Types
A Hechsher is typically issued for food products and is issued on non-food items such as cleaning agents and disposable cutlery which come in contact with foods certifying its ingredients as not containing any animal extracts or other halakhically prohibited substances
The dietary laws of kashrut specify food items that may be eaten and others that are prohibited as set out in the commandments of the Torah.
Observant Jews will generally only eat permitted foods. To assist Jewish consumers, rabbinic authorities produce and regulate their own hechsherim. It is usually Orthodox rabbis who assume the jobs of mashgichim (singular: mashgiach, "supervisor"). This means that they will "supervise" the products and processes that manufacture kosher food to ensure compliance with the required standards. The mashgiach will allow the manufacturer to apply a hechsher to the packaging of the product only if found to contain only kosher ingredients and produced in accordance with Halakha.
The Rabbi may also apply additional words or letters after the hechsher to denote whether the product contains meat (often denoted "Meat"), dairy (D or Dairy), neither meat nor dairy (Pareve), whether the product is Kosher for Passover because it contains no chametz (P), whether the product is Pas Yisroel (bread baked at least in part by a Jew), cholov yisroel (any dairy products came from Jewish owned farms), or whether the product is yoshon (lit. "old": all grain contents took root before the previous Passover).
It is also common for Rabbis to issue a Hechsher on religious accessories, such as Tefillin, Mezuzot and Tzitzit which must be produced according to specific Halakhic procedures and requirements. Other items which are used for religious practice such as Four Species bear Hechsher testifying that they confirm to halakhic requirements.
In Israel it is common for manufacturers of all kinds to display a Hechsher on products or in commercial advertisement certifying that their production was not done during the Shabbat.
Read more about this topic: Hechsher
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