State officials reported yesterday that an Asbury Park commercial facility is the first kosher hotel in New Jersey to admit having non-kosher meat on its premises with intent to serve to its diners. A fine and costs were imposed.
James Barry, Jr., director of the state Division of Consumer Affairs, said the Asbury Metropolitian Hotel Company, which operates the hotel, had admitted possession of non-kosher meat, with intention to serve, after a division inspection at the hotel last August 30 found 10 pounds of non-kosher hamburger patties on the premises.
Barry signed an administrative action consent agreement between the division and the hotel company under which the company was penalized with a $2,000 civil penalty and $500 in costs. The agreement, said state Attorney General Irwin Kimmelman, was negotiated by his office.
The hotel company, Barry added, promised to comply with regulations in the future and to permit inspection of the hotel by the state division at all times when its officers, agents or employes are in the hotel, regardless of whether the hotel is open to the public.
SAYS KOSHER FOOD FRAUD IN N.J. IS ‘APPALLING’
Barry said that the extent of kosher food fraud in New Jersey was “appalling.” The Division of Consumer Affairs, he said, has collected more than $28,000 in penalties for misrepresentation of non-kosher food as kosher since legislation signed by Governor Thomas Kean made this a violation of the state Cconsumer Froud Act and created a state Kosher Foods Enforcement Bureau. The legislation went into effect April 2.
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency was told that other violators have included butcher shops, catering facilities and a delicatessen. The division, Barry said, will enforce the law to the maximum extent “to protect all consumers who willingly pay higher prices for kosher products.”
Howard Wigder, special assistant to Barry and chief of the enforcement bureau, declaring that the costs of kosher food fraud are not only economic, said it was necessary to consider, as well, “the emotional stress placed upon the people who live by the dietary laws” who thought “they had been served kosher food when they had not.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
