A number of months ago, the Chief Rabbinate of Israel decided to tackle the matter of burekas, seeking to move the clock back in time to when there was order. Once upon a time, dairy burekas were triangular and parve ones were square of rectangular. That was back in the days when there were two types.

Today however, it appears there is an endless array of burekas and fillings including many dairy and parve varieties. What was once a guarantee of signaling a product’s dietary status has long been lost. The Rabbanut is pleased to announce that after meeting with major pastry bakeries in Israel, they will once again be conformity among companies that are certified kosher.

The dairy burekas will once again be a form of a triangle while parve ones will be rectangular. However, with the vast array of fillings it will not be as easy as it once was. Today, there will be open or folded triangular ones that are dairy, but a closed or pocket burekas can be parve or alternatively, it can be a swirl (rolled like a snail shape).

There can be finger shaped dairy burekas in addition to the dairy type triangles. Regarding croissants and rugelach, parve ones will have to be straight while dairy ones crescent shape.

The Rabbanut is pleased, adding that in addition to removing stumbling blocks from the marketplace, they are improving adherence to Shulchan Aruch, citing

“אסרו חז”ל ללוש עיסה בחלב בלא היכר, כדי שלא יבואו לאכלה עם בשר… אם אפו פת שנלוש בחלב, אסור לאוכלה כלל אפילו לבדו אפילו עם חלב” – יורה דעה, סימן צ”ז

YWN-ISRAEL adds that what the shopper usually is unaware of is that if a store selling burekas is certified “dairy”, as many coffee shops are, one must understand that there is no effort made to separate trays. The dairy designation removes a store’s need to maintain a parve status. Hence rugelach one buys for the Shabbos table in such a store may have a ‘chezkas dairy’ status.

In such a store, parve items may be placed on hot trays previously used for dairy, or trays that have residue, which of course presents issues regarding the parve status of a food item. When asked to explain, Rabbanut officials state that if a store’s designation is “dairy” and not “dairy/parve”, then one should assume no separation is adhered to and act accordingly.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)