The following is an article by The Jewish Star:
Cholov Yisroel milk has the dubious reputation of not only being the most expensive milk on the market, but of also possessing the absolutely uncanny ability to spoil in the time it takes to get from the checkout lane to the car.
Cholov Yisroel, which translates literally from the Hebrew as Jewish milk, is differentiated from regular milk -referred to in halachic literature as cholov stam (plain milk) or cholov akum (Gentile milk) — by the presence of two Jewish witnesses who observe the milking to ensure that no milk from non-kosher animals was used. A landmark opinion issued by Rabbi Moshe Feinstein zt”l during the summer of 1954 allowed religious Jews in the United States to use regular milk since US laws governing dairy production impose penalties on farmers caught passing off as cow’s milk the milk of other animals. Those regulations, Rav Moshe felt, were equivalent to Jews actually watching the milking.
While many today rely on that p’sak (halachic ruling), the market for Cholov Yisroel is thriving, kashruth experts say, despite being considerably more expensive than the unsupervised product.
Consumers who prefer Cholov Yisroel can expect to pay an extra fifty cents a gallon, on average, over the price of regular milk, according to Kosher Today. Given the tendency of Cholov Yisroel to spoil well before its legal expiration date, you could arguably put the true price of Cholov Yisroel at four times that of regular milk.
Rabbi Tzvi Rosen, kashruth administrator for the Star-K kosher supervision agency and editor of Kashruth Currents, doesn’t dispute the spoilage claim, but blames it on “poor handling” of the milk both in transportation and in storage in supermarkets. Cholov Yisroel plants are modern ones, he said.
“There’s no farm there that is just a Chasidic guy with a pail. They’re big farms,” Rabbi Rosen explained.
Cholov Yisroel is produced either on dairy farms devoted exclusively to Cholov Yisroel production, or at larger non-exclusive plants that set aside times to produce supervised milk. According to Rabbi Avrohom Gordimer, a kashruth supervisor and dairy specialist for the Orthodox Union, some dairy farms outside of the US are utilizing video screening so that kosher supervisors do not technically have to be on-site at the plant.
Rabbi Uri Neumann, also of the Star-K, offered a variety of reasons for possible spoilage. The somatic cell count inside the milk correlates to how fast the milk will spoil, he explained, and that depends on individual farming.
Different pasteurization processes also affect how the milk will taste. At 190 degrees Fahrenheit milk need only be pasteurized for a few seconds; at 170 degrees 30 to 49 seconds is required; at 290 degrees only two seconds are needed.
But the main reason for the common problem with spoilage, Rabbi Neumann maintains, is refrigeration, which directly affects how long milk will last.
“You keep milk refrigerated at 35 degrees, you’ll get a seventeen day shelf life. In dairies the milk is chilled to 32-34 degrees. If you keep the pasteurized tanks clean you’ll have less bacteria. If the truck or store isn’t refrigerated it will lead to a lower shelf live,” Rabbi Neumann explained. “The Cholov Yisroel industry used to leave the milk [in front of stores] at five in the morning, leaving it out an hour. That could be where the oldness comes from. If [the milk’s] temperature is at 40 degrees it’ll last 17 days; at 50 degrees it’ll last 14 days; at 80 degrees it’ll spoil in 3 days.”
Regarding the higher price of Cholov Yisroel, Rabbi Gordimer explained that the extra cost of the milk comes from having to keep a mashgiach on premise.
“I’m surprised it doesn’t cost more,” he said, adding that the cost factors in salaries, living and utilities into the cost of the milk. Yet, Cholov Yisroel production in the United States is on the rise, Rabbi Gordimer said.
“Number one there’s more interest in it,” Rabbi Gordimer explained. “With the economy fluctuating, a lot of foreign companies that made Cholov Yisroel products in Europe and New Zealand have it done in America.”
Golden Flow, located in Brooklyn, is one of the oldest Cholov Yisroel dairies. It was formed in 1948 by Bessie Gertner, according to the current owner, Shlomo Weinberger. Weinberger, 59, began as a driver for Golden Flow before buying the company with his partner from Gertner when she retired.
“Baruch Hashem, let me explain something,” Weinberger said with a heavy Yiddish accent. “Milk is not an easy business.”
He has 4,000 cows in a farm in Syracuse and sales are increasing, he said.
“More and more people are going over,” Weinberger said about the Cholov Yisroel business. “The population got bigger.”
Regarding Golden Flow’s unusual name, he said he wasn’t sure where the original owner came up with it.
