LAST CALL!
ALL SUMMER MERCHANDISE

Kosher Is
Big Business

New York (JTA) — Kosher
food is going big business,
and the industry may be
transformed as a result.
Groups of investors and
large corporations have been
buying up kosher food pro-
ducers over the last five
years, taking over what had
been relatively small busi-
nesses.
Hebrew National was
bought last February by the
$21 billion processed-food
conglomerate ConAgra Inc.
ConAgra's other brands in-
clude Healthy Choice frozen
foods and Butterball poultry.
Empire Kosher Poultry
was bought by a group of in-
vestors in 1992 and B.
Manischewitz & Co. was
taken private by a different
investment group in 1990.
Another national brand,
Bessin Corp., which
manufactures Sinai 48 and
Best Kosher deli products,
was acquired by interna-
tional giant Sara Lee Corp.
earlier this year.
While Sara Lee represent-
atives would not disclose
how much they paid for
Bessin, they did say that
Bessin had 1992 sales of $85
million.
And Sara Lee, which also
owns the Hillshire Farm,
Jimmy Dean and Ball Park
Frank brands of sausage,
had $13.2 billion in sales for
the year ending June 30,
1992.
These changes in owner-
ship have not been without
problems. In the case of Sara
Lee and Bessin, for example,
a conflict over the company's
kashrut supervision il-
lustrates what can happen
when corporate America
meets up with a religious
community long set in its
ways of doing business.
According to Rabbi Mayer
Bendet, a spokesperson for
OK Laboratories, a kosher
certifying agency based in
Brooklyn, having the symbol
of rabbinic acceptance on
packaging has become so
valuable to manufacturers
that brands are getting
squeezed out of their
markets without it.
In time, the corporate
takeover of kosher brands
may benefit consumers, say
some observers.
Distribution is improved,
bringing kosher food to con-
sumers in more parts of the
country, said Rabbi Yisroel
HaLevi Belsky, a senior au-
thority on kashrut at the
Union of Orthodox Hebrew
Congregations.

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