What is wrong with this picture?!


Question: I went to my local specialty food store (where I have been a customer for over 3 years) to purchase HALVAH. They have always been good suppliers of a fresh product. The shelves had none, so I asked for it by name & was told (in a loud voice) that the product was no longer allowed to be sold because it was made from HYDROGENATED FAT! Needless to say, I was disappointed & perplexed at this new attitude towards an old time, traditional ETHNIC FOOD! I logged onto the Joyva Co & researched the ingredients in Halvah & found that it only has PARTIALLY Hydrogenated OIL, & not fat, as the clerk wrongly told me.
Is this product going to disappear from the shelves of American stores? The food Police have gone too far & this could be a new form is discrimination via boycotting ethnic foods.
The store is family owned by people who are openly Christian & now the Jewish Passover foods are no longer on their shelves...this is strange...What is wrong with this picture?


Answers: I went to my local specialty food store (where I have been a customer for over 3 years) to purchase HALVAH. They have always been good suppliers of a fresh product. The shelves had none, so I asked for it by name & was told (in a loud voice) that the product was no longer allowed to be sold because it was made from HYDROGENATED FAT! Needless to say, I was disappointed & perplexed at this new attitude towards an old time, traditional ETHNIC FOOD! I logged onto the Joyva Co & researched the ingredients in Halvah & found that it only has PARTIALLY Hydrogenated OIL, & not fat, as the clerk wrongly told me.
Is this product going to disappear from the shelves of American stores? The food Police have gone too far & this could be a new form is discrimination via boycotting ethnic foods.
The store is family owned by people who are openly Christian & now the Jewish Passover foods are no longer on their shelves...this is strange...What is wrong with this picture?

For one thing, this is not the time of year one would expect to find Passover foods in markets. Passover is in the spring, with the special Passover foods appearing somewhat before it. So cut the market some slack on that account.

BUT, it does seem possible that you're up against some self-appointed Food Police. Since you seem to have been a good, steady customer for a while, why not have a conversation with the market's management and find out what they're doing and why. Can you verify that the product is not "allowed" to be sold? By what authority? What other foods made with (partially) hydrogenated fats have they ceased to carry?

FYI, it's splitting hairs to distinguish between fats and oils. Both are lipids, distinguished from one another by being in a solid or liquid state, respectively, at room temperature. Both can be partially hydrogenated.

before you get defensive, take a look around in the store.
do they have any other jewish, muslim, (any non-christian religion) food?
halvah is not stricly limited to jewish people.
it's for people in middle east.
anyways, i tried something like a halvah once, delicious and nutty.

Hydrogenated fats banned?
You must be in New York City.

Very strange. It sounds as though they have chosen to discontinue certain foods and are using health as a reason. Try another store, because I'm quite sure that Halvah is not being removed from everyone's shelves.

Oh, and by the way, you are able to eat hydrogenated oil in NYC. Some restaurants have discontinued transfats in their oils, but that's another story.

I live in Michigan by many Arabice grocers, and they sell halva...want me to send ya some?????





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