Navigating an Israeli Supermarket

I once read a blog post by an American on an extended visit to Israel, raving about how much easier it is to keep kosher in Israel than in the US. True, a variety of kosher food is available just about everywhere in Israel. But keeping kosher in Israel is far from simple.

Lately we have been shopping at Aleph, one of the haredi chains. They tend to focus more on basic items and family-sized packages. The disadvantage is that meat and dairy products with a mehadrin/haredi supervision are much more expensive. But a few years ago Aleph added a selection of meat and dairy products under the supervision of the Israeli rabbinate.

Another issue with products under haredi supervision is that they often contain more fillers and sugars than those with the standard supervision, in order to make the price attractive to haredi families with less disposable income. Examples include “Danuba” mehadrin yogurt, which contains added starch, and Telma Shefa Cornflakes, which contain more sugar than Telma Cornflakes. It pays to read labels.

The brakes on our car began acting up during Pesach, and we are awaiting a replacement part by airmail. My husband takes the bus to work and I avoid carpool arrangements on principle, but shopping is a hassle. Last week I took the bus to one store only to discover, at the checkout, that they don’t deliver. Fortunately I ran into a neighbor who gave me a ride home. The other day I put out an SOS to some friends and E. replied that she was planning to go shopping and would be happy to take me along.

Since E. once referred to me as someone who “writes a blog for new olim (immigrants),” I guess it’s appropriate to use our trip to share some examples of unusual things a kosher consumer might find in an Israeli supermarket.

E. took me to a large chain store that I used to visit regularly. Because some items were much cheaper than at Aleph, I used to alternate between the stores every few weeks to stock up on cheaper items. But at one point I stopped because the price on those items came down in Aleph. I see now that that was a mistake; canned goods, for example, are significantly cheaper at the store we visited this week.

Since I was last there, the store, along with most of the city’s supermarkets, lost its rabbinic supervision. The local rabbinate, known for its zealousness (it refuses to certify restaurants for Passover if they serve legumes), withdrew supervision for any store selling a popular brand of meat. The rabbinate claimed to have found serious irregularities in the factory. This has since been resolved, but the rabbinate also refuses to certify stores that rely on the heter mechirah during this sabbatical year. Some of the fresh food counters did have a kashrut certificate, and most products come in packages sealed by the manufacturer. But there are still issues.

Take this package of chicken wings. It looks like the frozen pieces were taken out of a box, placed on a tray, and wrapped in plastic. The Tnuva sticker was almost certainly slapped on by a store worker. And without supervision on the store itself, I have no assurance that the chicken came from where the label says it does.
Here’s another concern for the kosher shopper. Note this sign on the freezer display:

The animal from which this cut of meat was taken has been slaughtered properly according to Jewish law, but not “kashered.” Kashering meat involves soaking, salting and rinsing the meat in order to remove the blood. Hardly anyone soaks and salts meat at home; I’ve never done it, because the kosher butchers and meat-packers take care of it. Presumably the people buying it here prefer it because it’s cheaper than kashered meat, and they don’t keep kosher anyway.

This pitfall has nothing to do with kashrut:

The label reads “GROUND CHICKEN: From superior ground chicken meat.” The smaller letters read, “With the addition of vegetable protein.” If you want to know what percentage is meat, forget it. The label won’t help you here. Instead, a notice warns consumers to eat the product only when fully cooked; I saw this on other products as well. I’m guessing this is a new well-meaning law on the books, like the one requiring every product containing gluten to be labelled as such. That law backfired, because companies afraid of lawsuits by the gluten-sensitive public began putting the labels on everything.

Then I went to look at the frozen vegetables. My husband still doesn’t like me to buy “heter mechirah” produce (sigh) so I had to read the fine print here too:


The one on the left says it is kosher “according to heter mechirah” and the one on the left says that it’s “yevul shishit,” meaning that it comes from the produce of the sixth year. (It also has an extra “Badatz” kashrut symbol.) I once noticed a similar sign on a can of tomato paste several years after shmittah. it must have been the second or third year of the sabbatical cyle, so I thought the product was a few years old. Later realized that I wasn’t meant to take the mention of the sixth year literally; it simply indicated that the produce was not from the problematical seventh year of the sabbatical cycle.

