What is a Hechsher? What Are All Those Symbols?
There is an art to buying kosher which involves checking all prepared foods for the seal of rabbinic supervision.
What it means is that there is a reliable independent supervisor (mashgiach), a person who is knowledgeable in laws of kashrut, who spends time at the plant overseeing the entire process, from receipt of the new foodstuffs to shipment of the finished products. There are a number of registered kashrut symbols to look for, shown in the image above.
None of these symbols should be confused with ®, which does not mean Orthodox rabbis; it means registered trademark. For reliability of the above certifications, one should check with one’s own rabbi.