Like every industry, the Cholov Yisroel market has had its troubles. The farm of Jacob Balsam, owner of the first Cholov Yisroel dairy in the United States, was hit by hoof and mouth disease in 1914, according to a New York Times article from that year. Out of two herds totaling 124 cows, 56 cows were infected. Just last February New York State agriculture officials suspended the operation of the Ahava dairy plant, producer of New Square milk and Morning Select products.
“Recent inspections found its products to have excessive levels of bacteria and coliform, as well as containing non-food grade oil. In addition, Ahava’s facility and equipment are in extreme disrepair, posing further potential contamination, “ declared a statement from New York’s Commissioner of Agriculture and Markets Patrick Hooker.
The Ahava plant, as it was, “couldn’t get much worse,” according to a kashruth consultant who asked not to be named. “They have the worst rap sheet out there.”
The facility has since been bought by Toobro LLC, headed by brothers Menachem and Schneur Bistritzky, who have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars redoing the plant.
Schneur said they purchased the plant since they’ve always been involved in the kosher dairy business; their father was Leibel of Leibel Bistritzky’s Kosher Gourmet Food of the Lower East Side, one of the earliest kosher supermarkets. The store used to close every day at four o’clock for mincha, earning a mention in an economics textbook. The newly reopened Ahava plant is the only completely Cholov Yisroel dairy farm and processing plant in the US, he said.
Since they’ve redone the plant, Schneur said he’s received phone calls from customers telling him that this was the first time they actually managed to finish an entire half-gallon of cholov yisroel milk before it spoiled.
The Bistritzky’s are undecided about whether they’ll continue to use the New Square brand name.
Ahava’s former owner, Moshe Banayan, is back in the Cholov Yisroel business, now using the name Best Square Milk. The Jewish Star made several attempts but was unable to get in touch with him before deadline.
As for the freshest Cholov Yisroel milk out there, all three kashruth experts The Jewish Star spoke to praised Baltimore’s Pride of the Farm milk.
Dave Andrews, VP of sales and marketing at Kreider Farms, which produces Pride of the Farm, said the freshness is the result of a proprietary process that cools the milk down to 33 degrees in just eight minutes.
“Now your typical dairy farm will use geothermal to prechill it down to 67-68 degrees in 15 minutes, then a refrigerated storage tank which will then slowly chill it down to 37 degrees in about an hour and a half. Not only do we chill it faster, we chill it down colder. If milk is handled properly it should last for another seven days [past the sales date],” explained Andrews.
Pride of the Farm was the brainchild of Rabbi Yosef Tendler, who heads the Yeshiva Ner Yisroel high school. He began the company in 1973 and credited Kreider Farms for its success.
“Kreider Farms does a good job. It’s not my doing, it’s the farmer’s doing. They are wonderful people. They’re extremely honest people. We enjoy dealing with them.”
Rabbi Tendler maintains that he sells his milk for less since no one is making a profit on the sale. The milk is sold mainly to yeshivas around the country; he deducts shipping costs from the price of the milk to maintain level pricing.
For Rabbi Tendler, it’s a mission.
“We’re not in it for business, we’re in it for spreading Cholov Yisroel,” he said. “If people are interested [in Cholov Yisroel] we’ll assist them.”
(Source: Michael Orbach – The Jewish Star)
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32 Responses
Pride of the Farm happens to be a very good milk and thirty years ago the milk that was sold in kiryas yoel was very good . i used guzzle them down by the quart at a time like a bottle of soda pop.
however Pride of the Farm would never make it in new york city since the established milk companies will find a way for it not to be allowed to be sold .
Shame on the so called Gedolei Rabbonim and Roshei Hayshiva who say/said in public that (regarding Reb Moishe’s psak) Reb Moishe “…made a mistake…” Those rabbonim have 1/10000 of daas Torah that Reb Moishe had. In my opinion they are close to apikorsus.
#3 ploniebenplonie you must have broad sholders to say that Reb Moishe made a mistake
as some one who is a mashgiach for cholov yisroel cheese , the article does not metion the fact of the need to remove DA (treif) cows from the liking line while making cholov yisroel milkings or even further of selling off those cows.
cows are cash makers and the loss of any cows makes the production price for cholov yisroel even more..
with regards to the OU mentioning that a mashgiach is not onsite and only via video i question how that can work especialy if filters must be changed after the wash through and just before the cholov yisroel milking . In addition who is checking that the treif (DA)cows are not being milked and are locked up during cholov yisroel production. Then who is sealing the trucks if the rabbi is not there. Who is unselaing the truck at the cheese plant? who is making sure that cholov yisorel rennet is being used? who is making sure that a jew is placing the rennet into the milk (otherwise the cheese is treif)? who is sealing the cheese to make sure the product being labled is the kosher cholov yisroel cheese….
