THIS SECTION IS FOR NEWS AND INTERESTING STORIES RELATED TO FOOD, NUTRITION AND FOOD PROCESSING. THEY ARE NOT NECESSARILY RELATED TO KOSHER BUT MAY BE OF INTEREST TO THE KOSHER CONSUMER, MANUFACTURER OR MASHGIACH.
November 26, 2025 from the CPSC:
Ozark Trail Tabletop 1-Burner Butane Camping Stoves have been recalled because the stoves can explode or catch fire, posing a burn and fire hazard to consumers.
Consumer Contact: Walmart at 800-925-6278 from 7 a.m. through 9 p.m. CT or online at www.walmart.com/help or https://corporate.walmart.com/recalls for more information.
Description: This recall involves Ozark Trail Tabletop 1-Burner Butane Camping Stoves with model number BG2247A1. The model number is printed on a gray label on the inside of the fuel compartment. The camping stoves are dark green with an orange “Ozark Trail” logo printed on the front.
Remedy: Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled stoves and return the product to any Walmart retail store for a full refund.
Incidents/Injuries: China Window Industry Co., Ltd has received 26 reports of the camping stoves exploding or catching fire, including 16 reports of injuries such as second-degree burns.
Sold At: Walmart stores nationwide and online at Walmart.com from March 2023 through October 2025 for between $8 and $45.
November 28, 2025 from JTA:
"On Thanksgiving morning, as volunteers gathered at Congregation Shearith Israel for the synagogue’s 11th annual “packathon,” they also marked a new milestone: Their synagogue was opening a kosher food pantry on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
"Over the summer, Shearith Israel reached out to Alexander Rapaport, the executive director of Masbia, a kosher soup kitchen and food pantry, to propose an idea: Masbia could open a location in their synagogue.
"At the event on Thursday morning where the new Masbia Relief Annex was announced, volunteers from local faith groups, including the Jewish Center, the Latter-Day Saints and the West End Church, watched the parade and assembled 2,000 packages of food.
"Solomon said Shearith Israel had pledged to contribute $50,000 to the new Masbia annex, and was asking local faith groups to collectively match their donation.
"The new food distribution center is scheduled to open sometime before Hanukkah, and will allow Masbia to serve Manhattan through the use of Doordash, which provides the nonprofit with free delivery services.
"Solomon said Shearith Israel had pledged to contribute $50,000 to the new Masbia annex, and was asking local faith groups to collectively match their donation.
"The new food distribution center is scheduled to open sometime before Hanukkah, and will allow Masbia to serve Manhattan through the use of Doordash, which provides the nonprofit with free delivery services.
"Masbia currently has three locations, two in Brooklyn and one in Queens. Now, Rapaport said the new space will allow the food nonprofit to provide delivery service in Manhattan as well."
November 24, 2025 - from the FDA:
Nine additional cookware products that may leach lead into food when used for cooking or food storage have been added to the table here.
The complete list of products can be found in the table below. Other cookware products may also be affected. FDA will continue to update this table with additional products as new information becomes available.
Consumers should check their homes for the products listed below and throw away any cookware that may be able to leach lead into food when used for cooking or food storage. Do not donate or refurbish this cookware.
September 19, 2025 - from the FDA:
Shata Traders Inc of Brooklyn, NY is recalling Chef Brand Milk Pan 24 cm, because it has the potential to be contaminated with significant levels of lead (Pb) which may leach into food. Lead is toxic to humans and can affect people of any age or health status, and there is no known safe level of exposure to lead. ven low levels of lead exposure can cause serious health problems, particularly in children and fetuses. Consuming food with elevated lead levels can contribute to elevated levels of lead in the blood. Children and babies are more susceptible to lead toxicity due to their smaller body size, metabolism, and rapid growth. At low levels, children may not have obvious symptoms but can still experience trouble learning, low IQ, and behavior changes. At higher levels of lead exposure, people may experience fatigue, headache, stomach pain, vomiting, or neurologic changes.
The Chef Brand Milk Pan 24 cm product was distributed in NY, NJ, CT, MD, VA and MA areas.
The product is sold as 6Pcs/Box which are sold individually at retail.
If you have purchased Chef Brand Milk Pan 24cm, you are requested to stop using the product and return it to the retail store from where you have bought it for a full refund.
For questions and concerns please contact (718) 369-7000 ask for Mahboob Rahman.
