Shellfish label on Beth Din-certified British Airways meal causes confusion

A Jewish British Airways passenger was left “dismayed” after finding shellfish listed in the ingredients in his Beth Din-certified kosher meal on a flight from Tokyo on Monday.

Dennis Krushner, who designed the UK’s first telephone interviewing software for microcomputers in the 1980s, complained to BA about the meal, which was sourced in Lyon and bore a kosher certificate from the Lyon Beth Din.

A certificate included with Krushner’s Mediterranean Salmon meal said it contained fish stock, two ingredients of which were shellfish and mollusc. Fish require scales and fins to be considered kosher.
This week a BA spokeswoman said the airline had investigated and found that while the meal was kosher, the ingredients were incorrectly listed, adding that the dish contained vegetable stock, not fish stock. But Krushner was left unimpressed.

“I contacted BA, who simply replied, effectively, that it was shame we didn’t like the meal even though I pointed out that these ingredients are not kosher,” he said.

A BA customer services representative initially wrote to Krushner, saying: “You’re clearly unhappy with the quality of our food… We choose our catering partners carefully and we set very high standards for food preparation. Our suppliers must have strict processes in place to ensure these standards are met.”

This week BA said: “We understand the distress this has caused our customer. Our supplier has confirmed that the kosher meals do not contain any banned raw material and have committed to updating their ingredient list to reflect this.

The food’s kosher certificate is certified by Dayan Yehia Teboul. In a statement on its website, it says: “The Regional Consistory and the Regional Beth Din have put in place a whole system of control in order to guarantee Kosher irreproachable to all the faithful.”

It adds that its kosher logo “is recognised as a quality reference”.

The Lyon Beth Din has been approached for comment.