#4 I suggest you read the comment over again so that you understand it.
To #7
If you don’t know the facts, don’t comment!
DA cows are treif!!! ith a clear psak in Shulchun Aruch “Nikuv Hreiah is Treif” all the big poskim Rav Eliashiv Rav Vozner etc. You name it state that its TREIF!!!
OU has a heter from Rabbi Balsky, with all the respect to him, I think that he can NOT go aginst Rav Eliashiv! I n Isreal even the Rabanot does nott approve the DA cows!
To all that eat chalav stam on the heter from Reb Moshe, they should know that Reb Moshe never gave a heter on the DA cows!!
I spoke to someone a year ago who had recently begun working for Pride of the Farm and complained that their milk spoiled faster than chalav stam. When I proposed my theory that they didn’t keep the truck cold enough to save money, he almost fell off his chair laughing. He told me that the driver got headaches from the refrigeration unit and turned it off completely while driving, and only turned it back on when parked at deliveries so that no one would discover his secret.
# 8 I’m not as smart as you so can you please be kind enough to explain this in simple terms using full sentences .
And can someone explain how non cholov yisroel ice-cream costs about 2 bux for a half gallon while cholov yisroel sell boxes now that have only about 50 ounces for over 7 bux??!!
For #9– NY State regulates the price of milk by the gallon, but not by the 1/2 gallon or quart. So, in order to charge they don’t offer milk by the gallon. http://www.agmkt.state.ny.us/DI/Laws%20in%20PDF/mpg_law.PDF
This makes sense! Of course let’s all worry about our milk and cows and make sure it’s all super cholov yisroel. To do that is much easier than to try to daven with kavanah, not talk in shul, raise good frum kids, do hidden act of hessed, and do that which HaShem wants us to do. But hey, I only eat in bakeries that check their eggs! I’m FRUM, look at my peyas and gartel and shreimel, did you see my mehudar talis and esrog — IT’S PERFECT!! Oh, did I miss kedusha, no worries, I only eat pas yisroel.
Please, my fellow yiddin, let’s all focus on things that HaShem wants, not on what we want.
But what happened to Pride of the Farm ice cream? That was the best ice cream because of the higher fat content per ounce as opposed to Klein’s. Yummy, yummy!
By the way, why do they put so much chemical garbage in frum products, have you ever stopped to check the ingredients? We need to wake up to garbage we eat and obesity epidemic in our young children. Yes they’re yummy, but they are ladden with stuff that’s horrible for you, and we have no freedom to choose. Horay for frumonopolies!
WE **DEMAND** ORGANIC PRODUCTS! I AM LOOKING AT **YOU** MILK AND DAIRY PRODUCERS!
OU has a great article on DA and Cholov Yisroel. Worth a read if you are interested in the topic:
http://www.oukosher.org/index.php/articles/single_print/8406
What is this talk about R Moshe saying that in America its ok to drink milk not watched by a yid. like this is something new. Its an old sheila discussed in Aruch Hashulchan and others way before R Moshes psak.
Moderators Note: This is in no way taking a s9ide in this issue, but for the record: the Aruch Hashulchan and the others you refer to never stepped foot onto American soil. There was never an FDA regulating milk production where the other Poskim lived.
One correction: It was my great-grandfather Isaac Balsam (1880-1945) (not Jacob Balsam, who was his father, and never came to America) who owned the first Chalav Yisrael dairy farm on the East Coast and, possibly, in America. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Balsam
Daniel Yitzchak Balsam
Baltimore, Maryland
#10:
I don’t agree that Rav Belsky cannot argue with Rav Eliashiv. Rav Belsky is a very great Posek in his own right, so much so, that when he visited Rav Eliashiv, the latter made every effort to rise to his full height.
Hey,
Where did you get .50 per bottler more?
Average goyish milk costs 2.99 for a gallon
average frum milk 2.99 a half a gallon
There is no explanation for this
about a mashgiach
Figure it out
4000 cows = at least 20,000 bottles a day at $2.00 = $40,000.00 a day
How much does a mashgiach cost a day? $500.00 or less
so per bottle it costs .10 cents or less, how come the price per bottle is double of the goyim?
we are being ripped off!!!
about Rav Moshe’s Psak,
of course He is the Godal Hador, But new things came up, such as trefie cows, and that’s why we use only Cholov Yisroel
To #18
I see you had no idea what DA cows are, thats your problam!
yes you went to google, but the way all these DA cows are treated is by doing on them a surgery that makes a “nikuf harei-ah”, so do ALL your home work and you will se what I meant.
