Vineland NJ…Vineland Poultry, a leading producer of kosher poultry for more than 35 years, was acquired by Mehadrin Poultry for an undisclosed price, kosher food sources told Kosher Today. According to the sources, the Vineland plant will close while the Vineland brand continues to be produced at the Mehadrin Pennsylvania plant. Reached by Kosher Today on Thursday, Marvin Raab of Vineland denied the rumors. In an e-mail, he wrote: “This is totally not true. Mehadrin did not buy our plant and this is totally false.” But sources say that the transition is already underway. They say that Vineland, once said to be second only to Empire Kosher Poultry, may have fallen victim to the dramatic changes that have taken place in kosher poultry. In addition to Empire, the leader in the field for many years, and Alle Processing, Vineland faced increased competition from such relative newcomers as KJ Poultry and Mehadrin. KJ Poultry of Monroe NY is said to have captured a significant share of the market in a short time. The resurgence of the Agri poultry products under AgriStar also introduced more competition into the marketplace as did product from Canada, all of which had its effect on the low margins poultry producers were already working with. Located in Exter PA, the relatively new Mehadrin plant was damaged by a fire in February 2009, but is said to have fully recovered since.

New York…The story of a pending PepsiCo – Osem Hummus war first broke in Kosher Today last June but the first  shot was fired last week by Tribe with an ad in Jewish weeklies “Not all Hummus is all Natural.” Tribe was apparently challenging the highly successful Sabra brand by taking on the salad giant with the natural claim. A Brooklyn gourmet supermarket has also been highly successful in promoting its own brand of “natural” hummus as opposed to the Sabra brand which includes preservatives and enjoys a much longer shelf life. Sabra USA is owned by PepsiCo.  Osem, 54% of which is owned by Nestle, acquired Tribe in 2008, which is now Osem’s brand of salads in the US. Although it acquired the Sabra brand in Israel, it does not own the US brand and apparently cannot use the name Sabra. The US Sabra is credited with expanding hummus to mainstream consumers with a marketing campaign that includes the use of television. A spokesman for a major supermarket chain told Kosher Today that “hummus is hot and for the moment Sabra owns the category.” Tribe is obviously hoping that by playing the natural card, they will be able to cut into Sabra’s steadily growing dominance in the national hummus market. While Sabra seems to be devoting most of its attention outside of the kosher market, Tribe seems anxious to first carve out a strong niche in the kosher market.

New York…by Staff Reporters…When the temperature goes up, so do the number of new product launches that are frozen and kosher, with the objective always being to succeed year-round. One newcomer that has made a splash is the new kosher line of Chozen Ice Cream, recently profiled in the New York Times and stocked in stores like Pomegranate and Manhattan’s Westside Market.  Created by the women in the Fisher family, the line uses innovative add-ins from the Jewish repertoire of favorite snacks – such as rugelach, matzah, and babka – in gourmet ice cream. Flavors include vanilla ice cream with chocolate and caramel coated matzah bits, and chocolate babka ice cream with babka chunks swirled throughout. In time for Rosh Hashanah, the company plans to introduce caramelized apple ice cream with honey chunks.

More sophisticated palettes may gravitate towards gelato, a frozen dessert similar to ice cream but with a lower fat ratio and lower sugar content.  Gelato means frozen in Italian; the dessert originated in Italy. Aldo, a popular Israeli chain of gelato shops, opened in several locations last summer in the US – including famous tourist attraction Madame Tussauds Wax Museum and in the Upper West Side– under the name Screme. The gelato, which has 5% butterfat (typical ice creams contain up to 14%) comes in many classic and innovative flavors, including cornbread, Snickers, biscotti, cinnamon cookie dough, and chocolate brownie whiskey. With chic menu items comes chic prices – a single scoop of the gelato is $5. The gelato can be ordered under a freshly-made waffle as well. In Boca Raton, The Gelato Shoppe offers delicious kosher gelato certified by the Orthodox Rabbinic Board of Hollywood. The shop offers dairy, cholov yisrael, or pareve frozen desserts in such flavors as Belgian dark chocolate, tiramisu, panna cotta, Italian wedding cake, banana cream pie, persimmon, and basil.

