For Passover, Quinoa Is Popular, but Kosher?

Little questions, though, sometimes arise that can stump even the experts. Like, what to do about the quinoa situation?

Quinoa (pronounced ki-NO-uh or KEEN-wah) is a grainlike South American crop newly popular among health-conscious North Americans. In the last decade, observant Jews have welcomed it with something like the thrill of seeing a new face at the Passover table after several thousand years of conversation with matzo and potatoes.

Tasty, gluten-free, protein-rich — and, by many accounts, kosher for Seders lacking in carbohydrate variety — it has become a staple of Passover cookbooks. Gourmet magazine hailed it in 2008 as the new “belle of the Passover ball.”

If only life were so simple.

As with most matters under the purview of Jewish law — from how to turn on the lights during the Sabbath, to what kind of cough syrup is certified kosher — a debate has emerged among rabbinical experts about quinoa’s bona fides as a kosher alternative to leavened-grain products like bread. And this has led to confusion and concern in many Passover kitchens around the country on the eve of the holiday, which begins on Monday evening.

“I went to hear two rabbis discussing the quinoa situation at my synagogue last week,” said Arlene J. Mathes-Scharf, a food scientist in Sharon, Mass., who specializes in kosher food and operates a popular consumer Web site, Kashrut.com. (Kashrut is the Hebrew word for kosher dietary law.)

“They had basically the same information, but they came to opposite conclusions,” Ms. Mathes-Scharf said. “Typical.”

Her hot line has received hundreds of “anxious inquiries” on the topic, Ms. Mathes-Scharf said.

At Pomegranate, a large kosher grocery in the heavily Orthodox Midwood section of Brooklyn, customers had more questions than guidance.

“They’re asking me 20 times a day, ‘What is the ruling?’?” Gabe Boxer, the store’s general manager, said last week.

“Look, we have ‘certified kosher for Passover’ quinoa — that’s what it says on the label,” he said, picking up a package and reading the fine print. “So it’s certified, as far as I know.”

There are two camps on quinoa: rabbis who say it is fine, and those who regard it as suspect. But both agree that its suitability for Passover depends on how the crop is harvested and shipped.

A definitive answer is not likely to be reached until a rabbi can be dispatched to a remote mountain region of Bolivia to inspect certain quinoa operations, said Rabbi Sholem Fishbane, director of the kosher supervision service of the Chicago Rabbinical Council. The council is one of several kashrut certification groups involved in the quinoa debate, which was brewing for years before it broke into the open in February with conflicting opinions issued by various rabbinical experts, he said.

“We’d like to get someone up there to inspect the operations, but it’s a four-day trek into the wilderness,” Rabbi Fishbane said. “Until we can get someone there, we’re going to have to make the best decisions we can with the information we have.”

Quinoa was unknown in the Middle East at the time of the Bible’s account of the Jews’ escape from Egypt, when their hurried flight left them no time to wait for their bread to rise. And since it was not part of their diet, it is not on the list of leavened grains forbidden to be eaten during Passover. For that reason, one of the nation’s leading kashrut certification companies, Star-K of Baltimore, issued an opinion in 1997 that quinoa was kosher for Passover. At the time, the crop was grown mainly in Bolivia and was just beginning to gain popularity in the United States.

Increasing demand here for quinoa — which can be boiled or otherwise prepared in a variety of ricelike dishes — has driven up the price, persuading many farmers who grew wheat, corn or barley in Bolivia and Peru to plant quinoa as well, said Rabbi Menachem Genack, director of the kosher department of the New York-based Orthodox Union, the world’s largest kashrut certification agency.

And there is the potential rub, Rabbi Genack explained. Some inspectors have found traces of wheat, and other grains susceptible to leavening in the cooking process, mixed in with quinoa shipped by some farmers, he said.

“They may be using the same equipment or bags to harvest a field of quinoa, and a field of something else,” he said. “Things easily get mixed up.”

The Orthodox Union has not certified quinoa kosher for Passover, leaving the decision to consumers and their rabbis. “We recommend that you inspect any product carefully before using it,” the rabbi said.

Under Jewish law, violating Passover dietary law is a serious offense, referred to by the Hebrew word “karet,” which means to be cut off from one’s soul.

Rabbi Fishbane of the Chicago Rabbinical Council voiced the more quinoa-friendly opinion, posted late last month on the council’s Web site. It says quinoa is proper for Passover if imported from Bolivia by companies that handle the crop exclusively. (The Web site suggests certain brands.) Rabbi Fishbane also recommends that consumers inspect quinoa for foreign matter.

Jesse Blonder, director of the Center for Kosher Culinary Arts in Brooklyn, which advertises itself as the only professional kosher cooking school outside Israel, said he found the popularity of quinoa at Passover interesting from a psychological viewpoint.

“When you’re eating this stuff, you know, it tastes different from everything you’ve always had for Passover — different enough that you feel, like, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it,” Mr. Blonder said. “For some people, that makes it taste better.”