Yoseph Herman, 24 Jan 17
CHODOSH PROBLEMS WITH WINTER WHEAT PRODUCTS, Update #1
We have just been made aware of the fact many if not most products that in earlier years have always been made with only winter wheat which is Yoshon, have this season been made with a blend of winter and possibly Chodosh spring wheat flours. This affects items such as matzos and matzo meal, pretzels. It also affects items using matzo meal such as gefilte fish.
Some mashgichim were aware of this change and made sure that only Yoshon (from stored from earlier years) spring wheat is being added to Yoshon products under their hashgocho. Other mashgichim were not aware of this, just as we at the Guide were not. Therefore, it is possible that some items with a Yoshon hashgocho may in fact have this problem. We were just informed of this a few days ago and are trying as rapidly as possible to find out which are the problem products. We will publish updates to this list on a frequent basis.
MEANWHILE WE ARE ASKING MASHGICHIM TO RESPOND TO THIS EMAIL IMMEDIATELY TO LET US KNOW WHICH PRODUCTS UNDER THEIR HASHGOCHO THAT USED TO BE FROM PURE WINTER WHEAT NOW BLEND IN YOSHON SPRING WHEAT AND WHICH MAY HAVE BEEN USING CHODOSH SPRING WHEAT THIS YEAR.
Below we present a very sparse initial list of items confirmed to be fully Yoshon. As soon as the mashgichim respond we can add more items to this list. Mashichim please email your responses to yherman20@gmail.com, or fax it to 888-755-7590.
The reason for this change is that due to agricultural conditions, the protein level of winter wheat had been declining to the point that even matzos and similar foods can no longer be produced satisfactorily from winter wheat flour only. Thus there arose the need to blend in spring wheat of higher protein. The amount of spring wheat is much less than 50%, but more than 1/60. This agricultural trend is expected to continue for the next several years. The Guide will not offer any halachic guidance in how to treat foods containing this possibly Chodosh spring wheat. We believe that some poskim are machmir and others are meikil. You must ask your own posek.
MEANWHILE:
DO NOT ask or write us for halachic guidance. Do not ask us at this point whether a specific item in your house or store has this problem. Even if your posek is machmir, do not throw out any foods. As mashgichim respond to this appeal for information, we will add to the list of items known to have or not have this problem.
PRELIMINARY LIST OF ITEMS USING ONLY YOSHON WHEAT:
GEFILTE FISH: A&B, Unger, Freunds, Dagim
MATZOS: Streits