Passover Recap 2026: Decaf Coffee, Xanthan Gum, Social Media and AI

By Arlene Mathes-Scharf Copyright ©2026

Passover Recap 2026: Decaf Coffee, Xanthan Gum, Social Media and AI

The Passover 2026 season has been different than those in the past. Social media has become an important source of information and misinformation for consumers. Passover product identification continues to be a game of “Where’s Waldo”.

People are now getting Passover information from social media. Sometimes this is helpful. Whats-app chats with a local rabbi can give people timely answers to their questions. However, a lot of misinformation has been circulating on social media. A week before Passover there was a scare online regarding Nescafe Decaf Coffee certified for Passover by the Israeli Chug Chasam Sofer agency. The coffee was produced in Korea and meant for the Israeli Passover market. Someone asked the OU as to whether the OU accepted this product for Passover and got the response that the OU always gives “that they only stand behind products bearing an OUP”. This was misinterpreted as the product was not acceptable and not that it was a standard OU statement that they do not comment on products they do not certify. This product was widely distributed to kosher stores throughout the US. Another problem with decaf coffee was that Folgers Decaf coffee was acceptable for Passover by the OU without a P last year, but not this year, because according to the OU of changes in the product’s production. A major Passover resource site erroneously listed Folgers Decaf coffee as acceptable without a P. This caused a great deal of confusion.

Another brief controversy which exploded on social media was that a Chasidic kashrus agency declared that Xanthan gum was not usable for Passover and people should avoid products containing it. This is a major ingredient derived by fermentation and dried using alcohol which is available certified for Passover by various major kashrus agencies.

People have also been using AI to determine if a product is usable for Passover. AI “hallucinates” (makes things up) and in at least one case mistakenly told the questioner that an unacceptable product was usable for Passover. The AI chatbot took year-round information from a kashrus agency and added “Passover” to it since the question asked about Passover. This product contained a possibly chometz-derived ingredient.

Matzo and many other products use year-round packaging and add somewhere on the package Kosher for Passover in English or Hebrew. Mixed cases of Passover and non-Passover products being delivered to stores which may have exacerbated the problem. Each item then needed to be examined carefully to decern its Passover status, which did not always happen. I saw Passover and non-Passover products next to each other in my local supermarkets. In Britain Rakusens’ matzo and matzo meal are packaged in red for their Passover-certified products and blue for the non-Passover products. This is a smart way for consumers to instantly identify the Passover products. An extreme example was Tanir Chumetz Passover Style Hand Matzah, which is chometz handmade matzo. The packaging in Yiddish said “Pesadika” meaning ‘Pesach style’ but sounds like kosher for Passover.

Kitniot products have proliferated for Passover. Identification of these products is often difficult for products with multiple certifications, some for Passover and some not-for Passover. Kitniot products are produced for the Israeli market where the majority is Sephardic. These products are now widely distributed in the United States and used by our Sephardic communities. This can be a challenge for consumers who need to determine which hecksher is the relevant one for them.

Passover 2026, like every Passover, has been a year when people needed to be vigilant and double-check the products that they purchased and the information that they received. The Kashrut.com Passover section, provided an authoritative source of information for consumers.