Covid-19 pandemic aside, it has been a long and difficult road for Jewish gourmands and their glatt-kosher ilk, hungry for the divine taste of foie gras — off limits for the observant. Until now.

According to an item posted by the Jewish News Service, the Chief Rabbinical Council of Israel has approved the importation of glatt-kosher-certified foie gras to Israel. Reportedly, a member of the council, Rabbi Simcha Weiss, together with geese experts professor Ari Z. Zivotofsky and Rabbi Roei Ginon from the Chief Rabbinate, visited a slaughterhouse in Hungary last year operating under the Emih-Hungarian Jewish Community Association, headed by Chabad Rabbi Shlomo Koves, to closely monitor the process of fattening the birds.

Upon his return to Israel, Rabbi Weiss set up a team to develop a program to allow the importation of goose-liver products with glatt-kosher certification. And now, the Rabbinical Council has approved the committee’s recommendations. As such, Csengele Kosher Slaughterhouse in Hungary has become the first (and only) to receive glatt-kosher certification for goose liver.

So, importers of foie gras will now have to meet a number of new requirements in order for goose liver to be certified with a glatt-kosher stamp, according to a document developed by the Chief Rabbinical Council.

The document stipulates that the breeding and fattening farms be located within the same site. Also, that food for the geese should minimize the chances of esophageal injury to the birds. For example, corn kernels should be prepared in such a way so that they do not retain any coarse and sharp edges or contain any whole grains in the mix. It was also mandated that feeding should be executed through a silicone tube without any sharp points. And finally, the site must be inspected and monitored by a professional kashrut supervisor.

Even during a pandemic, some of the amenities of life remain. Baruch HaShem.