Growth of Jewish Food Culture

Food plays a demonstrative roll as a statement of culture.  The Jewish religion has both a very strong culture and string dietary guidelines that bind observant practitioners to a small number of foods, when compared with that amount of food available the rest of United States culture.   With the recent growth of culturally variant foods that have become popular in the United States there has also been a growth thin the popularity of kosher foods (Applebome). Sales of kosher food have grown to a $14 billion a year industry (Applebome).  This growth has brought traditional kosher food to a larger audience, but has also brought created a demand for a more diverse range of kosher products such as white grape Matzo, Concord grape matzo, spelt matzo, thin tea matzo, yolk free matzo, apple cinnamon matzo, non dairy cake frosting, even kosher Spanish pilaf mix (Applebome).   These are all non-traditional foods, by the normal standards of the culture, but the interest of those people who are not a part of the Jewish cutler has produced an economic demand for these new multicultural food products.   While many of these new products are made for the new non-Jewish market, some of the new products are, no doubt, consumed by Jews observing kosher dietary practices.  This represents the confluence of cultures to some extent, but to what extent is not clear.  According to Rabbi Yaakov Y. Horowitz “It’s the process that has to be traditional not the food that comes form it” (Applebome).  This statement makes the rules of kosher very clear, that safe handling of food, and not dietary restrictions are the central focus of kosher traditions.  The more interesting part of this statement it that the traditional process that Rabbi Horowitz refers to in this circumstance is a state of the art, fully automated, high speed manufacturing plant.  Rabbi Horowitz demonstrates that there are very specific parts of the process have to be kept traditional, and with a large number of rabbi inspecting the new machinery there is no doubt that the process adheres to these cultural and religious guidelines.

 

Works Cited:

Applebome, Peter. "Matzo Sells Like Hotcakes." Matzo Sells Like Hotcakes - New York TImes. 13 Apr. 2008. The New York Times. 2 Dec. 2008 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/13/nyregion/13towns.html?_r=1.