New York – The Great Chocolate Tumult: Trader Joe’s Pareve Chips Switched To Dairy; OK Rabbi Speaks Out

    31

    New York  – The Jewish baking world is up in arms about one of their favorite pareve products – Trader Joe’s Chocolate Chips.  This chocolate chip is one of the few products that contain both cocoa butter as well as chocolate liquor.  Now, the chip will no longer be designated OK pareve – but will bear an OK Dairy label.

    Join our WhatsApp group

    Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email


    An email sent from Trader Joe’s corporate headquarters to the store managers read as follows:  “The nature of the product has not changed, what has changed is the cleaning process used for the equipment that bags the chips. The supplier, who manufactures both milk and semi-sweet chips exclusively for Trader Joe’s, has switched from a wet cleaning process to a dry cleaning process. While the causes for this change are unknown, it is warranting these necessary label changes, which include allergen warnings.”

    Rabbi Yair Hoffman spoke with Rabbi Don Yoel Levy head of OK Laboratories to clarify some of the issues involved in the switch.

    RYH:  Thank you for speaking with us.  Rabbi, are you aware of the magnitude of the nationwide outcry that the OK Dairy designation on Trader Joe’s chocolate chips has caused?

    RDYL: Yes. We are.  It is nationwide.  My daughter was in Boston and tried to buy some of the OK Pareve kind, only to find that all Trader Joe’s chocolate chips were sold out.  It is not only in the east and west coast.  It is throughout the country it seems.

    RYH: It seems that the nation will be deprived of high end pareve chocolate chips.  Can you elaborate a bit on how this situation developed?

    RDYL: Let me give you a bit of the history.  We at the OK are the pioneers of making pareve chocolate in America.  When I first started working in the kosher industry, people would make pareve and milchig chocolate on the same lines. Cleaning lines is a difficult thing when it comes to chocolate, as you cannot kasher with water.  It requires koshering with something else which has halachic problems as well.

    At any rate, we started off with a factory in Williamsburg and we succeeded in making two production lines – one for milk chocolate and one for pareve chocolate.  We carried this over elsewhere.  We are attuned to the need for separation.  It is much more difficult in a chocolate plant than elsewhere.  By chocolate this is not easy.

    RYH: What happened specifically here though?

    Over here at the Trader Joe’s chocolate bits – the lines are completely separate.  We did run into a problem here where we were having problems in the filling line – that’s where they pack the chips into the bags.

    We went down there a year ago with Rabbi Lazer Teitelbaum, our Rabbinic Coordinator, and we set up a certain system where they would monitor the packaging.  There is a hopper there which needs to be cleaned out each time there is a switch.

    RYH: Did they have specific days between runs – when they would switch off?

    RDYL:  Yes they do, but the filling line is used when needed.

    RYH: So why isn’t a system put in place to clean it out?

    RDYL: There was a system set to clean it out.  The company decided that they do not want to continue with the system in place cleaning it out because of the expense involved.  Whenever there is a situation where a factory also has dairy production there is a chance that powder in the air will go from one side of production to the other.  Things happen in plants.  They decided to just write that it may contain dairy.  Also, companies are very hesitant to write that it is dairy free because of possible law suits in case there is a mix-up.  It can even be a reason to close the company.

    RYH: So this was a decision of the company that produces the chocolate bits for Trader Joe’s?

    RDYL: Yes.  If they write on it may contain milk, they are better off.  They said we do not want to take responsibility any more.  This means now that not only will the chocolate be made on dairy equipment – there may even be dairy in the pareve chocolate.

    RYH: So, am I to understand that you had a good system in place and the company decided to change it?

    RDYL:  Yes.  We actually utilized a system that they had in place and determined that this was good enough for Kashrus production as well to keep it pareve.  We had other procedures too – and testing in the quality control lab.  It was working.

    RYH:  How often was or is this company visited by Mashgichim?

    RDYL:  This was a company with semi-monthly visits – that is every two weeks.  This is a company with a strict system in place that had very little day to day changes.

    RYH:  So until there is a change here, this may be a serious problem.  In OK laboratories do you have any other chocolate chip manufacturer that uses both the chocolate liquor and real cocoa butter?

    RDYL:  Yes, Blommers has chocolate chips with real cocoa butter.

    RYH: Can’t the company be convinced to switch back to the old system that was in place?

