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where technology meets good taste

Compliance Specifications

Kosher, Halal, Organic Know-How

Northwestern Foods is certified Kosher by Orthodox Union OU, certified Halal by IFANCA and certified Organic by Oregon Tilth.

Not only can we produce your products under these certifications, we can assist you in meeting the requirements and shouldering the burden of record keeping. Our experience in this area has taught us that experience counts.

(Article reprint from Orthodox Union's (www.ou.org) Behind the Union Symbol magazine)

"How I Keep It Perfectly Kosher at Northwestern Foods"
—By Evelyn Nordstrom

NORTHWESTERN FOODS, INC. is proud to be a producer of kosher and organic mixes for retail, food service and health care markets. Our motto, “Where Technology Meets Good Taste," sums up our appoach to making products that people love to eat while meeting the stringent requirements of good manufacturing practices under kosher supervision. We provide the best products and services for all of our companies and assist our customers in applying for kosher certification on new products. We also facilitate the process of getting the Private Label Agreements for our OU clients and pride ourselves on providing a kosher product-sequencing schedule to be used by our production staff.

During my years as quality assurance and quality development manager at Northwestern Foods, I have had the opportunity to work with helpful and knowledgeable rabbis from the OU, including Rabbis Raymond Morrison (New York), Michael Coleman (New York), Moshe Kasowitz (St. Paul) and Chaim Goldzweig (Chicago). With the information provided by these rabbis, Northwestern has instituted a program that adapted our Ingredient and Flavor Master Logs to insure full compliance.

Maintaining proper kosher status is an important goal in our company. In order to achieve this we:

Require our research and development team and our purchasing agent to ask for kosher certificates and specification sheets on both new and replacement ingredients. We then list them on a Request for Ingredient Approval form so that these new and replacement ingredients will be on our Schedule A for Approved Ingredients.
Require knowledge of what symbol must be displayed on the packaged ingredient so that when we receive it, we know what kosher symbol must be on the bag, box or label.
Require renewal of kosher certificates on ingredients when they expire.

In order to facilitate our adherence to these requirements, we have created an Excel spreadsheet titled, Ingredient and Flavor Master Logs, where information is recorded in an easily understandable form. On the chart, the flavor or ingredient is listed followed by three columns that address kosher concerns:

1) Kosher status - Schedule A - grouping number.

2) Visible Symbol - Symbol needed on the ingredient packaging. (This information has helped us in identifying Kosher problems at the time an ingredient or flavor is received.)

3) Certification Expires - The expiration date of the Kosher Certificate. (This column assists us when requesting Kosher Certification renewal letters.)

With all this information on one log, we have become more effective and more efficient in identifying kosher information. The logs - which are very easy to set up and maintain in an Excel spreadsheet - are used daily by Product Development, Warehouse Inventory and Quality Assurance personnel. Please refer to the Ingredient Master Log and the Flavor Master Log layouts for some ideas on how to "keep it perfectly kosher" at your own company. (U)

Evelyn Nordstrom is the Quality Development Manager for Northwestern Foods, Inc.
Rabbi Michael Coleman Serves as rabbinic coordinator for Northwestern Foods

Editor's note: Rabbi Chaim Goldzweig, the OU's most seasoned Senior Rabbinic Field Representative, has been serving the Kashruth Division for more than three decades, visiting, reviewing and evaluating plants throughout the world. While reading Rabbi Goklzwelg's recent review report at Northwestern Foods, I was most impressed with his feedback on Evelyn Nordstrom's meticulous attention to ail that pertains to the OU certification at North western. I was then prompted to ask Evelyn to share her "bag of tricks" for our publication.

(originally published in: BEHIND THE UNION SYMBOL WINTER 2002, page 10)