Kosher Consumers Begin to Use Social Media to Communicate with Kashrus Agencies

Posted by Menachem Lubinsky on August 23, 2010 under Kashrus Organization, Social Media | View Comments

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Chicago…by Staff Reporters…Does plain roasted kasha require kosher certification? How about Sun dried tomatos without any flavors or added oil coatings, which usually are listed in the ingredients? These are some of the questions addressed to the rabbinic team at the Chicago Rabbinical Council via Twitter. According to Rabbi Sholem Fishbane, its Kashrus Administrator, social media is increasingly being used by the agency to transmit kashrus alerts and solicit subscriptions for their kashrus newsletter. Several rabbis involved in kashrus say that they “keep in touch” with many customers and even companies they supervise via Facebook. But social media is just at the early stages for the industry as a whole, industry sources say. Sam Davidowitz, the IT specialist at the Orthodox Union (OU), says that despite the agency’s comprehensive Web presence, there is still very little activity through social media. Rabbi Zechariah Senter of the Kof-K Kosher Certification agency said that most of the communications by consumers with the agency “is still through e-mail.” Many in the kosher industry believe that “it is only a matter of time” when social media plays more of a role in the growth of kosher. They say that there already is a network of “kosher foodies” that use social media extensively, even offering up-to the-minute alerts about specials in the neighborhood. Rabbi Fishbane believes that the kosher agencies should begin to promote social media like Twitter to expand their reach to the kosher market.