Yes Rabbi belsky is a posek, and as I wrote with all the respect to him he has the right to say whatever he feels is right, but don’t say that does who drink cholov stam have a heter from Reb Moshe, its not true Reb Moshe never discussed the issue of DA cows, Its Rav Belsky aginst Rav Eliyashev and ALL other poskim of our time, now let the public decide who thay want to listen, but don’t say in article that you can drink cholov stam on a heter from Reb Moshe?!
To #27
give me the place where Reb Moshe discusses the DA cows? Its simply not true!!!!
This whole issue of the DA cows was been made aware of after Reb Moshe pssed away!!!!
Att moderator and sammygol.
Fact is that hechsherim such as the OK, r gruber, KaJ, the tzelimer rav, and many more consider DA cows treif because of the surgery and how the procedure is done.they arecuttinbg into the underbody of the cow which is cutting certain area that make the cow treif.
Chalav stam still has this problem even with r moshe heter. The FDA makes sure that cows milk is indeed from a cow. And not mixed with other animals milk that other countries allow. At the sametime the FDA does not ban DA cows in the milk line which many hechsherim based on their poskim hold its treif and is something that is a problem wether you are using a cholov yisroel or a cholov stam product. Question then becomes if you want to consider bitul?
. Its a kashrus issue
And for sammygol:NEWS FLASH cheese is made out of milk and this article is discussing cholov yisroel and the reasoning of the increase cost diffrence. One thing you know with cholov yisroel is that if a cow had a surgical procedure a good chance its not entering the cholov yisroel product.
There are other kashrus issues such as when the farmer needs to place a huge needle to administer medicine in the neck of the cow near the jugular which can cause the cow to become treif. If it did pucncture the cow would collapse and become extremely sick.
I have bought C”Y milk and it did spoil rapidly.
The article mentioned a few reasons why the spoilage rate is high. Is anything being done to address the issue or will consumers continue to have their money wasted on sour milk?
This is from th OU website
http://www.oukosher.org/index.php/articles/single_print/8406
(For a complete discussion of the halachic implications of DA treatments, see Rabbi Y. Belsky and Rabbi M. Heinemann in Mesorah v. 10 pp.62-78, Rabbi M. Genack in Tradition 29:2, and Rabbi J.D. Bleich in Contemporary Halachic Problems vol. 5.)
Even they don’t mention Reb Moshe on the DA issue, because there is NO such thuvah by Reb Moshe.
Ps the heter for chlovstam was that only milk that comes from a kosher animal can become butter or cheese and to the addtional fact how the FDA is watchful that other products and/or from other animals not be mixed in.
The DA issue is still a factor of kashrus issues.
When a cholov yisroel production is setup a premium price is paid to facilitate the production and transport are to the highest level of kashrus with no cutting corners
Pride of the Farm is available in NJ, and used to be price competitive here, but the price started going through the roof last year. Probably cost of transport.
I’ve heard it said by many in the know that while Rav Eliashiv has enormous respect for Rav Belsky, he considers Rav Dovid Feinstein to be the chief posek for America.
If the problem with cholov yisroel milk spoiling is that the trucks are not cold enough and it sits outside of stores why does it spoil so quickly during the winter when it is below freezin?
I agree with the article that Pride of the Farm makes the best cholov yisroel milk. I wish they would sell it in Brooklyn.
Pride of the Farm milk is $2.29 1/2 gal in NPGS in Lakewood and keeps a good two weeks in my refrigerator. (They still have Pride of the Farm ice cream which is a little cheaper than Kleins and Mehadrin ice cream)(I think Kleins ice cream is quite good, I grew up on it.)I also know where you can get good raw organic unhomoginized cholov yisroel milk, but, it is V E R Y expensive.
Anyone who would say the the Rav’s ruling was a mistake, chas veshalom, must have a personal stake in this milk.
To rabbiofberlin #35
Thanks for correcting me it is “Nikuv Hakeivah”
and the major point is that by riding an article that chalav stam has a heter form Reb Moshe, and that applies to our time, is misleading information!! there is more to to this, and its a heter from Rav Balsky, NOT Reb Moshe.
I think if you tell a person that its even a sufek of TREIF! not just Cholov Stam, thats much more convinceng to drink ONLY Cholov Yisroel!!
hey basmelech, where can i get organic unpasturized cholov yisroel real milk?