2023-06-18 08:00:27
BarcelonaLetting a rabbi inspect a company’s premises might seem like a bit of a strange practice, but it’s less so than it seems. It is one of the requirements to receive a kosher food producer certification, food that conforms to Jewish religious law, a distinction that many companies in the Catalan food industry ask for. It is carried out, above all, to open markets in countries with important Jewish communities, but also because in many foods it represents a seal of quality or of elaboration following a more natural process.
Despite its historical importance in Catalan culture, Judaism has a very minority presence in Catalonia, largely the result of persecution during the Middle Ages and, more recently, during the Franco regime. In all of Catalonia there are only four active synagogues, all in Barcelona, and in 2020 the percentage of the Jewish population did not reach 1% of the total, figures much lower than the 53% of Catholics, the 7% of Protestants or the 4 .3% of Muslims, according to data from Idescat, the statistical institute of the Generalitat, and the Center for Opinion Studies. In fact, there are only 20 to 25 million Jews worldwide, according to various studies.
Unlike halal food – that which is adapted to the laws of Islam –, which does have more demand in our home and which some public schools already offer in the canteen, the fact that the Jewish community is small means that it costs very often find food prepared according to their laws in Catalan supermarkets. However, the local food industry, which represents 19% of economic activity, is familiar with kosher food.
In Catalonia the Jewish population is 1% and kosher food is much less common than halal
The word kosher comes from Yiddish, the Germanic language traditionally spoken by the Jewish communities of central and eastern Europe, which at the same time has its roots in kashrutthat means correct o appropriate in hebrew The dietary laws of Judaism are not easy for Gentiles to understand. In addition, they prohibit the intake of ingredients very common in Catalan cuisine, such as pork or rabbit, because they only authorize the meat of quadrupedal, ruminant animals with split hooves, such as oxen, lambs and goats. They also require the complete separation of the meats that are allowed from dairy products, such as milk, butter and cheese.
The source of these rules is the so-called Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a set of sacred books that roughly coincide with the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. More specifically, much of the Jewish culinary laws are spread over two books, Leviticus and Deuteronomy, which are part of the group of five initial works called Torah by Jews, Pentateuch by Christians, and Taurat by Muslims.
There are several types of kosher certifications. The Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain is responsible for managing in the State the expedition of two of the most important, the Kosher Orthodox Union (OU) and the Kosher London Beth Din (KLBD). KLBD has its regular certificate, called Parev, but it has a special one for foods that meet the specific dietary rules for Passover, which are even stricter. This second badge requires a rabbi to directly audit all batches of products that will bear the seal, while in the first case an annual inspection of the manufacturer’s process, food and facilities is sufficient.
Jewish food is audited by a rabbi and those served for Passover follow stricter regulations
Precisely, the KLBD Parev is the certificate held by the Catalan company Conservas Dani. “A rabbi must come,” points out Mireia Casaus, export manager of the Maresmenca company, to explain how they certify that the ingredients and preparation standards of the Parev certificates are met. Those that the Maresmenca company obtains usually have a one-year expiration date, after which they must be renewed. Anela Fruits, a company based in Campllong (Gironès) that is dedicated to the production of desserts and fruit juices, also requested kosher certification. Following established protocol, a rabbi visited the premises to verify that scriptural processes were followed and that the ingredients were correct. “Since our products are fruit without additives, the process was very fast”, explains Esteve Bosch, export manager of the company
The fact that, like most religions, Judaism does not have a hierarchy with unique bodies that harmonize doctrine – something that, for example, Catholicism does have with the Holy See – means that these rules have different interpretations according to the various denominations of Judaism. More orthodox communities tend to apply them more strictly, while more secularized Jews follow them more loosely or may even go so far as to ignore them altogether, despite continuing to declare openly jewish
Adopting the kosher seal, then, has implications. “Predisposition is needed”, because it involves adapting to “quite strict” requirements, says Jürgen Wagner, export manager de Capçanes, a winery located in the municipality of Priorat from which it takes its name and which has been dedicated to making kosher wine since 1995. Precisely because of the diversity inherent in Judaism, most companies opt for stamps issued by Jewish entities of a more conservative nature, because they are more restrictive in interpretation: what an Orthodox considers kosher, a more liberal Jew will also be able to eat.
But the case of Capçanes is more complicated: kosher wine is more complicated to make than traditional wine, because it plays a central role in some of the meals of the main religious celebrations, such as Passover. Jewish law only allows consumption if it has been made exclusively by Jews, from harvest to final product. Thus, Wagner explains that all preparation must be done “under the supervision of a rabbi.” “We cannot touch or look at the wine,” he explains, referring to the role of the company’s non-Jewish workers. Thus, from a distance the rabbi receives instructions throughout the process: “We tell him what to do,” he comments.
Jewish law only allows wine to be consumed if it has been made exclusively by Jews, from harvest to final product
However, there are other factors related to Jewish law of a more general nature that also come into play. For example, to make kosher wine “fertilizers cannot be used” – they originate from animal excrement, considered impure – nor can “yeasts or bacteria” be added, explains Wagner. Also, the use of clarifying agents is not allowed, because they come from gelatin or fish tail, which cannot be mixed with wine.
All these requirements make kosher wine “automatically vegan” and “that’s trendy,” he adds. Therefore, kosher wine opens the doors to other customers who do not have to be Jewish, but who may be attracted to a more traditional production process, with natural elements and no added animal origin. “50% of this wine is taken by wine lovers” who are not practicing Jews, he says. In this sense, Casaus, from Conservas Dani, ensures that the kosher seals also give a distinction of “quality” to the product.
In Dani’s case, they have products that cannot be kosher. “We are known for the cans” of preserves, says Casaus, such as cockles, pickled mussels and many other products from the sea. But Jewish law forbids eating shellfish, which it equates to insects and worms. In fact, the only marine animals allowed are fish with fins and scales.
Conservas Dani, which makes kosher products, finds that Jews cannot eat cockles or mussels
However, a very large part of Conservas Dani’s business is in spices and seasonings, where they can get kosher recognition. “We decided to put it up without anyone asking us to,” explains Casaus, who believes it was a good decision because at a fair in New York they already got their first Israeli customer who chose them, among other reasons, because they offered kosher products. Instead, Anela Fruits opted for the kosher mark by order: “We export to Israel and they asked us for it,” says Bosch. “Israel is a market with a lot of potential,” he explains, so producing kosher food has allowed the company to “enter it more easily,” adds the export manager. “It’s the same with halal in Arab countries. Kosher is another stamp,” he says.
Israel is a limited but growing market. According to data from Acció, the competitiveness agency of the Generalitat, in 2022 Israel received only 0.7% of Catalan exports, a total of 699 million euros, but the figure represents an increase of 23% compared to in the previous year. In addition, it is not the only country where this badge is in demand. Conservas Dani uses it for export and always offers its buyers to include it on the product label: “A customer from Uruguay told us to put it in order to have more access to the Jewish community in his country,” he says Marriages about a recent case. Similarly, sales of the kosher wine from Celler de Capçanes are mainly concentrated in Israel and the USA, but also in Latin American countries with important Jewish communities, such as Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Mexico, as well as in some European states.
In the case of Capçanes, a contact in Paris gave them the idea of making kosher wine because soon after they detected that the Jewish communities of the State were “angry”, remembers Wagner, because they had to buy the wine suitable for his beliefs in France, when Spain is the European country with the most hectares of vines. “They are Jewish, but they are also Spanish,” he comments.
#Wine #peculiarities #Catalan #kosher #industry