DONETSK, Ukraine – The Ukrainian Committee on Kashrut, which operates under the aegis of the Chief Rabbinate of Ukraine and is based in Donetsk, is overseeing the production of a new dairy product, a kosher cheese spread.

For those who remember the taste of cheese from the Soviet era, they will easily argue that the kosher cheeses “Druzhba” (Friendship) and “Yantar” (Amber) are as tasty as the high quality cheeses produced in those years. The spreads are manufactured using natural ingredients, including hard cheese, cottage cheese, milk, butter, etc. Minimal amounts of additives and preservatives are used, in order to keep the cheeses as healthy as possible.

The new cheese spreads are “chalav Yisrael,” i.e., the milk used in the production of the cheese has been supervised by a Jew from the beginning of the milking process. Employees of the Ukrainian Committee on Kashrut control the entire manufacturing process involved in the preparation of the cheese product.

The Druzhba cheese, which has a fat composition of 55%, is packaged in its traditional 100-gram rectangular briquettes. The Yantar cheese, whose fat content is 60%, comes in tubes of 350 grams. The maximum term of storage is 75 days.

The production of these two new cheeses is enhancing a growing list of kosher food products available in Ukraine and elsewhere in the Former Soviet Union.

(Source: FJC)