Yoshon

Yoshon & Pas Yisroel Guidelines

Updated August 11, 2025

This page is dedicated in memory of Rav Yosef Herman הרב יוסף בן הרב יהושע זצ”ל, who is credited with singlehandedly raising awareness about Yoshon in America and throughout chutz la’aretz and renewing the klal’s commitment to this precious mitzvah. He undertook the responsibility to conduct extensive research about Yoshon products and to publish Yoshon updates year after year without remuneration. May all of our work be an aliyah for his neshama.

Latest Updates from the Kashrus Agencies

Our committee has been very busy these last few weeks getting in touch with our mills to see what the forecasts are for the Chodosh harvest for wheat, barley and oats. As we know, this has been a year of unusual weather. Very rainy in some (maybe most) places and very dry in others. This seems to be creating a difficult scenario for crop forecasts and large discrepancies amongst farmers and […]

Yoshon and Chodosh Something Old and Something New

By: Dr. Avrom Pollak

The story is told about how in the mid 1970’s the proprietor of a kosher bakery in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood was asked if his products were Yoshon. Not realizing that this Hebrew word, which literally means ‘old’, actually refers to grain which had been planted before Passover, proudly, albeit naively, answered, ” I can assure you that everything in my bakery is 100 percent fresh.” Today, as we approach the millennium yoshon and chodosh have graduated and become household words which have rightfully taken their place among the more popular terms such as Glatt Kosher, Cholov Yisroel, and Pas Yisroel.