Orthodox Jews for whom El Al’s strictly kosher meals are not strict enough have reacted angrily to British Airways’ withdrawal of Kedassia-supervised meals, the only ones apparently which meet their standards.
British Airways advised selected travel agents and customers by letter last Friday that their catering department decided no longer to serve the Kedassia meals, which are prepared by the Hermolis catering firm. El Al stopped serving them some time ago. Its meat meals are prepared here under Federation of Synagogues supervision, which is not acceptable to some observant Jews.
British Airways’ customer service department said “the decision to discontinue Kedassia meals was not taken lightly.” But the airline offered no explanation for the move, saying only that it would keep the matter under review and invited “feedback from our customers and travel agents,”
A British Airways spokesman said the carrier caters to dozens of different categories of special meal requests and served 140,000 of them last year.’
El Al is expanding its dietary range to offer meatless meals, organically produced meals, medical diets and sugar-free meals.
On Monday, El Al announced that for the first time, the Chief Rabbinate of Jerusalem gave a glatt kosher approval to El Al’s Tel Aviv kitchen.
The “Kosher Lemehadrin” approval, effective immediately, will make the glatt kosher food available on all flights out of Tel Aviv, as well as on Europe to Israel flights.
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