OU DAIRY INDUSTRY SEMINAR PROVIDED A THOROUGH UNDERSTANDING OF THE INTRICACIES AND BENEFITS OF KOSHER PRODUCTION OF DAIRY PRODUCTS
With the presence of representatives from companies located from New Hampshire to California and many states in between, the Orthodox Union held Dairy Seminar 2006 last week, which was directed at plant managers, directors of quality assurance, production and marketing, and anyone with responsibility for a dairy company’s kosher program.
Topics covered included,
Session 1: Homogenizing a Dairy and Pareve Plant; Pasteurizing a Kosher/Non-Kosher Plant; and, Learning How to Manage Adversity in Kosher Regulations.
Session 2: Marketing: Getting Your Message to the Consumer; Getting Our Message to You.
Session 3: Maintaining an Effective Kosher Program; and, Nothing Can Go Wrong…Can it?
Session 4: Ingredients: Navigating the Complex Issues (including whey cream, etc.)
Phil Bowman, Operations Manager for Ventura Foods of Birmingham, AL, gave a comprehensive “power-point” presentation of how the koshering system at Ventura works. In addition, his plant devised a unique system which is able to match label codes to production schedules to assure against mislabeling of OU Pareve and OU Dairy products.
During the presentation, Mr. Bowman summed up the general feelings as follows, “We are proud to be associated with the Orthodox Union, and it’s been pretty good for us.”
The marketing session featured the guru of kosher marketing Menachem Lubinsky of Lubicom Marketing and Communications, and Jacob Rusanov of Wakefern Food Corporation, a major supermarket chain in the New York metropolitan area, which carries a wide line of OU Dairy products.
Phil Bowman of Ventura Foods of Birmingham, AL participates in the panel discussion, Homogenizing a Dairy and Pareve Plant.
Participants listen attentively to discussions on dairy topics.
Rabbi Moshe Elefant, Chief Operating Officer of OU Kosher, was chairman of a panel discussion, Marketing: Getting Your Message to the Consumer; Getting Our Message to You. Panelists Menachem Lubinsky and Jacob Rusanov look on.