At that point E. reminded me that we needed to check that the store had sold its chametz. One may not eat leavened foods that were in the possession of a Jew over the Passover holiday. There are some products I generally buy in the shuk (open-air market), such as burgul (bulgur) wheat, but not immediately after Pesach; I only buy burgul, flour, pasta, and oats in a store that has sold its chametz. So while E. finished up her shopping I located the following sign:

This assures the customers that the chametz was properly sold. However, the mashgiach (kashrut supervisor) emphasizes that he cannot vouch for the kashrut of the store or any of its products, either on Pesach or year-round.

I half-expected a store worker to ask me why I was taking pictures. After all, this store used to have a sign at the entrance warning customers against writing down prices. But no one seemed to care.

I’ve only touched superficially on some of the kashrut issues and I hope that my less knowledgeable readers were able to follow.

Many thanks to E. for shlepping me and my groceries, and for vicariously contributing to this post. And join me in wishing her mazal tov on marrying off her oldest son.

Comments

  1. shopping seems so confusing now that you posted this!

  2. shopping seems so confusing now that you posted this!

  3. Anonymous says

    Rafi, I’m not sure what to make of that comment.
    Leora, when it’s not shmitta is not as bad.

  4. Anonymous says

    Rafi, I’m not sure what to make of that comment.
    Leora, when it’s not shmitta is not as bad.

  5. The Shmitta thing alone makes shopping in Israel really hard. Even being a vegan in Israel (not that I am) would be complicated.
    We’ve got the “is the chametz sold?” problem here, too. I need flour, so I have to shlep out to another area to buy some, even though I stocked up on cereals in my last trip to a much further supermarket.

  6. The Shmitta thing alone makes shopping in Israel really hard. Even being a vegan in Israel (not that I am) would be complicated.
    We’ve got the “is the chametz sold?” problem here, too. I need flour, so I have to shlep out to another area to buy some, even though I stocked up on cereals in my last trip to a much further supermarket.

  7. shoshana says

    For once i can be happy with our local rabbanut – the sephardi rav controls the kashrut of our town and he’s a Shas man, holding by R. Ovadia which saves us a lot of headaches (heter mechira allowed, a couple of restaurants open with kitniyot for pesach, etc). I just try not to hear about the dirt behind the scenes as i know that nepotism to get the jobs supervising kashrut are there (not a family member, forget it).
    Of course it was amusing for me to see the ‘chametz sold’ sign proudly displayed in the arab owned vegetable store we usually shop in. 100% arab owned but he was forced to sell his chametz…. to a fellow arab. Whatever. I’m sure they took a nice fee from him for it.
    You’d think that the rabbinut would WANT people to keep kosher, sot they would WANT to provide kashrut supervision. Alas that seems to not be the case. Imagine how many more people would eat kosher meat if they bothered to supervise that store and ones like it that you showed – and did the kashering of the meat!
    Sorry to hear that your local rabbinut is making ours look good when it comes to kashrut in town!
    shoshana

  8. shoshana says

    For once i can be happy with our local rabbanut – the sephardi rav controls the kashrut of our town and he’s a Shas man, holding by R. Ovadia which saves us a lot of headaches (heter mechira allowed, a couple of restaurants open with kitniyot for pesach, etc). I just try not to hear about the dirt behind the scenes as i know that nepotism to get the jobs supervising kashrut are there (not a family member, forget it).
    Of course it was amusing for me to see the ‘chametz sold’ sign proudly displayed in the arab owned vegetable store we usually shop in. 100% arab owned but he was forced to sell his chametz…. to a fellow arab. Whatever. I’m sure they took a nice fee from him for it.
    You’d think that the rabbinut would WANT people to keep kosher, sot they would WANT to provide kashrut supervision. Alas that seems to not be the case. Imagine how many more people would eat kosher meat if they bothered to supervise that store and ones like it that you showed – and did the kashering of the meat!
    Sorry to hear that your local rabbinut is making ours look good when it comes to kashrut in town!
    shoshana

