Empire slowdown might bring kosher chicken shortage

Empire Kosher shut down production of kosher chickens for one day, leading to fears of a shortage for Passover.

The plant in Mifflintown, Pa., was scheduled to resume production March 4 after closing down on Feb. 28, Haaretz reported. Empire is the largest kosher poultry producer in the United States.

Company spokesperson Elie Rosenfeld told Haaretz that the plant did not slaughter tens of thousands of chickens that arrived Feb. 28 because about half of them were not at the appropriate weight. Waiting would allow them time to grow.

An unnamed source told the newspaper that the birds were not processed because too many of them had snapped leg tendons, rendering them unkosher.

Even before the temporary shutdown, which at least one observer told Haaretz would lead to a shortage of kosher chickens at Passover, “there were shortages in the last couple of weeks, since they started checking the tendons,” said the manager of the meat department at Gourmet Glatt in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn, who asked that his name be withheld.  — jta