ByJonathan Kalmus, Jonathan Kalmus
The world's first Italian-made kosher mozzarella is on sale in Britain thanks to an Italian family who opened their doors to the Manchester Beth Din.
Traditional mozzarella is made with buffalo milk from non-kosher dairies and soaked in heated brine baths, making it impossible to remove non-kosher ingredients.
Only American and Canadian-made versions have been available, usually from dedicated factories.
But Italian Chabad rabbi Ronnie Canarutto contacted the Beth Din after finding a cheese-making family near Venice willing to divulge their secret recipe.
"This is a family who do not normally tell their secrets which is key to the cheese's quality," said Mr Canarutto.
"The difficulty lay in the family understanding why we needed to inspect everything, but they were willing once they understood the logic of kosher food production."
Beth Din inspectors travelled to Italy to advise the cheesemakers on the technicalities of koshering the baths and other equipment and Dayan Yehuda Osher Steiner returned in May to certify the the first two tonnes of kosher cheese made using the new techniques.