Levels Of Supervision

To ensure that products are Kosher, we need to check the 3 categories (basic ingredients; preparation; and mixtures) and enter into an agreement that no production process or ingredients are altered without advance notice to Kosher Australia.

A common misconception is that Kosher production requires a Rabbinic supervisor to be present at all times. While the presence of a supervisor is certainly an advantage, modern production methods may allow certification to take place as long as the production complies with rigid (and enforced) work instructions and defined bills of material.

A typical facility may only require an annual certification audit with additional surveillance audits (as determined once the certification audit has been conducted).

There are exceptions to this:

  • Meat preparation - supervision is required at all stages;
  • Cheese production - where rennet is used in the cheese product (even if the rennet is microbial) a Rabbinic supervisor or orthodox Jew must dose the rennet;
  • Grape juice and grape wine production (including other grape by-products) - from the start of the juice extraction up until pasteurisation, the process must be handled by Rabbinic supervisors;
  • 'Super Kosher Milk' or Chalav Yisrael - milking must be supervised by a Rabbinic supervisor;
  • Vegetables that are not usually eaten raw must be either cooked by a Jew (according to some opinions) or at the very least, have the oven/stove/cooking medium initiated by a Jew - these include potatoes, beetroot, rice, pumpkin, eggplant - unless the product being made is a snack food.Canneries can be considered an exception as the mode of cooking is usually sufficiently different to 'normal' cooking;
  • A facility that stores 'kosher-sensitive items' that may easily be interchanged with non-kosher varieties e.g. gelatine, glycerine - the level of surveillance may be increased depending on the Rabbi's assessment of the risk of inadvertent swapping of kosher and non-kosher substitutes. In this case, full-time rabbinic supervision may be required. The best solution is to stock only kosher versions of the material.
  • A facility where vegetables require checking for the presence of insects or worms requires a Rabbinic supervisor.
  • A facility that produces a special Kosher batch of food, or of raw material for food production, may require full-time Rabbinic batch supervision, especially in a case where that facility's production is normally non-Kosher.