  9. shoshana, You have a good point about the rabbanut wanting to certify more places. In general the dati leumi movement has that philosophy. So they push their own to buy only Otzar haaretz and push the secular to eat heter mechira as a bedieved. Charedi rabbis usuallt don’t have that approach so when the rabbanut starts getting into charedi/dati leumi politics is when you start seeing these problems.
    I truly believe that keeping kosher in the states is a lot easier. Pesahc is even easier since there most things don’t have kitniyot (I feel sorry to all sephardic people there)
    I find that in Israel the attitute of “don’t trust me just to make sure” is very common. Flour with a badatz hashgacha will say to sift it to check it, but under the rabbanut hechsher it says preshifted. All frozen veggies that are mehadrin will have multiples hechsherim and still say to check them. Why so may hechsherim? All the spices say to check before use. I’m waiting to see the prechecked greens (gush katif) with that warning even though they have on average 4 hechsherim and a sign that says checked under microscope.
    When we lived in the stated I talked to a few of the major kosher organizations and they said that if it has their hechsher it means they checked it (important if you buy salads)

  10. shoshana, You have a good point about the rabbanut wanting to certify more places. In general the dati leumi movement has that philosophy. So they push their own to buy only Otzar haaretz and push the secular to eat heter mechira as a bedieved. Charedi rabbis usuallt don’t have that approach so when the rabbanut starts getting into charedi/dati leumi politics is when you start seeing these problems.
    I truly believe that keeping kosher in the states is a lot easier. Pesahc is even easier since there most things don’t have kitniyot (I feel sorry to all sephardic people there)
    I find that in Israel the attitute of “don’t trust me just to make sure” is very common. Flour with a badatz hashgacha will say to sift it to check it, but under the rabbanut hechsher it says preshifted. All frozen veggies that are mehadrin will have multiples hechsherim and still say to check them. Why so may hechsherim? All the spices say to check before use. I’m waiting to see the prechecked greens (gush katif) with that warning even though they have on average 4 hechsherim and a sign that says checked under microscope.
    When we lived in the stated I talked to a few of the major kosher organizations and they said that if it has their hechsher it means they checked it (important if you buy salads)

  11. Marcus Bell says

    I think it is amazing that keeping in Kosher in Israel is harder than that in the US. I actually traveled to Israel awhile ago for a month or so, and I assumed that almost everything was kosher, right off the bat.
    If you are in the US, a kosher retailer I would recommend is Holy Food Imports. They offer many goods however their wide range of honeys is my favorite.
    If anyone is interested, their website is at http://www.holyfoodimports.com

  12. Marcus Bell says

    I think it is amazing that keeping in Kosher in Israel is harder than that in the US. I actually traveled to Israel awhile ago for a month or so, and I assumed that almost everything was kosher, right off the bat.
    If you are in the US, a kosher retailer I would recommend is Holy Food Imports. They offer many goods however their wide range of honeys is my favorite.
    If anyone is interested, their website is at http://www.holyfoodimports.com

  13. mother in israel says

    Shoshana–oh well, at least we know that when he says something is kosher, it’s kosher!
    Rachel, it’s impossible to guarantee that flour will not have bugs once it is ground, unless it is sealed in an airtight container and refrigerated. It’s the same with spices; it only takes one insect egg to reinfest the whole thing. Ask your own rabbi, but even if it is pre-sifted you have to sift it again unless you know it was ground within the last 24 hours.
    I’ve found large bugs in the “bug-free” lettuce. They say those don’t count and the produce must be washed off to get rid of those. Even for the smaller bugs, they test a certain number of samples and give the certification if enough of them are “clean.” (at least for some brands–maybe not all)
    A while ago there was a head of a mouse found in frozen vegetables (don’t know who supervised that run). The badatz hechsher has to do with trumot, maaserot, and sheviit, not bugs.

  14. mother in israel says

    Shoshana–oh well, at least we know that when he says something is kosher, it’s kosher!
    Rachel, it’s impossible to guarantee that flour will not have bugs once it is ground, unless it is sealed in an airtight container and refrigerated. It’s the same with spices; it only takes one insect egg to reinfest the whole thing. Ask your own rabbi, but even if it is pre-sifted you have to sift it again unless you know it was ground within the last 24 hours.
    I’ve found large bugs in the “bug-free” lettuce. They say those don’t count and the produce must be washed off to get rid of those. Even for the smaller bugs, they test a certain number of samples and give the certification if enough of them are “clean.” (at least for some brands–maybe not all)
    A while ago there was a head of a mouse found in frozen vegetables (don’t know who supervised that run). The badatz hechsher has to do with trumot, maaserot, and sheviit, not bugs.

  15. head of a mouse OY! ๐Ÿ™‚
    In an non-shmitta year, Israeli produce wins over most anything in the U.S. The tomatoes in our supermarkets taste like plastic.

