31 Comments

• Shlome

  Why were they shut down?

• A sign from Above

  For any business to succeed it needs a lot of Sayata Dishmaya.

  We say Barchenu Avinu Kulanu K’Echad.

  Where there is Sholom, there is Bracha and where there is Machlokes then …..

  I’m not going in to politics and I’m not saying who is right and who is wrong but it’s no secret that the CHK has had it’s share of disputes as to which Rabbonim are in charge.

  I think that this may signal “the end” not only for the Milk Factory but the end for it’s supervising agency.

  They have lost many Hechsherim recently. The most prominent loss was on Rubashkin’s plant when Rubashkin was forced out of business by the Raids and other legal problems which also resulted in major loss of revenue for the CHK and now they have also lost the Dairy Hechsher.

  Let us give a Bracha to the CHK that they should recover in the near future, especially with the recently elected 3d Rav (as we say: Yavo Hakasuv Hashlishi Veyachria Benehem) with the now united Badatz, hopefully it will lead to Sholom and proper Kashrus in the CHK in the near future.

• Wolfy

  Fresh & Healthy cholov yisroel milk is under Rabbi Boruch Lesches’ supervision. Rav Lesches is a Lubavitcher.

• Wow

  CHK is NOT a Lubavitcher hecsher the rebbe refused to allow the use of the name lubavitch or Chabad to be associated with Badatz in any way.

  So plesea do not call it lubavitch hecaher

• CC Bilo

  uh oh, Lubabs will just have to trust Reb. Weissmende!

• milk milk milk feh!!! on the hechsher

  Emes Milk is currently the only milk sold with a Lubavitcher Hechsher from the CHK and it always gets sour in no time

• menny

  nebach they purchased a pit of a company hope they can turn over some dirt ank keep the company on its feet the old owner racked up so many unpaid bills

• oy golus

  Rabbi Lisbon has lots of hechshers on cholov akum products. Maybe he could get some lessons on the importance of cholov yisroel. Oy Golus!

• Is anyone else upset about this?

  why are there no comments on this article, which is up for a while already? this is very troubling news, how is it that people are not wondering what to do now? I for one do not buy dairy that isn’t approved by CHK, at least the current CHK under Harav Osdoba Shlita’s hechsher. (In the future I don’t know who will be controlling it – another story.)

  I feel bad for the Bistritzky brothers, supporters of our community who were helping us to have the products we need under a hechsher of Lubavitch standards; Hashem should compensate them for their losses and turn things around, they deserve prosperity and success.

• CHK is stupid

  people as long it chlove yisroel i see no problem why should only need chk and support it as long its a reliable kushrus i will still use other brand

• CHK is just another buisness

  I never purchase any Hechsher if it has a CHK unless it also has another Hechsher too.

  There are many people in CH who regard the CHK with disgust just like the Hisachdus Hechsher.

  The policy accepted in regard to Hisachdus is that you can use it only if there is also another hechsher that you could rely on without them.

  The same is with the CHK, where many people in CH will make sure to specifically not use it, unless it is irrelevant because it has another Hechsher anyway which is trustworthy without the CHK anyway.

  There are only a handful of naive people left in CH today, who still naively think that only the CHK is somehow “holly”.

• Machmir

  #8

  Rabbi Lisbon does promote the use of Cholov Yisroel. OK also gives hechshers on Cholov Akum. Before you make a statement like that why don’t you speak to him personally about why he gives hechshers to those products.

• CHK

  #3, R. Lesches let it be known that he is ONLY giving on the milk of Fresh and Healthy, which tells me that the other products are probably all substandard -that is Lubavitch standard, Kashruswise. Many of you are using a product of a Rav who you know nothing about (Rabbi Ungar), yet you don’t “trust” CHK?

  #4, You can call it whatever you like, CHK means Crown Heights Kashrus, it doesn’t include the word Lubavitch, but the vaad HaKashrus of CHK is dedicated to providing a hechsher that meets Lubavitcher standards ie: follows piskei dinim of the Rebbeim and Poskim of Chabad.

  #8, who is talking abut Rabbi Lisbon? What does he have to do with any of this?

• No. 10

  You’d have to be stupid not to know that there are differences in what passes as an excuse for cholov yisroel, and what’s truthfully and actually cholov yisrael.

  Just as there are differences among Rabbonim, some with semicha, some without, some with real smicha, some with dubious smicha.