The Talenti brand of gelato was also recently certified kosher by the Orthodox Union. The gourmet line has sumptuous flavors like caramel cookie crunch, white chocolate raspberry, Caribbean coconut, and Sicilian pistachio. The Talenti line can be ordered online icecreamsource.com or purchased at Whole Foods. Gelati-Da is another line of gourmet gelatos, kosher certified by the cRc, that are found sporadically in retail stores throughout the U.S. Your best bet is to order it online, also at icecreamsource.com. Flavors include vanilla marsala, coffee fudge latte, and amaretto chocolate. Israel-based company G. Willie-Food International Ltd. is introducing a brand-new line of gelato manufactured in Italy, which will begin selling this month. For those who are strictly watching their waistlines and shun even the lower-fat gelato, there are new “diet” ice creams that satisfy the palette with much fewer calories. Strauss, the Israeli ice cream company, has a new line of low-calorie vanilla, coffee, chocolate and cherry ice cream bars and sandwiches, none exceeding more than 55 calories. And Klein’s line of Healthy Habits Dixie cups, bars, and push pops and Snapple Ices offers a variety of flavors and textures for less than 100 calories. As kosher continues to become synonymous with high-quality and gourmet, we can expect even more lines of inventive and delicious frozen desserts in summers to come.

Jane Mortiz, owner of the Westport, Connecticut-based Challah Connection and The Kosher Gift Box, two online companies that deal with kosher food gift packages, commented, “Sending food care packages are the parents’ way of reaching out to their children in camp with something delicious.” Though Mortiz said the majority of her business comes from holiday gift baskets during the year or college gift baskets, the camp care package part of the business, which she began five years ago, is lucrative enough that she keeps it going. “I have a lot of grandparents who purchase the care packages,” she said. Many who patronize her business are return customers year after year, she also noted. Challah is the biggest-selling camp care package item, she said, as parents often want to acknowledge Shabbos to their campers away from home. “Many of our customers are secular or not even Jewish,” said Mortiz, “and the ones who most often get traditional items like challah or babka for their children.” Oh, Nuts, one of Brooklyn’s finest candy and sweets shops, does a brisk business in care packages during the summer season, “enough to keep our business humming during July and August,” said Ari Tahover, a spokesperson in their marketing department. Oh, Nuts offers over twenty-five different varieties of camp care packages and free shipping on these camp baskets. Tahover said they ship a couple hundred per week to camps primarily in upstate New York. Eleanor Newman of The Chocolate Emporium said much of her camp care package business is generated by virtue of being located near Camp Stone in Pennsylvania. The Challah Connection offers several “Healthy Munch” boxes that include chocolate-covered figs; trail mix; crackers with peanut butter spread; and oatmeal packets. Karen Chazan of KosherCarePackages.com said her company also offers a “No Junk in the Bunk” version of their camp care packages, all big enough to feed a bunk size of twelve campers. Still, more popular with kids are their OK-certified freshly baked cookies and brownies and blondies.

Rami Offer, Tivit’s CEO, declared, “When incorporated into a nutritionally balanced diet, our unique products can contribute positively to a healthy lifestyle living.”  Tivit is acquiring an increasing chain of distributors throughout the United States and Europe. Israeli food sources say that companies like Tivit are using cutting edge technology to develop healthier products that are replacing products high in saturated fats and sugars. Israelis often travel long distances just to visit farms that sell natural products. Food shows on Israeli cable TV are also of late focusing on healthier eating. Tivit and other companies that are marketing the healthier foods are betting that they may be able to get Israelis to trade in a half falafel sandwich for the healthier snacks.

Menachem Lubinsky is the founder and co-producer of Kosherfest, the annual trade event for the kosher food & beverage industry and is the editor-in-chief of KosherToday.  Menachem Lubinsky is also the President and CEO of LUBICOM Marketing Consulting a firm that specializes in strategic business and not-for-profit planning and implementation.

Some of the customers are here to feel good while others are on an olive oil regimen prescribed by physicians to lower saturated fats. The various olive oil jams have become best sellers to Israelis looking for the blend of the sweet and the distinct olive taste. At Olia, Hila’s brother Nimrod is constantly producing new combinations at his plant in Nes Ziona, sometimes creating the conditions of foreign grown olive trees. The fusions at Olia “simply blow many tourists away,” says Hila. Blends like the Middle East blend with three different types of olives, infused figs that includes dried figs, sugar, balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, green olives and shata pepper. Customers have become as discerning with olives as wine connoisseurs are with their fine wines. Both Olian and LiveO also offer a full line of olive oil cosmetic products that many customers have come to associate with healthier and “younger looking” skin. The products in both stores are under rabbinical supervision and there is a growing interest in exporting these olive oil gourmet products that are taking Israelis by storm.