Is kosher fish the best?

by Contributing Author

Kosher Today magazine published interesting data – 11 million Americans choose products that strictly comply with kosher requirements. About 7 million of them are Jewish. It turns out that kosher food is popular not only among Jewish. It is chosen by people who prefer high-quality, proper, and healthy food.

Let’s talk about kosher fish, namely, about species belonging to the salmon family: pink salmon, chum salmon, chinook salmon, coho salmon, and sockeye salmon. These types of fish initially meet all the kashrut requirements, but during the production process, they often lose their kosher status. It happens for various reasons. For example, along with the above, the plant produces non-kosher types of fish or seafood, or additives are used in the production process, including components of animal origin. Therefore, for representatives of the Jewish community of America, fish products produced by enterprises with an orthodox kosher certificate are preferable.

The American fishing industry is represented by companies that fish in Alaska. But none of the country’s enterprises has the mentioned certificate. The reason is that the transfer of production lines to completely kosher ones is a process that requires huge investments. As a result, the share of kosher products, among others, remains small, despite the large Jewish community in America. Therefore, fisheries are not motivated to establish fully kosher production.

As it turned out, to date, only one company has gone through all the inconveniences associated with the transfer of production to kosher.

Red fish and caviar from this plant have always been popular among representatives of Judaism living in America. Recently, the company received an orthodox kosher certificate. It means that the produced pink salmon, chum salmon, chinook salmon, coho salmon, sockeye salmon, and the caviar of these fish species fully comply with the strict requirements of kashrut.

It took a whole year for the plant to obtain the certificate. The plant even had to close entirely for a month to carefully prepare the production lines for pure kosher fish and caviar production. The additives used in the production do not contain animal fats. Instead, the company’s specialists have developed completely organic glycerin from natural ingredients.

In addition, the production at the enterprise has a short cycle: catching fish from the purest Kamchatka rivers to shock freezing of packaged products takes no more than 4 hours. It is also important to note the innovations introduced in the packaging – thanks to them, red caviar retains freshness and excellent taste for a long time.

After all the work was done, the enterprise was visited by a rabbi from Moscow, who, together with trained specialists from the Kashrut Department of the Russian and International Orthodox Rabbinate, inspected the entire plant and raw materials for compliance with the rules provided for by the laws of Judaism.

It turns out that kosher fish production implies capturing and processing exclusively wild kosher fish, guaranteed purity of the production cycle, and using organic preservatives. These factors indicate that kosher products will be higher quality than similar ones produced by another enterprise.

Today, one cannot fail to mention the importance of the availability of high-quality kosher fish and kosher red caviar for the American Jewish community. Under the sanctions, deliveries from the Russian enterprise are under threat. For all the importance of the sanctions policy, it is necessary to consider that Jewish living in America is at risk of losing kosher fish, which is the basis of their diet.