Kosher Australia

Dear All,

We are happy to announce that the Kosher Australia Food Guide for 2010 is almost ready for mailout to subscribers.

Please see attached the subscription form for the 2010 guide. A subscription to the 2010 KAFG automatically includes the 2010 Kosher Australia Pesach Guide at no additional cost which is planned for release around Purim.

Please save the Word document renaming it to your name and then fill it in with all the required details. Then email it back to goldbergg@kosher.org.au or fax to 03 9527 5665.

As in previous years, we are offering discounts for families with children in Jewish schools, families ordering multiple copies, subscriptions with email updates and for the first time, discounts for early bird subscribers and a loyalty bonus for people resubscribing from last year.

For organisations interested in group discounts, please contact our office on 1300-KOSHER and ask for Ronnie.

The KAFG represents several thousand man-hours of work during 2009 which takes place over and above the normal Kosher Australia operations that include supervision of more than two dozen restaurants, caterers and function centres, supervision of the largest Kosher butcher in the Southern Hemisphere and the checking of more than 300 factories throughout Australia and South East Asia.

Some highlights of the 2010 KAFG include:

• An updated Kosher guide including hundreds of new products
• A list of locally produced Kosher certified and mehadrin products
• Guides to setting up a Kosher kitchen, separating challah, checking fruit, vegetables & eggs, tovelling your dishes
• Appropriate brochas for each product
• An updated Traveller’s Guide for Australia & SE Asia including shules, Jewish schools, kosher food stores and Eruv maps for Melbourne, Sydney and Perth

As no Kashrus Authority operates in a vacuum, where we have drawn upon information from other Kosher Authorities (for which we are extremely grateful) we have listed the source Authority next to the relevant product.

Finally a plea:

Do you want more Kosher products produced locally? Would you like to see Kosher symbols appearing on Kosher certified Australian products?

Then you need to make your opinion known to Australian food manufacturers!

As a Kosher consumer you have the power to effect change in the way companies treat the Kosher food market.

Set aside an hour once a month to contact companies via their websites or by phone.

• If they are not Kosher, ask them why they haven’t looked at Kosher certification – there are 20,000 Australian families who actively buy Kosher and the Kosher market in the US is worth almost $1 trillion.
• If they have certification and don’t have a Kosher symbol on packaging, ask them why they keep their Kosher certification a secret. Don’t they know that they miss out on consumers who don’t know that their products are Kosher? Vegetarians and Halal consumers buy Kosher food because Kosher guarantees that the product fits in with their dietary requirements.
• If they display a Kosher logo, congratulate them. Maybe suggest new products that you’d like to see Kosher.

Form a Kosher advocacy circle with your friends.

Speak up and make a difference!

Wishing you a successful and kosher 2010.

Best Regards,
Yankel Wajsbort
General Manager
Kosher Australia