    RDYL:  They are afraid of allergens so they do not want to go there.  They would have to invest a certain amount of money to keep the bags completely allergen free.

    RYH:  Why can’t they just build another packing line?  If they do have separate production lines, can’t they rather simply build a second packaging line?

    RDYL:  The truth is that they could but that would involve a tremendous expense.  But who knows?  The amount of pressure on Trader Joe’s is so great because of this that they may well work out some sort of a deal where they would pay for another packing line.

    RYH:  Can you perhaps come up with an alternative system which is good for kashrus purposes but not allergens?

    RDYL:  Once they don’t care about the dairy, it would be very difficult.

    RYH:  How about with a camera system?  Do you use cameras at all in your factories? 

    RDYL:  Cameras are extremely boring to watch and are difficult to implement in the practical world of Kashrus. We do it in restaurants but only as a back up. We do it so can check on it later.  It would not be feasible to do it in a factory.

    RYH: Does your wife bake with Trader Joe’s chocolate chips?

    RDYL: She would have up until now without a problem.  But, where I live, it’s not available.  In Crown Heights they don’t sell it.

    RYH:  Were there times in past production where a mistake did happen?

    RDYL:  Yes, and in the past they would stop the line and redo it completely.  It did not happen often but every once in a while it did.  Under the new system they would not do that anymore.

    RYH: So who can resolve this crisis now?

    It’s in Trader Joe’s hands.  People at first blamed us.  But we wanted to have a supervision there with the highest integrity.  If they want to keep it pareve they would have to speak to their producer and work out arranging for a new packing line.  We would welcome it.

    RYH:  Is this OK Dairy designation L’Chumrah or M’Ikar Hadin? 

    RDYL:  This is a question for Poskim.  I would not use it for pareve under the current system.

    RYH:  But we could theoretically say that there is bitul B’shishim here or bitul Chad B’Trei for each package.  At this point the ingredients are still pareve, and it is not a davar sh’b’minyan so the laws of Bitul in Yore Deah 110 would still apply, would they not?

    RDYL:  The consumer would not know if they ever changed the ingredients either, it would be very dangerous and certainly l’halacha it must be labeled dairy by the kosher supervising agency. Also, once something is labeled “OK D” we can no longer guarantee that the dark chocolate is actually pareve. There could be an equipment change – meaning it could now be produced on dairy equipment. It is also possible that some ingredients might change to dairy. The OK would absolutely refuse to guarantee any pareve status.

    RYH:  Agreed on that.  I guess each person should ask their Posaik and would have to check regularly.  Just a quick side-question – does the OK use the same designations of RC (Rabbinic Coordinator) and RFR (Rabbinic Field Representative) that the OU does?

    RDYL:  Yes we do.  Our system is a bit different though.  In the OK, the RCs also go to the factories.

    RYH:  How big is the OK?

    RDYL:  We have 60 people in our office and over 350 people in the field.

    RYH:  Did the terms RFR and RC come from elsewhere or from the OU?

    RDYL: I think it did come from the OU..

    RYH: Who are the Poskim of the OK?  The one’s that Paskin the difficult halachic shailos?

    RDYL:  We have two.  Rabbi Menachem Meyer Weissmandl and Rabbi Asher Eckstein.

    RYH:  Is that the Rav Weissmandl that is expert in Shechita?

    RDYL:  Yes, it is.

    RYH:  Thank you so much for your time and insight.  Hatzlacha.

    RDYL:  Thank you as well.

    The interviewer can be reached at [email protected]


    Listen to the VINnews podcast on:

    iTunes | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Podbean | Amazon

    Follow VINnews for Breaking News Updates


    Connect with VINnews

    Join our WhatsApp group


    31 Comments
    Most Voted
    Newest Oldest
    Inline Feedbacks
    View all comments
    Rabbi Yair Hoffman
    Admin
    11 years ago

    Wow -who would have figured..

    Rabbi Yair Hoffman
    Admin
    11 years ago

    There is a petition online that has 5000 some odd signatures on it already..

    noturbizniss
    noturbizniss
    11 years ago

    On friday my wife called the Trader Joe’s in Scarsdale and the manager had one box left (50 packages) so she asked him to hold it for her. She got in an hour later and picked it up. During that hour the manager said 3 other people called to ask if they had left, and while she was paying a 4th asked about it.

    shmobagel
    shmobagel
    11 years ago

    A crisis of this magnitude calls for a Asifa in CitiField, who’s in?

