Kashrus Issues in the UK: Pigs and Kosher Meat

The JC. Com has an interesting article concerning vans that were delivering meat to a kosher butcher shop known as Super Glatt. Pictures taken showed a pigs carcase sitting right next to kosher meat that was under strict Kosher supervision by a London Kashrus authority. A Rabbi who did not want to be named said halachcily there is no real issue as the meat is cleaned and salted before consumption.

David Rose, executive director of the London Board of Shechita, the largest shechitah board in the UK, said: "This does not happen with our meat. Our abattoirs do not put pig carcasses on the lorries with kosher carcasses."We inspect our meat when the lorries are delivered. I have spoken to a senior inspector and he has never seen anything like this with our lorries.

"I can't speak for other shechitah boards."A statement from the Union of Hebrew Orthodox Congregations, which oversees Kedassia, said that transporting kosher with non-kosher meat saved costs."The Union rabbinate is aware of the delivery of both raw kosher and non-kosher carcases in the same vehicle," it said."This raises no halachic problems."The kosher meat bears two clearly identifiable kashrus seals [metal tags], and is checked by Kedassia's full time mashgichim [supervisors] upon arrival at the butchers' shops."The abattoir processes both kosher and non-kosher animals at different times but delivery in the same vehicle saves on considerable transport costs."The 'aesthetics' of the photos plays no part in the halachic permissibility of the delivery of such meat in the same vehicle."