November 20, 2025 from the CPSC:
Name of Product: Defective portable electric car kettles, distributed by BLONGKY
Hazard: The car kettles can unexpectedly spew steam or hot water when opened by a consumer and can also burn consumers when the lid mechanism fails and the top unexpectedly opens.
Consumer Action: CPSC urges consumers to immediately dispose of the defective car kettles following local hazardous waste disposal procedures. Do not sell or give away these hazardous car kettles.
November 19, 2025 from Yeshiva World:
"On Friday, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order that includes, among other items, an exemption to the reciprocal tariffs on “bread…used for religious purposes” (e.g., Matzah) and on the Arba Minim – the plant species used by Jews during the holiday of Sukkos.
"As the overwhelming majority of these products come from Israel and other foreign countries, tariffs would have threatened access and increased costs of religious observance. This accommodation builds upon the precedent of other exemptions to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule for certain religious items and is consistent with the Trump administration’s focus on protecting religious freedom.
"'“Thank you to the Trump administration for once again accommodating religious practices by exempting the Arba Minim and Matzah from reciprocal tariffs and making it easier for Jewish families to celebrate their holidays,” said Rabbi A.D. Motzen, Agudath Israel’s national director of government affairs. “We appreciate that the White House took the matter seriously when we and others brought up these issues and worked with the relevant agencies to find a solution.'"
November 19, 2025 from Nutraceuticals World:
"Per an executive order issued on Nov. 14, several botanical ingredients and products have been placed in Tariff Annex II, exempting them from reciprocal tariffs issued by the Trump Administration earlier this year.
"Many tea and spice commodities previously in Annex III have moved to Annex II, making them fully exempt from the reciprocal tariff regime, including coffee and tea extracts.
Other commodities include saffron, turmeric, cocoa, several mushrooms, ginger, cinnamon, and turmeric. The full list of commodities that were exempted on Nov. 14 can be found here.
Ed. note: the list includes:
November 14, 2025 from Cleveland Jewish News:
"Kosher dining options are growing at Miami University in Oxford.
"New this fall is a kosher bagel kiosk, offering Marx Bagels, salads and other certified kosher grab-and-go items available for purchase through students’ dining plans, according to a news release.
"Marx Bagels, based in the Cincinnati suburb of Blue Ash, is certified kosher in Cincinnati by Cincinnati Kosher and in Columbus by Buckeye Kosher.
"The counter was added through the efforts of Chabad at Miami University, led by Rabbi Yossi and Mushka Greenberg. In collaboration with dining services, Chabad at Miami University helped to introduce many kosher products that can now be found in the fridge and freezer of the on-campus Market Street at MacCracken, the release said. From glatt kosher franks and cold cuts, to cholov Yisroel cream cheese, yogurts and more, the new offerings “significantly expanded” the availability of kosher food for Jewish students studying at Miami University."
November 14, 2025 from pbs:
"Months after being forced out as president of the University of Virginia, Jim Ryan is still pondering Passover food.
"More specifically, Ryan, who was pushed out of the role over the summer amid mounting GOP pressure on the public university, cited the topic as an example of why he was confused about the “DEI ban” imposed earlier this year by the public school’s board. The ban had been drafted by the office of the state’s Republican governor.
"'It’s not clear even today what it means to kill DEI,' Ryan wrote in a letter Friday to the UVA faculty senate telling his side of the story.
"He went on: 'For example, did it mean that we could no longer try to recruit qualified first-generation students from rural parts of Virginia, or offer financial aid, or even serve matzah in the dining halls during Passover, because each of those efforts would be advancing diversity, equity, and/or inclusion?'
"As for matzah in the dining hall, no school has yet been criticized as excessively inclusive for offering kosher food. In fact, several universities facing allegations of antisemitism tied to their handling of anti-Israel protests have expanded their kosher dining-hall offerings as part of their overtures to Jewish students."
November 14, 2025 from pbs:
"President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday to get rid of tariffs on a broad swath of commodities, including beef, coffee and tropical fruits. It’s part of a response to pressure from consumers who complain prices are too high.
"The move comes after voters in off-year elections earlier this month cited economic concerns as their top issue, resulting in big wins for Democrats in races in Virginia and New Jersey.
