Best Kosher Ever

When this isn't available

We all know we’ve got 48 hours to book that meal. And most of the time, we do. But sometimes either we forget, or more often our significant other forgets OR things don’t go as planned.

Flights get canceled, delayed, bumped. Meals get lost. So what to do if you eat a Kosher diet and have no meal?

always pretzels

Don’t Panic!!! They serve SNACKS. And guess what, most airlines serve KOSHER snacks like potato chips, pretzels, and cookies. And all the kosher-keeping traveler has to do to get them is to ask.

Take a look at what you can eat aboard US airlines if and when you forget to book your meal:

American Airlines

American Airlines: Chocolate Chunk cookie (which is OU-Dairy) and 3 Musketeers candy bar are kosher certified. Kosher meals are approved by the Orthodox Union (OU) and  First and Business Classes on transcontinental flights in the US.; all classes to Europe and Asia; all classes to Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paulo, Brazil; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Santiago, Chile or Montevideo, Uruguay. Kosher meals are adapted during Passover.

Continental airlines kosher breakfast

Continental Airlines : We provide kosher meals and snacks  in both our domestic first class and main cabin for our Trans-Continental flights and Latin flights. We also provide kosher meals for our BusinessFirst and main cabin for Trans-Atlantic and Trans-Pacific flights. Trans-continental, he explained refers to flights from Newark to West Coast destinations such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, San Diego, Orange County and Portland.

regal kosher on delta

Delta Airlines: There are five OU certified snacks on EATS flights: Pringles, Animal Crackers, Clif Bar, Dove Bar, and Emerald Nuts Mix. He noted as well that on flights out of JFK, LaGuardia and Tel Aviv, kosher meals are prepared fresh, locally; on all other flights, kosher meals are prepared and frozen by Weiss Kosher, under OU supervision.

kosher snacks

JetBlue Airways: Most of their complimentary snacks offered in-flight are kosher. In addition, they offer kosher for Passover snacks during the holiday. Let the good times roll, baby.

snaack boxes

Northwest Airlines: Passengers can pre-order kosher meals for ALL trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific flights. Kosher meals are supplied by the OU certified Borenstein Caterers. In addition, Northwest has several offerings that are kosher certified that can be found in the snack boxes on domestic flights.

unhealthy as hell, but kosher all the way

Southwest Airlines: The airline offers kosher peanuts and pretzels on its flights, and in mid-March will begin offering Ritz cheese crackers, which also are OU Kosher certified.

And on and on and on….

Point here is that there’s almost always a snack available that’s kosher, but perhaps not the healthiest or most satisfying. MY best advice would be to get the airport ten minutes early and have a sandwich made to your liking.

But when it comes to international flights, finding the best meal to fit your needs matters. I, for example, am a vegetarian and believe you me when you forget to book that vegetarian meal on long-haul flights hunger makes just about anything look good. I must say though that on occasion-like every time my husband has booked my flight-we have forgotten to book a meal for me in advance and almost always the airline staff, particularly on Lufthansa and British Airways finds really good something I can eat by piecing together things from trays or heading up to first to see if there’s something left over that’s vegetarian. The thing is to be polite and aware that the air staff do not do the booking, cooking or transporting of meals. So if you have no food, it’s in your best interest to be respectful and patient.

In Canada the major kosher airline caterer is Sky Kosher Cuisine Operations. Sky Kosher provides Glatt kosher meat and dairy Cholov Yisroel meals year-round; Passover meals are also available. Cara Operations, also certified kosher by COR, serves Glatt meats as well as Cholov Yisroel dairy, Pas Yisroel and Yoshon.

hermolis lamb meal

In England, the undisputed king of airline catering is Hermolis caterers. Hands down if you read the blogs, people love Hermolis.  All the meals are beautifully prepared and packaged. The meats served are only Glatt and the dairy is only Cholov Yisroel.  Hermolis is the exclusive kosher airline service of British Air, as well as many other fine airline carriers including those from China, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.

kosher swiss air meal

In Europe, many local airline caterers are supervised by the local rabbinate or certification agency of a specific country. In Switzerland, Achim Caterers is under the supervison of Rav Padwa, Rav Hamachshir of the Orthodox Israel community of Zurich. In France, the large airline caterer is Servair which is owned by Air France and operates a kitchen under the supervision of the Paris Beis Din. The Paris Beis Din also supervises El Al’s French commissary.

don't you wish these guys were cooking...

Sabena airlines in Belgium uses two airline caterers, Fogel and Lanxner. Lufthansa serves Glatt kosher meals from Sohar Kosher Restaurant,  Shirley’s Deli, Bakery and Caterers in South Africa  provides meals for South African Airways and other flights departing from South Africa.

lufthansa baby

But keep in mind, everyone agrees, the best kosher meals are the ones you pack for yourself. Fresh fruit, lox and cream cheese on a good everything bagel, hummos sandwiches, fresh brownies, some of Trader Joe’s great trail-mixes, so much better for you. It will sustain you and it doesn’t smell.