With a slogan of “Our ovens are always warm, and you are always welcome,” its no wonder that Sweet Tammy’s is known for its mouthwatering, kosher and dairy-free baked goods. They were recently recognized for their dedication to superb taste and quality with the “Best Flavors” award at the recent Kosherfest Expo at the Meadowlands.

Sweet Tammy’s natural ingredients and additive-free recipes produce cookies and breads with an authentic,homemade flavor. Each product is made from scratch, using fresh, premium ingredients. The irresistible cookies, breads and challah are certified OK kosher pareve and are available at Sweet Tammy’s Pittsburgh bakery and other fine retailers.

Visit Sweet Tammy’s for more information.

Windham, NH (PRWEB)

HomeFree, LLC recently announced that HomeFree cookies have been selected as the About.com 2012 Readers’ Choice Award winner for best allergy friendly sweets. Now in its fifth year, the About.com Readers’ Choice Awards honor the best products, features and services across more than a dozen categories, ranging from technology to hobbies to parenting and more, as selected by its readers.

“This year’s Readers’ Choice Awards program had a record number of nominations submitted across dozens of categories and featured hundreds of finalists,” said Margot Weiss, managing editor, About.com. “We are thankful to all our readers for their participation and congratulate HomeFree on their success.”

HomeFree was started by Jill Robbins, a clinical psychologist and mom to a child with food allergies. Jill wanted to make it easier for people with special dietary needs to be included in social events that involve food. Jill is delighted to receive this award, saying “I am thankful to About.com for its ongoing focus on food allergies, and of course am very pleased with the growing excitement about our products and company as reflected by the outpouring of votes we received. We have heard from people that they voted for HomeFree cookies for many different reasons. Of course the biggest was the care we use for allergy safety, but the buzz was also about how delicious and healthy the cookies are not just for those with allergies but for everyone. People especially expressed appreciation that HomeFree cookies are natural or organic, non-GMO, and whole grain, and that most are now certified gluten free as well. Some people also told us that they love not only the cookies, but also supporting a small woman owned business and a B Corporation (bcorporation.net/homefree). We are grateful to HomeFree’s many fans for voting and for helping to spread the word.”

HomeFree cookies are available in retail stores nationally in 5 ounce and 6 ounce boxes. They also are available single serve for retail and for food service in a 10-pack point of sale box and a 100-pack bulk box, and bulk wrapped for food service in a 3 pound and a 10 pound box. All HomeFree products are certified kosher pareve by OK Kosher Certification.

HomeFree Gluten Free Vanilla Mini Cookies won a Best Snack Award 2011 from Shape Magazine, were a finalist for Best New Food at Natural Products Expo East 2011, and are being awarded on May 5th a Food & Beverage Product Innovations 2012 Award presented by the National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show.

Jill Robbins can be contacted at http://www.homefreetreats.com, [email protected], http://www.facebook.com/homefreetreats, http://www.twitter.com/homefreetreats, or telephone 800-552-7172 for more information.

In addition to the requirement that all ingredients (including anti-foam and other production aids) used to make a kosher product must be certified kosher, the equipment used to produce the product must meet kosher requirements as well. As previously discussed, meat and dairy products cannot be mixed or produced on the same equipment. In addition, if a product will be pareve (neutral), it cannot be produced on dairy or meat equipment.

In order to make used equipment suitable for kosher production, or to change a production line from meat or dairy to pareve, a special process, called kosherizing, must take place. Kosherizing is done by the rabbi assigned to your facility and involves a process of cleaning and purging the equipment of its non-kosher status. After all equipment is left idle for 24 hours, it is meticulously cleaned by facility staff and inspected for cleanliness by the rabbi. Then, depending on the type of equipment, the rabbi oversees the actual kosherization. There are a few methods, which vary based on the equipment, and include boiling, use of steam, and purging through direct contact with fire.

Once this process is complete, the production equipment becomes kosher according to Jewish law. Kosherization is also required to produce Passover products in a facility that was used to produce other products during the year.

The OK is always at the forefront of merging technology with kosher certification. From computerized product and ingredient data storage, to online access to thousands of kosher certificates, the OK takes pride in its high tech, user-friendly kosher database. Recently, we have taken technology a step further and put our full product list in the palm of your hand!

The OK’s complete product list (both industrial and consumer) is now available for the iPhone, iPad & iPod Touch. The OK Kosher Food Guide App (free in the iTunes store) enables you to search the extensive database of OK certified products by company name or category and have the kosher information at your fingertips, including Cholov Yisroel, Pas Yisroel & Yoshon status! The guide is automatically updated daily to give you the most up-to-date information.

Other great features include a direct link the OK website and current and past issues of Kosher Spirit magazine, as well as the link to download our popular Vegetable Checking Guide app. You can also use the app to suggest new kosher products to the OK.

We are currently in the process of developing an Android version of the app, which we hope to unveil in the coming weeks!

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ok-kosher-food-guide/id424950041?mt=8&ls=1
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9vzZ9r8NzA&w=640&h=390]

A kosher ingredient is one that is certified by a reputable kosher certification agency and approved for use by the OK.

Application for:

• Receiving: The receiving department must check all incoming ingredients for kosher products to ensure that they are on the approved ingredient list and conform to the specifications on the kosher certificate (i.e. kosher symbol on package, bulk certificate, lot number, etc.).

• Production: Only approved kosher ingredients with the correct designation (meat, dairy, pareve, or Passover) can be used in the production of kosher products.

A pareve (neutral) product is made from inherently kosher or kosher certified ingredients that are neither meat, nor dairy. Some examples of pareve ingredients are raw fruits & vegetables, flour, sugar, kosher fish, and eggs. (more…)