Queens, NY – Pork Spare Ribs “Sh’Chita Beit Yosef,” Sold in Sunnyside

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    Photo By Oded Hirsch Queens, NY – A photographer earlier today found Kosher Pork being sold at a supermarket in Sunnyside, Queens.

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    Philip Gourevitch of The New Yorker reports that Israeli artist Oded Hirsch snapped some cellphone pictures of pork spare ribs, pork cutlets, center-cut pork chops, all labeled in Hebrew “Sh’Chita K’shera Beit Yosef,” on the shelves of Associated Supermarket at 4407 Greenpoint Avenue, in Sunnyside, Queens.

    Hirsch forward the pictures to Gourevitch who phoned Aris Duran, the supermarket manager, for an explanation.

    “What are you saying?” Duran asked. “Pork cannot be kosher.” So he e-mailed him the photo. He called him right back, and said he was going to pull all the meat off the shelves. “It was a mistake,” he said, and a few seconds later he called back and left a message to say, “Thanks for alerting me.”

    Gourevitch reports that he also called the Orthodox Union, whose voice-mail recording describes it as “the global leader in Kosher supervision and the world’s largest Jewish resource.” He pressed two for matters Kosher, and listened to another menu until he heard: “To report a product that may be mistakenly labelled, press four.” and was invited to leave a message for Howard Katzenstein, who called right back. He told him about the kosher pork for sale in Sunnyside. “If the price is right, I say go with it, right?” Katzenstein said, and giggled.

    Hirsch, meanwhile, went back to the supermarket with a proper camera. By the time he got there, he found the meat department almost entirely purged of pork. “A pack of six workers were scanning the fridge frantically,” Hirsch reported.

    Read more at New Yorker


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    75 Comments
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    GB_Jew
    GB_Jew
    12 years ago

    Clearly, this Mister Howard Katzenstein will go far – as far as possible from any job which involves השגחת כשרות or dealing with the Jewish public

    MosheM
    MosheM
    12 years ago

    What?! Seriously?!

    WIZENS
    WIZENS
    12 years ago

    to number 2, & i suppose if the false label would have been with an ashkinazi symbol your comment would have been the way round?

    Secular
    Secular
    12 years ago

    To #2 ,
    Most kosher meat in the US comes from few slaughterhouses different kosher organizations take turns using the same facilities and certify based on their organizations. The issue here seems to be the labeling and certification.

    paltibenlayish
    paltibenlayish
    12 years ago

    Why is the label in the hands of the supermarket staff in the first place?

    AND, how many non Kosher packages of meat and chicken have been mislabeled?

    12 years ago

    Someone is telling porkies here….Where was the Mashgiach? How come goyim had access to the kosher labels? Who normally puts the labels on the kosher meat? Who supervises that, does the supermarket label the kosher meat themselves??

    katzala
    katzala
    12 years ago

    im sure some ruv will make some connection its becouse our עבירות

    12 years ago

    A lakewood kashrus Organization had a meeting about the blown out of proprtion episode.
    Did any one see the tail or the nose? NO, so who says it’s pork? The label? can’t trust them. Ah! it’s the price 1.99   lb.
    So the decission is, maybe it’s veal not pork & the computer generated label prnited it by mistake.

    Glassman
    Glassman
    12 years ago

    As long as there was no actual hechsher on it, no hashgacha can be blamed.

    fat36
    fat36
    12 years ago

    so goyim are given kosher labels to put on with noone around?

    The_Truth
    Noble Member
    The_Truth
    12 years ago

    The bigger problem here is that these labels were obviously created by some goy not by the kosher hechsherim using the same plant, obviously done when there was no mashgiach around. But what if it were chicken or beef – would anyone have even noticed it? How do we know there isn’t trief chicken or beef with the same label in the stores right now???
    I guess very little has been learnt and implemented from the Monsey scandal in 2006.

    ikleinit
    ikleinit
    12 years ago

    Actually the gold standard for kashrus is not chasidish shtick , but yeckish accuracy KAJ

    12 years ago

    Everybody chill. There’s a logical explanation here. The associated food store on kungshighway in Brooklyn carries kosher meat. What happened was the a stack of labels probably got mixed up. If u read Hebrew it doesn’t say kosher just bait yosef. Anyone who’s dumb enough to think there’s bait yosef pork out there? I think not. But it did cause me to chuckle a bit.

    ikleinit
    ikleinit
    12 years ago

    Actually the gold standard for kashrus is not chasidish shtick , but yeckish accuracy KAJ

    Satmar
    Satmar
    12 years ago

    This Reminds me of the Finkel Shevach Meat Scandal in Monsey…
    VIN:
    http://www.vinnews.com/5298/2006/09/15/monsey-ny-butcher-sells-treifa-chicken/

    chesed72
    chesed72
    12 years ago

    I’m not from the city, & I know nothing about this supermarket, but this whole thing sounds add to me, if its a kosher supermarket what is this lable of pork doing in the system, if its a non kosher store, how come they sell kosher chicken that doesn’t come in with a double “chasimah”?? & what is this giggling about the situation?? can anyone please clarify??

    woofer
    woofer
    12 years ago

    Read the label. It says “Bais Yeesaif” not “Yosef” (two yuds not yud vav) Does the person who did this have a Hungarian accent?

    Also, this label was printed with the price.

