approved: yoshon1
BULLETIN FROM THE GUIDE TO CHODOSH
10 Mar 04
URGENT WARNING ON YOSHON FLOUR
Some brands of breads, chalehs, rolls that were Yoshon up to now, may
suddenly be Chodosh. Read on&
Yoshon bakeries, pizza shops and other producers of Yoshon baked products
use flour produced and stored from the end of last summer, before Chodosh
wheat became available. In the Metropolitan New York area, such flour is
produced by several major milling companies. These companies store the
milled flour at their factory site and then ship the flour bags to
several wholesale distributors who, in turn, ship the flour to the local
bakeries. Some batches of flour from one of these mills have been
found to be worm infested. As a result, some bakeries that do not have
other sources of Yoshon flour have stopped producing Yoshon baked
products until the end of the season, until pesach. We have not heard of
any worm problems with any other mills that produce Yoshon flour. Those
who do use the other flours will continue to produce Yoshon as
before.
The first major baker to announce the cessation of Yoshon production is
known under various names as Korn, Stern, Kohen and the 15th
Ave Food Corp. Until pesach, all breads, chalehs, rolls and similar items
under the Korn and the other labels will be Chodosh. However, the
following cakes will still remain Yoshon: marble, sponge, seven layer,
roll and decorated cakes. This also applies to the Lakewood Heimishe Bake
Shop that uses Korn products. In addition, as a result of this,
Gruenebaums Bakery that has outlets in Manhattan, Monsey, Teaneck and
elsewhere warned that they may run out of Yoshon within the next week or
so. If they do not secure other supplies of Yoshon flour, then signs will
be posted in all stores warning that some products are Chodosh.
Due to the urgency of this matter and the short time till pesach, we do
not have the time to check with each individual baker to see where their
supply of flour is from and whether they will stop using Yoshon flour due
to potential worm problems. Each consumer is urged to check with their
local baker on this matter to see if they can continue to produce Yoshon.
Bakers are urged to post prominent signs in the stores as a warning if
their products have become Chodosh.
It is important to emphasize that this potential worm problem was only
found in a few of batches of flour produced by one company. There is
no evidence that this is a problem with flour produced by other
companies. Your local baker may be using this flour under a private label
name. Therefore, local bakers should check with the flour distributor who
sells them the flour to see if their flour came from these possibly
contaminated batches. The distributors, in turn, are working with the
flour mills to insure that in the future they can produce flour that is
consistently free of such contamination problems.
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OTHER ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS TO THE GUIDE
Update on soy and teriyaki sauces. Soy and teriyaki sauces
often contain wheat flour which may be Chodosh. Such sauces are used
widely in Chinese-style cooking. However they are also used often in all
types of non-Chinese foods.
1. The potential Chodosh
problem is for the sauces that contain wheat flour. Not all soy and
teriyaki sauces contain wheat flour. Check the ingredients.
2. Even for these sauces that
do contain wheat flour, those that are imported and are fermented are
more than 6 months old. Therefore, they have no Chodosh
problems.
3. The following specific
brands are aged and are Yoshon. For Soy sauce: Kikkoman, Yamas, Wan Ja
Shan, Eden Soyu. For Teriyaki sauces the following are aged: Kikkoman,
Eden organic (but Eden domestic sauce that is not organic is NOT
aged.)
Em Zee Fruit Flicks contain wheat starch. They are made in China.
According to the company, they do not know if this wheat starch is Yoshon
or not.
Kemach Fruity Burst cereal contains wheat starch that is from winter
wheat only.
Mezonos Mavin. According to the mashgiach, all items are Yoshon, even
those that do not state Yoshonon the label.
The item on page 25 of the Guide that states that Landau whole wheat
pasta is Chodosh after Nov. 1 is not correct. The entry on page 23 that
this is Yoshon is current and correct.
General Mills cereals that contain oats, the Chodosh packing date has
changed from Oct 20 to Nov 11. All of the codes mentioned in the Guide
for General Mills cereals with oats should be adjusted accordingly.
Namely, for 248 days, the oats date is changed from Jun 24 04 to Jul 15
04. For 279 the Jul 25 04 date is changed to Aug 16 04. For 310 days, the
Aug 25 04 date is changed to Sept 15 04. For 372 days, the Oct 26 04 date
is changed to Nov 16 04.
Gefen Barley is Yoshon and is expected to remain Yoshon until
pesach.
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HOW TO ORDER THE GUIDE TO CHODOSH TO BE SENT TO YOU BY E MAIL
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