"The president signed the executive order after announcing that the U.S. had reached framework agreements with Ecuador, Guatemala, El Salvador and Argentina designed to ease import levies on agricultural products produced in those countries. Trump suggested earlier this week that he’d be lowering tariffs on coffee to help increase its importation.
"Trump and his administration have been long insisted that tariffs don’t increase consumer prices. Some of the products covered in the new executive order aren’t produced in the United States.
"But record-high beef prices have been a particular concern, and Trump has said he intended to take action to try to lower them. Trump’s tariffs on Brazil, a major beef exporter, have been a factor."
November 13, 2025 from Food Ingredients First:
"Scientists in Israel have developed a method to naturally “immortalize” cow cells without genetic modification or abnormal transformation — challenging long-held beliefs that genetic methods are the only way bovine cells can renew themselves.
"The discovery addresses one of the most stubborn bottlenecks in cultivated beef and lamb production by providing a “safe, stable, and scalable” source of cells for sustainable and ethical meat production without the environmental toll of traditional livestock farming.
"While similar self-renewal has been achieved previously in chicken cells, this study overturns previous assumptions that such processes were not possible in large mammals due to their natural resistance to cellular transformation, says the team at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Believer Meats, who jointly conducted the research.
"The study’s lead, professor Yaakov Nahmias from the Grass Center for Bioengineering at the university founded Believer Meats in 2018, which partnered with GEA last year to enhance the scalability and sustainability of cultivated chicken.
"The process, published in Nature, was driven by the activation of telomerase and PGC1α, allowing the cells to “reset their biological clocks” and regenerate mitochondria.
"The study highlights that in traditional cell biology animal cells stop dividing after a certain number of generations and enter a stage called “senescence.” Until now, cattle cells could only evade this limit through gene editing, which raised concerns around safety and regulatory approval.
"The scientists isolated cells from Holstein and Simmental cows and cultured them in the laboratory for over 500 days. The team tracked the cells’ progression through aging and senescence, “until cell colonies appeared,” he adds.
"After 240 cell generations, they observed “spontaneously renewing” bovine cells, which had never been demonstrated before in large mammals.
"No disruption in the normal growth regulation of the cells was observed during molecular analysis, and the cells retained their DNA repair capabilities, which the authors note depicts a “natural, controlled pathway of renewal.”
"The findings eliminate one of the biggest technical and regulatory barriers to producing affordable cultivated beef, note the researchers. Securing approval across different countries is complex and costly, with manufacturers also facing various bottlenecks around cell line sourcing and culture media.
"Nahmias emphasizes that “stable, self-renewing bovine cell lines” are the cornerstone for scaling cultivated beef. Growing the cells without genetic modification “removes a major technical and regulatory barrier” in the field.
"Looking ahead, the team plans to investigate whether the natural cell renewal process can be applied to other mammals and whether these cells can be developed into muscle and fat tissues suitable for cultivated meat production."
November 16, 2025 from Jerusalem Post:
"While Israel could produce enough plant-based foods for survival, full self-sufficiency would come at a staggering cost and be reliant on vegetative food production.
"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement last September that worldwide hostility to Israel could force it to become a globally isolated “super-Sparta” with “autarkic features” – meaning little or no engagement with international trade – is mistaken and unfeasible, at least when it comes to feeding the nation.
"A new Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI) study has revealed that while Israel could technically sustain itself through local vegetative food production, the economic price would be staggering. The model shows that complete self-sufficiency would demand massive farming subsidies and major shifts in agricultural output, making it an impractical goal. Instead, Prof. Iddo Kan, Prof. Israel Finkelshtain, doctoral student Yehuda Slater, and Prof. Aron Troen of the Robert Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment argued for a balanced approach, combining agricultural innovation, diversified import sources, and strategic food storage, saying this path would offer the most sustainable path to national food security.
"When wars, pandemics, and trade disruptions shake global markets, one question becomes urgent for every nation: Can we feed ourselves? The study offers an answer – and a warning. “Achieving full food self-sufficiency in Israel is technically possible –but only for plant-based foods intended for human consumption, not for livestock feed. Thus, during a severe import blockade, Israel’s food system could sustain a vegetarian population, but not maintain its current levels of animal-based production.
"There is nothing shameful about this reliance on other countries for some types of food, Kan told The Jerusalem Post. 'Israel is similar to other relatively rich countries that are highly dependent on food imports like Belgium, Cyprus, Iceland, Japan, Malta, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.'"
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