K A S H R U T . C O M_©

The following chodosh information is from Rabbi Y. Herman on August 6, 2012.

"Oats products packed or produced as of Jul 26 may contain Chodosh. If purchased after Aug 9 package codes should be checked. However a later date is applicable for oatmeal and oats in other cereals made by General Mills, Quaker and Mail-O-Meal."
"SPRING WHEAT: Packaged foods that contain spring wheat may contain Chodosh if packed or produced as of Aug 9. If purchased after Aug 24 package codes should be checked. Items containing wheat, wheat germ or wheat starch may be Chodosh after this date unless it is known that the wheat is Yoshon. Examples of foods that are from winter wheat and are Yoshon are matzos and gefilte fish (Note: Some gefilte fish may use ground up bread crumbs instead of matzo meal. The only such brand we have found so far A&B was using only Yoshon bread crumbs.). However packaged products made by General Mills have an earlier date."

The following chodosh information is from Rabbi Y. Herman on August 2, 2012.

"I issued an urgent bulletin earlier this week, when the O-U informed me that the General Mills flour mill received the first shipment of Chodosh spring wheat on Jul25. This was much earlier than I expected. It turns out that this shipment was an anomaly. Indeed by Jul 31 only about 28% of the spring wheat had been harvested, as I expected. The early shipment appears to have been from one of the earliest lots harvested in North Dakota. The other mills I was able to reach expect to receive new spring wheat around Aug 15, as expected."

The following chodosh information is from Rabbi Y. Herman on August 1, 2012.

"The O-U informed us that the General Mills flour mill in Buffalo NY has already received its first shipment of Chodosh wheat for bakery flour on Jul 25. This date is the earliest we recall seeing Chodosh on the East Coast in the 40 years of the Guide to Chodosh. We expected Chodosh to start early, but not this early. Please do not contact us for details for a few days until we have had a chance to digest this information and develop revised guidelines. However, the tentative dates are for oats Jul 26, for wheat packaged goods and bakery products Aug 8 in the East and Far West and Jul 30 in the Midwest. For barley probably Aug 15."

The following chodosh information is from the Rabbinical Council of California on July 20, 2012.

For all those who are concerned with Chodosh/ yoshon please note that the season will most likely start the first week of AUGUST. Please plan accordingly.

The following chodosh information is from Rabbi Y. Herman and posted on the web by Jerusalem Kosher News on July 17, 2012.

The US Department of Agriculture ( USDA) releases their weekly report on crop progress on Monday of each week. The latest report indicates that the harvest of oats is well on the way. Our estimated oats packing cutoff date for oats is Jul 21, one week earlier than normal. The latest report does not mention any harvest of spring wheat or barley. We are quite certain that the harvest of these crops must also on the way by now and should be reported by the next weekly update from the USDA. Pending future reports, our preliminary estimate for spring wheat Chodosh date is Aug 2, and barley Aug 7. These dates refer to the earliest packing date when Chodosh may start to appear in manufactured items. These tentative dates should finalized in the next 1-2 weeks.

Ed Note: One can sign up for chodosh information from Rabbi Yoseph Herman by email by sendinb a blank email message to Chodosh-subscribe@jif.org.il