  16. head of a mouse OY! ๐Ÿ™‚
    In an non-shmitta year, Israeli produce wins over most anything in the U.S. The tomatoes in our supermarkets taste like plastic.

  17. mother in israel says

    Israel has a different climate and bugs are more likely to get into your food. In the US I never sifted for bugs. Yes, you can sift a large quantity and keep it in the refrigerator. You can also buy flour that has been ground within 24 hours and keep it in the refrigerator until needed. I have a post on it somewhere.
    http://mominisrael.blogspot.com/2007/04/orthodox-homemakers-quest-for-flour.html
    Lately I’ve been ordering “90%” flour from Bat Ayin.

  18. mother in israel says

    Israel has a different climate and bugs are more likely to get into your food. In the US I never sifted for bugs. Yes, you can sift a large quantity and keep it in the refrigerator. You can also buy flour that has been ground within 24 hours and keep it in the refrigerator until needed. I have a post on it somewhere.
    http://mominisrael.blogspot.com/2007/04/orthodox-homemakers-quest-for-flour.html
    Lately I’ve been ordering “90%” flour from Bat Ayin.

  19. mother in israel says

    Marcus, thanks for your comment. In restaurants, you need to check that the kashruth certificate is up to date. Most chains claim to sell only kosher products, but it’s best to have a local guide you at first.

  20. mother in israel says

    Marcus, thanks for your comment. In restaurants, you need to check that the kashruth certificate is up to date. Most chains claim to sell only kosher products, but it’s best to have a local guide you at first.

  21. “even if it is pre-sifted you have to sift it again unless you know it was ground within the last 24 hours.”
    Really? so why in the US most people never sift the flour? Or, here in Israel, can I presift the flour and keep it in a tuperware? hmm… must have a good conversation with LOR.

  22. “even if it is pre-sifted you have to sift it again unless you know it was ground within the last 24 hours.”
    Really? so why in the US most people never sift the flour? Or, here in Israel, can I presift the flour and keep it in a tuperware? hmm… must have a good conversation with LOR.

  23. MII: that’s what typical tnuva frozen chicken looks like to me, from what I’ve seen in most stores around Israel. And actually, it’s nearly impossible to find non-kosher chicken anywhere in Israel- all the chicken processors use the same kashering methods. You can’t even find non-mehadrin chicken. (I’ve asked about this at numerous stores). So even if the store sold fresh/frozen chicken with a bogus tnuva sticker, it’s 99.9% kosher anyway. Unless he smuggled it in from the West Bank, which is highly unlikely.

  24. MII: that’s what typical tnuva frozen chicken looks like to me, from what I’ve seen in most stores around Israel. And actually, it’s nearly impossible to find non-kosher chicken anywhere in Israel- all the chicken processors use the same kashering methods. You can’t even find non-mehadrin chicken. (I’ve asked about this at numerous stores). So even if the store sold fresh/frozen chicken with a bogus tnuva sticker, it’s 99.9% kosher anyway. Unless he smuggled it in from the West Bank, which is highly unlikely.

  25. Sorry for the double comment: also, non-kashered frozen meat is also very common in most large supermarkets and it’s also always labeled as such.
    Most Americans/new olim quickly get over the “it’s so easy to keep kosher in Israel” syndrome after their first pesach, when they realize they have a house full of kitniyot products that are totally useless to them.

  26. Sorry for the double comment: also, non-kashered frozen meat is also very common in most large supermarkets and it’s also always labeled as such.
    Most Americans/new olim quickly get over the “it’s so easy to keep kosher in Israel” syndrome after their first pesach, when they realize they have a house full of kitniyot products that are totally useless to them.

  27. mother in israel says

    Abbi–good to know.

  28. mother in israel says

    Abbi–good to know.

  29. Abbi: you’re right as long as you stay with chicken. It is very very hard to find non kosher chicken. Regarding the non-mehadrin, chicken doesn’t really require anything special to make it mehadrin. Shecht it, kasher it, done. Red meat is more compliated here than in the US. We eat only glatt red meat. You can find a lot of non glatt red meat here (non existant in the US except for hebrew national). Only recently I learned that sepharding are not allowed to eat non glatt meat (ashkenasim is a chumra) so all beit yosef meat is chalak

  30. Abbi: you’re right as long as you stay with chicken. It is very very hard to find non kosher chicken. Regarding the non-mehadrin, chicken doesn’t really require anything special to make it mehadrin. Shecht it, kasher it, done. Red meat is more compliated here than in the US. We eat only glatt red meat. You can find a lot of non glatt red meat here (non existant in the US except for hebrew national). Only recently I learned that sepharding are not allowed to eat non glatt meat (ashkenasim is a chumra) so all beit yosef meat is chalak

  31. frumhouse says

    I was thoroughly confused when we went shopping in Israel. It doesn’t help that I don’t speak Hebrew! I relied on my husband for translation and we relied on local friends for guidance on hechsherim. Great post!