• CHK

  CHK is a Mediocre hechsher at best. I consider it a little better than a triangle K. as a previous past said I make sure there is another hechsher on a product that has the CHK logo. It is sad how many Lubavitchers insist on using only or preferring CHK and thinking they are being careful with kashrus. There are many better hechseherim not only more frum but honest, trustworthy and with superior technical knowledge which give them an advantage. How can a hechsher be trusted with so much politics?

• Head of Kashrus is corrupt

  Every Kashrus company prints Kashrus Alerts, to let people know about accidental mistakes they had made in Kashrus and removed Hechsherim.

  Can anyone imagine that the only kashrus organization who never made a mistake, ever, in their entire life, is only the CHK?

  Or perhaps they never issue these alerts because they can never concede that they ever made a mistake in their life and would rather that people continue to eat traif rather than admit and disclose any one of their multiple Kashrus errors which every Kashrus company always experiences.
  There is no such thing as a perfect company who never makes mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes and so if they never tell you of their mistakes, it’s obvious that they choose to let you eat Traif rather than admit and disclose their inevitable shortcomings.
  It’s so funny that they are not even ashamed of it, that the one only “kashrus alert” they have on their website is only about a fish company which had the guts to throw out the CHK and take rival Hechsher instead.

  http://www.chkosher.com/kos…

• NS

  The article written in the other papers stated that it was because there was an unacceptable level of bacteria in the milk. Why does this website conveniently omit that fact???

• Naive

  I want to be naive and truthful rather than clever and ruthless.

  I’d rather be from the despised naive believers in the Rebbe’s Beis Din’s Vaad Hakahrus than from the “smart” fraudsters, power grabbers and politicians, mr. irreverent irrelevant.(no. 11)

• Monseyite

  I agree with #3 – Wolfy. As my Rov, I can personally say that Rav Lesches is very reliable and anything under his mashgichus is perfect to use.

• CHK is a great heksher

  to #13 – Rabbi Lesches is known to greatly respect the CHK heksher.

  CHK (as it remains under Rabbi Osdoba) is a phenomenal heksher which sources EVERY ingredient. I trust Rabbi Osdoba implicity.

• Holly...? Challah? What?

  to #11… what is “holly”?

  seemingly you have a lot of spite and anxiety.

• lloyd a cohen

  What is not clear to me, is why was the plant closed by the Department of Agriculture. Were there health and safety issues??? And, if so, then the plant should have been closed. #6 wrote that the milk turns quickly which would indicate that something is wrong with the product. Is this the reason for the closing or was in conjunction with other items. From what i have read intitially, it seems that the hechsher is not the issue, it the operation and the food saftey laws that are the issue. Working in this industry for serveral national hechsher companies, I can assure you–especially now with the new food safety bill and after the Romaine lettuce disaster, the egg fiasco and several closings of meat plants–there is no margin for error and the Department of Agriculture will not hesitate.
  Therefore, let us dispense with the issues of the hechsher and findout what really caused the closing of the plant. Was it financial mismangement or was it violation of food health laws or soemthing else or a combination of all of the above.

• cencorship is a crime

  the truth is some “kosher” companies aren’t to the standard of the experts as the issue of financial loss is cited to sell inferior products for more to unsuspecting religious customers

• lloyd a cohen

  I have checked my food and food safety publications, including the e-mail updates, and there is nothing about the Tuborburg plant closing in Lowville, N. Y. Most likely it will appear later. It has been my experience these far too many years as a masgiach for major kashrus organizations that the Department of Agriculture does not act in such a manner without due cuase. In most cases there has been a steady build up of violations of the health and safety codes that led to this end result.
  To those who worry and argue about the hechsher issue I can say this, wake up and grow up. The internal politics of Crown Heights and the supervisory circle of the KCH had nothing to do with the actions of the Department of Agriculture. It was the incompetence, stupidity and greed of the owners. The rules and codes for food health and safety are there for a reason, and when they are violated–bad things occur. The Romaine lettuce debacle was caused by the failure of the workwers to say “asher yotzar,” the egg disaster was caused by greed and the non-ksoher meat plants closings were through incomptence and stupidty.
  To CROWN HEIGHTS INFO, I say that you failed abjectively in your responsiblities to the community. It was your duty when publishing this story to state the reason for its closing. Especialy as if # 15, NS, mentioned the ehalth safety issue.

• Food Contamination & Kashrus, Overlap

  to # 24

  You site that the dept. of health is concerned with the sanitary conditions and so this has nothing to do with any Hechsher.