    CountryYossi
    CountryYossi
    12 years ago

    Everey erliche yiddishe home would avoid buying Meat in a store that sells both..Most kehilles have their own butcher store and there is kosher ONLY supermarkets almost in every town in the tri-state area….Mistakes do happen but it can be avoided by patronizing your local butcher or super market…

    shredready
    shredready
    12 years ago

    maybe it was a mutant pig

    chewed its curd and had split hoofs

    i wonder if there would be a mutant pig like that would it be kosher

    Mikey
    Mikey
    12 years ago

    First off, there is no hechsher. All it says is shechitas bees Yosef. Perhaps the shechita was done bees Yosef – just on the wrong animal! All kidding aside. As commenters above mentioned, it says pork for crying out loud!
    Secondly, all of the various scandals perpetrated by yidden in regards to meat were done under chassidisha shechita, if my memory serves me right. So what gold standard exactly, may I ask? Pathetic! It is up to each consumer to be vigilant. We don’t have a free pass!

    Tzadik_Tomim
    Tzadik_Tomim
    12 years ago

    Thats why you ONLY buy from the Butcher you know and trust.
    Cereal and Meat hashgochos cant be combined, its totally different,
    the kashros on meat is more strict compared to other groceries products.
    as for the reason here.

    post4
    post4
    12 years ago

    That’s why most rabonim think that repackaging is not good.

    12 years ago

    I think we’re all missing the boat here. Luckily, whoever placed the labels there labeled the item accurately. Most people, frum or not frum, hopefully have the seichel to know that no hechsher, (sephardic, chassidishe, lubavitch, or litvish) is the righ. hechsher for pork. Who would have noticed if the pork would have been labeled as kosher lamb chops?

    lbpss
    lbpss
    12 years ago

    Does this have anything to do with beis yosef schita

    UseYourHead
    UseYourHead
    12 years ago

    The labels did not say the pork was Kosher, they just said that the pork was slaughtered in a kosher fashion. Of course, the best slaughtering in the world won’t make the pork kosher, but that’s besides the point.

    12 years ago

    confused: was the meat kosher and labeled PORK by mistake. or was it pork and the Hechsher mislabled as shechitas Bet Yosef?????

    12 years ago

    holy cow

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    12 years ago

    It is perfectly OK to purchase kosher meat for chulent in the same market that sells chazer fleish as long as it has good hashgacha and packaged and labled properly. Obviously, we don’t expect yidden to purchase the treifus but in many cities and towns, there isn’t enough business to sell only kosher goods.

    kollelfaker
    kollelfaker
    12 years ago

    firstly who buys meat at an associated supper market in a non jewish area. secondly #2 allie packing produces beit yossef meat that is used in most sephardic markets. its obvious you no nothing that you talk about

    amother
    amother
    12 years ago

    It says when moshiach comes pork will be kosher! moshiach came!!!

    Barryfrombrooklyn
    Barryfrombrooklyn
    12 years ago

    Which part of this story did the “OU RABBI” find to be funny that he was giggling?
    These “OU RABBIS” should stop thinking they’re so cute. Maybe it is time they went out there and looked for a real job.

    Anon Ibid Opcit
    Anon Ibid Opcit
    12 years ago

    I’m guessing they’ll sell Vedic beef and halal wine by next week

    12 years ago

    Any one who reads the label will note the following,

    It does not say “Kosher” on the label. The word kesheira is only found in the headline of the story. Nowhere does the label say kosher, nor does it say the name of any hashgocha.
    It does not say “bais”. The first letter is a chof.
    It does not say “Yosef”, there is no vov, rather two yuds.

    In all, it was so poorly written and there were so many misspellings, it could only have been printed by someone who is totally clueless and is prone to wild misspelling. (Shredready?)
    Besides, the picture allegedly came from some Israeli artist via his cell phone, anyone think of photoshop? Or some harebrained piece of art?

    12 years ago

    After that horrible story in Monsey, a point was made by many that it is safer to buy from a butcher, preferably one connected to a kehilla, than at a supermarket where anyone can print a label. this incident proves that once again. The Mexican packer doesn’t know the difference between a pork chop and a veal chop or even what “kosher” means.

    CampRunamok
    CampRunamok
    12 years ago

    “most erliche yidden that live outside communities that have a variety of kosher stores buy their Meat from a heimishe store and have it delivered to their home either by store delivery or overnite fedex”

    Uh, no they dont! With very few exceptions they do shop in the kosher sections of major “big box” stores. And the point about mashgichim is irrelevant as the products sold in such places are all factory sealed before shipping. Nobody in the store is repacking anything although some pretty silly in-store labeling mistakes do get made (and would be obvious to any intelligent shopper, kosher or not).

    BTW, according to an addendum on the original article posting at the New Yorker the store in question specializes in pork products and has never knowingly sold specifically “kosher”. The labeling machine was bought used and, apparently, the prior owners programmed the B”Y lettering. Chalk this up as one of the aforementioned silly mistakes.

    gavi1
    gavi1
    12 years ago

    From what I’ve been able to find out, this is a store that specializes in pork chops. It does not sell kosher meat and therefore presumably no Jew would have been shopping there for their meat in the first place. The previous owners of the machine were a kosher store, which i presume had a mashgiach, who programmed into the computerized wrapping/labeling machine a shechita beis yosef option. A worker at the second, treif, store, accidentally made use of the labeling option from the old store when printing out labels. This was not mislabeled treif beef, nor even mislabeled pork being sold in a store where a kosher consumer might be shopping. This store had no mashgiach who was being lax, and no kashrut agency is to blame. If these facts are true, than it would seem to me that this is far from the original Monsey meat scandal. In this particular case there seems to have been little, if any, chance of a Jew buying the meat, and therefore I do not think it is worth it to make a big deal over this error.
    tmts”a
    Gavi