angeles-based California chapter of Agudath Israel, a coalition of Orthodox Jews.

Kosher Quality Assumed

“It’s just a question of getting butcher shops not to sell non-kosher meats when they advertise themselves as kosher,” said Rabbi Chaim Schnur, director of Agudath Israel of California.

“If they advertise themselves as kosher, then you have people assuming they will be getting kosher meat,” he said.

The kosher meat industry in California is monitored by a group of Orthodox rabbis. Religion, not health, is the reason many people follow kosher dietary laws. In fact, besides Jews, members of other religious groups also eat kosher products.

When a product is labeled kosher, it can be sold for as much as three times the price of a comparable non-kosher product, Elkins said. He said a number of other states have laws similar to the California proposals.

In New York, the state Department of Agriculture and Markets has a staff of 12 to enforce a 9-year-old state law against mislabeling kosher foods.

Howard Clark, a spokesman for the New York Agriculture Department, said the law is necessary to protect consumers. “Anyone can put a K (for kosher) on their bread or packing,” he said.