Feast of information in kosher guide

DALIA SABLE

KOSHER consumers will be able to tuck into a whole feast of information when Kosher Australia releases its Food Guide 2010.

Featuring hundreds of new products, the booklet includes an extensive list of locally produced, kosher-certified and mehadrin -— the most stringent level of kosher supervision -— items.

For the first time, and in an attempt to make keeping kosher easier, the Melbourne-based kashrut authority has also created sections on setting up a kosher kitchen, separating challah when baking the loaves and how to make crockery kosher, including tips on tovelling (kashering) dishes in a specific mikvah.

The guide also includes advice on how to adequately check fruit, vegetables and eggs for blemishes or deficiencies that may render them treif.

A list of blessings appropriate for each food type and an updated travellers’ guide for the rest of Australia and for South-East Asia also features in the new booklet.

It contains details of shuls, Jewish schools, kosher food stores and eruv maps for Melbourne, Sydney and Perth, as well as some cities within Asia.

Taking a leaf out of the Toronto Jewish community’s kashrut guide, Kosher Australia general manager Yankel Wasjbort said the Mizrachi-run organisation hopes to add in a map featuring kosher shops in the future.

While there is currently an online option giving subscribers a limited product range and updates, Wajsbort confirmed that the authority was currently working on a method of creating an online version of the guide accessible from iPhones and other java-enabled mobile phones.

Despite the additional information, the new edition of the guide is only slightly thicker in pages. A national mail-out is planned for the coming weeks.

Enquiries: www.kosher.org.au.