  But you forget that the integrity of Kashrus often depends on keeping the product pure of contamination.
  Any time where anyone is not careful with possible contamination of ANY KIND, that means that contamination has taken place and this contamination can sometimes introduce Kashrus issues since the contamination is usually also non-Kosher.

  Besides, since the contamination was not intentional on because of reckless irresponsible behavior – in other words no one deliberately introduces bad germs in to the food rather it happens because they are not careful keep things clean – therefore anyone who is reckless in being careful certainly is also not responsible to avoided contamination by Halacha issues also.

  If your careless and you don’t watch what your doing, then all bets are off and trief can also accidentally be mixed in, since they are not careful to keep of purity and integrity of the product, period.

  The difference is that the Department of health as the power to enforce their rules and shut down the plant and you read about in the newspapers but when a Kashrus violation happens, they have no such power and the kosher-supervising agency is often hesitant to reveal that they have failed the public by having permitting a non-kosher product to slip through and sold, before they stopped it.

  It’s a Bizoyon for the Rav Hamachshir to admit his failure and so the incentive for Cover-Up is a very big Nisayon. The Dept of health has no such Nisayon and so what they reveal can sometimes be only the tip of the iceberg, regarding possible other careless product-purity concerns, including possible Kashus-purity uncertainty.

  The Kashrus agency also has to fear the loss of income if they get strict and have to cancel the Hechsher, something the dept of health does not fear.

  Here is an example:

  Very often, the dept of health can walk in to a food processing plant such as Pizza store, for example and see numerous violations of Roaches and or Mice Droppings.

  Mice, and Mice Droppings and Roaches introduced in to the food is not Kosher. The Dept of health will shut them down for it but the Kosher Mashgiach will usually not be concerned at all.

  Also, Chamira Sakanta Meisura and if it poses a health hazard the hechsher should not approve it either. There are dining in Shulchan Aruch which prohibit food conditions or food substances or their combination which Halacha forbids only because it poses a medical health hazard and not because it’s trief.

• ahava rabbah

  fyi neither the OK nor R Lisbon give hechsheirim on cholov akum.. but rather cholov stam.. There is a clear difference wit significant ramifications .. And it was shut down cuz it posed a health problem.. back in the day i worked in a pizza shop that would use ahavah cheese on request for the chabad customers .. the spanish guys working behind the counter would always be able to smell it cooking in the oven .without knowing there was ahavah cheese on it as it smelled “like dirty socks”.. was clearly on inferior product.. always has been,,

• Mikatney Emunah

  #26

  Non-Cholov Yiroel, such as what they call ‘beloshon nekiya’ by the name of “cholov-stam” is metamtem hamoach vehalev and adversly affect ones Emunah big time.

  This lack of emunah is obviouse on all the faces of those who drink this so called “cholov-stam” as well as on the faces of the so called “rabbis” who give it a hechsher.

  You can be “matir” a sheretz with 150 reasons, yet the sherets remains a sheretz, anyway (and that goes for the kosher supervisor who approves it, too).

• go-d-s right hand man

  kashrus is supposed to protect and be good / better for a persons physical health so the usda shouldnt have to close a plant down that produces kosher products as the rabbi would notice the problem first
  so clearly some of the rabbi’s have lost a sense of their reponsibility to their communities, donors and supporters.
  Some products with hechshers cost more and are worthless according to some

• THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER

  24 loyd. c the owners didnt own the plant for long so the truth is likely the jews and non jews got used as guinea’s (as $$ was called guineas long ago) asthe wrong doings of the previous owners are revealed to the people you insulted with words like greedy and stoopid.
  ROME WASN’T BUILT IN A DAY

• hypocrisy

  26, I smell your AHAVA……and I need to hold my nose. so sad; to paraphrase a bit: it’s the YETZER HORA stupid!

  #25, you should register for this wonderful organization that supports your vision and acknowleges that Kashrus is bad for everyone’s health. it’s called PETA. (don’t stop at that though, if you wannabe the genuine gezhe Russian article, you can close all the Mikvaos too, there’s definitely bacteria in the water.)

• higher price or less milk for the family

  Trusting that the milk was at least as worthy kashrus-wise as Cholov Stam, the loss not stated in any of the postings above is this: $1.89 versus $2.19 versus $2.35

  Now the only choices are the 2 higher prices (and that’s at a store that at least is willing to sell 20 cents or further below what some other stores charge).

  In short: the loss is … to those who can least afford it.