Fancy Food Show Report 2022 - Kosher Certification

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​The Fancy Food Show is back! This annual trade show put on by the Specialty Food Association resumed in June after a two-year Covid hiatus. This is the second in a series of stories about the show. This one focuses on kosher certified foods.

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​Fancy Foods are Kosher Too
Three certification agencies had booths at this year’s show - Star-K, OK Kosher, and OU Kosher. In the past, I’ve seen European and South American agencies as well, but it seems that complicated travel kept them away this year.

These agencies attend the show for the same reasons the vendors do – to drum up business and meet with existing customers. Representatives walk through the show looking for new vendors and products that have the potential for kosher certification.

Seal of Approval
I’m always a little surprised to see so many vendors display kosher signs at their booths. 

​We expect Jewish ethnic foods to be kosher. And many, if not most, major US brands of regular pantry items also have kosher certification. Whether you keep a kosher home or not, chances are most of the name brand packaged products in your kitchen right now are kosher certified. Hellman’s, Heinz, Lipton, Vlasic, and even Coke are certified. Many store brands also bear certification labels. Some stores even make kosher certification a priority when they look for manufacturers to produce their private label products. Why?

According to industry market research, kosher certification has remained one of the three top growing market segments for the past 20+ years. This growth isn’t based on an explosion among Jews suddenly starting to keep kosher.
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For a long time and still today, many non-Jews view kosher certification as a sort of “Good Housekeeping” seal of approval. There is a perception that kosher certification indicates “better” products – maybe cleaner and sometimes perceived as healthier, which we all know is not the case.

Modern Food Concerns
Today, consumers are concerned about ingredients in their food. Kosher certification is a helpful tool for vegetarians and to some extent vegans, people with dairy or shellfish allergies, and others who just want to know that someone in addition to the manufacturer is overseeing production. Muslims who follow Halal dietary guidelines often look for kosher certification when they shop.
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A pareve designation tells you a lot about a product. Pareve foods contain absolutely no dairy, no meat, no fish or shellfish, and no additives derived from insects.

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Marketing
I met Patrick Ford at my first Kosherfest, almost 25 years ago, when his family’s Bone Suckin Sauce was still new and freshly kosher certified. Hailing from North Carolina, famous for its non-kosher barbeque, Patrick was responsible for getting kosher certification after he joined the family business and took on the marketing. Although he knew nothing about kashrut, his research told him that it would be an important tool to grow the brand. At that first meeting he told me, “I thought my plant was clean. After I saw what the rabbis did to make everything kosher, I went home and told my wife to start buying kosher products!”

I’ve spoken with Patrick, first at Kosherfest and later at the Fancy Food Show, every year since then. He knows that his dry mix, Bone Suckin Seasoning and Rub, is the secret ingredient in my chicken schnitzel. And every year he tells me that kosher certification was a key to his success.

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There are way too many kosher products at the Fancy Food Show for me to provide a complete list. But here are few of my favorites.

Lök is a Columbian company making super high-quality chocolate while helping farmers avoid the lucrative, but dangerous world of growing drug crops.

But here’s the weird part. When I asked why the chocolate bears kosher certification, I was told “the community is really big.” The Jewish community? “Yes.” Columbia is a country of almost 51 million people, 90% of whom are Christian. The country is home to fewer than 8,000 Jews.

​Yet there is a perception that the community is bigger than it is and that the chocolate needs to be kosher. They also understand what certification means to marketing in the US.

Vegan Rob’s
Robert Ehrlich was inspired to create the popular snack, Pirate’s Booty, when he saw a bag of cheese puffs that contained no cheese.

More recently he created a line of vegan and gluten-free salty snacks under the brand Vegan Rob’s. These gluten-free snacks are based mostly on sorghum, and like Pirate’s Booty, are OU certified.

​I wouldn’t say their Brussels Sprouts Puffs are exactly good for you just because they contain actual brussels sprouts powder. But they are delicious!

Truffles
As you know from my first story about the Fancy Food Show, I love truffles. They are the epitome of a fancy food – hard to find, imported, and expensive.
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Truffles are a true luxury item but trust me, La Rustichella Black Truffle Paté is worth a splurge. One of the few truffle products that includes real truffles (12% by weight), it is OU certified.
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You can find a small jar online for only $20. Schmear a lightly toasted baguette slice with ricotta cheese and top with a small dollop of the paté. It is heaven in your mouth. You will thank me.

Mareeba Orchards Dried Fruit
When I asked the young man from Mareeba Orchards why the Australian dried fruit was kosher certified, he pointed to his name tag – Justin Levin - a quintessentially Jewish family name.

​“Well,” he said, chuckling, “It’s a family business and it couldn’t NOT be kosher.”

​Unfortunately, these products aren’t widely available in the US yet, but the red dragon fruit is not only gorgeous, it’s deliciously chewy, sweet, and tart at the same time. I’ll be watching for a way to buy these products over the next year.

Dr. Bronner’s Chocolate
Old hippies will remember Dr. Bronner’s Pure-Castile Liquid Soap from the ‘60s and ‘70s. The original peppermint scented liquid soap was and still is packaged with a wrap-around label filled with tiny, tiny text. Dr. Bronner, who was not a physician, preaches his Cosmic Philosophy, which begins with: “If I am not for me, who will be for me? And when I am for myself alone, what am I?” Sound familiar? This well-known quote comes from Pirkei Avot, Ethics of our Fathers.

Born into a Jewish soap-making family, Emanuel Heilbronner left Germany in 1929. As World War II loomed, young Emil pleaded with his family to join him, but secure in his German-ness and assimilated success, his father refused. Tragically, the Nazis took over the family business and deported Emil’s parents to Auschwitz, where they were both murdered.

In spite of his trauma and long-term mental illness, Emil took the name Dr. Bronner, and started making his now famous soap. So much happened between then and now, but the company is currently run by the third generation. Finding renewed success against the backdrop of today’s focus on “clean” products and socially responsible companies, they have developed a wonderful line of chocolate bars. Large and chunky, most bars are filled with nuts or nut cream and sweetened with coconut sugar. In addition to kosher, they are certified Fair Trade, Organic, Non-GMO, and Vegan.​

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Watch for the next story in this series: Fancy Food as Functional Food.