Keeping Yoshon Anywhere

Yoshon.com attempts to make it easy for people to keep yoshon no matter where they are in the world. With this in mind, we offer some tips and suggestions for how to determine the yoshon status of products in different areas of the world.

In the USA

Use our site as-is. Most of the products featured on our site are made in the USA. Date Codes must be checked for all items made in USA, or be sure that the item has “Yoshon” printed on the package.

For more information on reading Date Codes, visit our “Date Codes Explained” page.

If products are made in another country, it will be listed in its title in parenthesis. If a plant in a specific city or state is imperative to a product’s yoshon status, it may also be listed in its title or in a note below.
If any item is imported from Israel and has a reliable hechsher, it is automatically yoshon. If it is on our site it will say “(Made in Israel)” within the product title.

In Canada

Two major kashrut agencies report yoshon updates. We feature these products on our site as well. Although Canada is just above the USA, its crops follow different dates. Any items made in Canada and imported, must still follow the Canadian date. Any products imported to Canada from the USA must still follow the generally earlier US Date Codes.

Canadian hechshers often have a number within them to identify plant or company. This also helps with finding out yoshon information. The Canadian agencies often include these company numbers within the hechsher along with the date codes in their reports. Most often, date codes will be the Packing Date, which consists of the last digit of a year, followed by a Julian date. There may be a plant code listed within the series of numbers. Sometimes products will follow the BB or Best By Dates with a plant number. Check on the updates for Canadian products to see what these numbers are.

In Mexico

There are no major kashrut agencies overseeing products for yoshon status in Mexico. it is advisable to either bring your own food, or travel there right after Pesach.

Sadly, the knowledge of yoshon there is limited and/or non-existent, with many people believing that all products are always yoshon, or take so long to ship there that they are old enough to be yoshon. These ideas are simply untrue. Anyone who tells you that everything is yoshon in Mexico, does not know what they are talking about, and do not realize the intricacies of the mitzvah. It is a harsh reality, but true.

In the United Kingdom

Many of the products made in the UK, more specifically England, are yoshon. They are commonly imported to Israel. Make sure there is a reliable hechsher.

Anything under the hashgacha of:

Kedassia of London,

Rabbi O.Y. Westheim of Manchester,

or Rabbi Schneebalg of Edgeware, UK

are always yoshon, no matter where they are made.

In Israel

Anything made in Israel with reliable hashgacha is automatically yoshon. It is very important for people who are living in, or visiting Israel to know that all products imported from other countries are not necessarily yoshon. This is especially true of US products. These products’ Date Codes must be looked up just as if the person were living in the USA themselves.

Some reliable hechsherim to look for are:

Rabbi Moshe Landau of B’nei Brak,

Badatz Mehadrin,

Badatz Beit Yosef,

Chug Chatam Sofer of B’nai Brak,

and perhaps one the most well-known is the Eida Hacheiridis Badatz of Yerushalayim.

Other Countries

Most countries have kashrut agencies, which can be contacted for information on yoshon. There are a list of contacts on our Yoshon Contacts page. If it is known, that a product is Yoshon from another country, our site will list it. Unfortunately, most information from other countries is unknown and not reported on our site. Additionally, crops have different growing seasons in different parts of the world, so one country’s general date codes are not usually good for another’s. We hope this helps to explain a few differences for countries around the world.