Going Kosher
Reporter Kim Severson of The New York Times had a good story last week about the growing popularity of kosher foods—by non-Jewish people.
As Severson reports, people buying foods specifically because the label says kosher could be a $17 billion business by 2013, accordinng to Packaged Facts. Only about 15 percent of people buy kosher for religious reasons, according to Mintel research group. A lot of these shoppers reach for kosher chicken and other foods because they think they are cleaner, safer and, in the case of meats, more humane.
The truth behind those beliefs is a bit gray. The answer is really that it depends on the processor.
But some people, too, simply think some kosher brands, like Empire Kosher chickens, taste better.
Are you one of those people who swear by Hebrew National hot dogs because they taste better or you think the animals were treated better? Or maybe you heard that a 2007 USDA study found that the kosher method of salting and rinsing chickens reduced salmonella contamination? (The USDA also found kosher chickens had the most listeria in another study that year—a result that kind of cancels out the good news of the salmonella study.)
And here’s something you may not know: Oreo cookies have been kosher since the 1990s, and the kosher Tootsie Roll came on the market last month.