    11 years ago

    Whats the big deal if you only eat your choclate chip cookies with milchig? With all the issues in the world today, to spend this much space on such a story is a bit of overkill, especially when there is still another supplier of parve chips. Perhaps we should worry about feeding the hungary rarther than obcessing about having a choclate chip cook to eat with chulent.

    Berel13
    Berel13
    11 years ago

    A real crisis – we need another asifa.

    MidwesternGuy
    MidwesternGuy
    11 years ago

    Too bad the Heimishe companies (yes, I know many of them just make “special runs” of regular products and slap a new label on them) can’t produce a product that matches Trader Joe’s quality.

    11 years ago

    Fortunately my wife stocked up before this became public. (No, she didn’t have inside information). But we’ll still have to ration them.

    flatbushmm
    flatbushmm
    11 years ago

    how sad..i hope we dont starve

    Mark Levin
    Mark Levin
    11 years ago

    Don’t rely on me for a psak but….

    CLEARLY these would be “DE” if anything. They are not manufactured on common equipment so at this point, at packaging, its all done at an ambient temperature.

    I will say other agencies are rethinking the Parve status of items whose labels contain a dairy allergen alert. Remember, in thos cases the items are 100% parve but the manufacturers have to put that CYA declaration in the event of (frivolous) lawsuits. The point of the agencies is, if you won’t stand behind the parve status, neither will we.

    lostinCA
    lostinCA
    11 years ago

    blommers is a high quality chocolate and are used by many exclusive chocolate bar companies.

    FinVeeNemtMenSeichel
    FinVeeNemtMenSeichel
    11 years ago

    very clever – chalav stam is “not kosher.” Like what you did there.

    alter
    alter
    11 years ago

    You can still get Gefen or Blooms or Oneg…..

    11 years ago

    I say we get the IAEA inspectors to come in, I am sure we can work with them and figure a way to stall the process and get delay after delay so we dont have to mark them as “dairy” for at least one, tow or even three years, this way we all have chance to buy some parve bags.

    DovidTheK
    DovidTheK
    11 years ago

    In the past almost all the supermarket brands were also pareve, but with the exception of Shop Rite all the supermarkets chocolate chips are now milchig. Also I like how they refer to chocolate bits and not chocolate chips. That is what we called them in BP when I was a kid. I never heard of chocolate chips only chocolate bits.

    WorldTraveler
    WorldTraveler
    11 years ago

    I have used Whole Food semi sweet chips and they were OK pareve (and smaller than TJs’ chips).

    SouthernBubbie
    SouthernBubbie
    11 years ago

    Good thing for Paskesz. They even sell that here.

    11 years ago

    Isn’t this just another example of the madness of the increasingly oppressive kosher industrial complex? The good, decent people at OK have effectively lost control of any ability to make a reasonable judgment call. Totally acceptable Pareve chocolate was made on mixed lines for decades. Yes, they risk criticism explaining that the legal protections a company is required to employ against allergy lawsuits, has nothing to do with Kashrut. — but the OK is more concerned now about protecting its ever more machmeer right flank, regardless of the community’s needs.

    11 years ago

    We use heimishe brands for Pesach, and there’s no comparison to TJ’s.

    CantFightStupid
    CantFightStupid
    11 years ago

    This is a tragedy. I heard that they will have grief counselors at the stores to help people get through this.
    I offer comfort in this time I sadness, hamokom yenachem es’chem b’soch shar avlei tzion v’yerushalayim.

    OPElly
    OPElly
    11 years ago

    “Crisis”? I hope R. Hoffman was smiling when he used that word. 🙂

    But regarding R. Levy’s assertion that the consumer would not know if the ingredients changed: wouldn’t the packaging change to reflect that? Does the halacha actually require, as he claims, a permanent OK-D because such a switch might happen in the future? Duncan Hines did exactly that a few years ago, and we managed.

    Finally, I suggest that the agencies supervising kashruth stick to that realm. Their function is to determine whether a product is permissible to eat. They don’t see their job as protecting those with peanut allergies; milk allergies are not a kashruth issue either. The packagers concern for allergens of which R. Levy speaks is amply addressed by the warnings that appear next to ingredient listings. (For the benefit of the allergic who have come to rely on the hechsher, the warning could be repeated next to it.) The existence of a class of consumers who can’t take advantage of bitul does not justify erecting a barrier to it for everyone else.