  32. frumhouse says

    I was thoroughly confused when we went shopping in Israel. It doesn’t help that I don’t speak Hebrew! I relied on my husband for translation and we relied on local friends for guidance on hechsherim. Great post!

  33. Lion of Zion says

    “raving about how much easier it is to keep kosher in Israel than in the US”
    this person has never been to brooklyn. (although personally i am not a fan of many of the kosher supermakets here, as some stock only the jewish brands, i.e., the ones that often are more expensive and of inferior quality)
    “canned goods, for example, are significantly cheaper at the store we visited this week.”
    you buy canned foods? i’m not mekabel
    you left one element of how it is easier to be kosher in israel . . . the pork products are specifically labeled with a warning that they are non-kosher. (i’m not sure if this is standard or not, but my friend pointed this out to me in a tel aviv supermarket)
    an informative and overall great post

  34. Lion of Zion says

    “raving about how much easier it is to keep kosher in Israel than in the US”
    this person has never been to brooklyn. (although personally i am not a fan of many of the kosher supermakets here, as some stock only the jewish brands, i.e., the ones that often are more expensive and of inferior quality)
    “canned goods, for example, are significantly cheaper at the store we visited this week.”
    you buy canned foods? i’m not mekabel
    you left one element of how it is easier to be kosher in israel . . . the pork products are specifically labeled with a warning that they are non-kosher. (i’m not sure if this is standard or not, but my friend pointed this out to me in a tel aviv supermarket)
    an informative and overall great post

  35. Lion of Zion says

    “In restaurants . . .”
    one thing i learned a long time ago is never to ask a restaurant in israel if it is kosher, but rather if it has a teudah. other wise they will tell you they are kosher and try to explain to you why they don’t have a teudah (e.g., open on shabbat).
    and as far as restaurants go, in some places it can be really tough to find kosher restaraunts. in beer sheva we once offered to take out my wife’s relatives for dinner in order to avoid not having to eat in their home. we drove around forever till we found a restaraunt with a teudah. (although it was definitely worth the wait.)

  36. Lion of Zion says

    “In restaurants . . .”
    one thing i learned a long time ago is never to ask a restaurant in israel if it is kosher, but rather if it has a teudah. other wise they will tell you they are kosher and try to explain to you why they don’t have a teudah (e.g., open on shabbat).
    and as far as restaurants go, in some places it can be really tough to find kosher restaraunts. in beer sheva we once offered to take out my wife’s relatives for dinner in order to avoid not having to eat in their home. we drove around forever till we found a restaraunt with a teudah. (although it was definitely worth the wait.)

  37. mother in israel says

    “you buy canned foods? i’m not mekabel”
    Only five things: tuna, tomato paste, tomatoes, olives and pickles (in Israel those last two are sold in cans, as is applesauce).
    I’m surprised you didn’t say anything about the frozen vegetables; I rarely buy those either.
    No pork in this store. Recently I had a conversation with a religious new oleh who got chased out of a store selling pork. He thought it was illegal to sell pork–how naive of him to think that this law is enforced. I had to give him a mini-lesson about the state of secular/religious relations in Israel.
    “an informative and overall great post”
    Thanks. I knew you would like it.

  38. mother in israel says

    “you buy canned foods? i’m not mekabel”
    Only five things: tuna, tomato paste, tomatoes, olives and pickles (in Israel those last two are sold in cans, as is applesauce).
    I’m surprised you didn’t say anything about the frozen vegetables; I rarely buy those either.
    No pork in this store. Recently I had a conversation with a religious new oleh who got chased out of a store selling pork. He thought it was illegal to sell pork–how naive of him to think that this law is enforced. I had to give him a mini-lesson about the state of secular/religious relations in Israel.
    “an informative and overall great post”
    Thanks. I knew you would like it.

  39. mother in israel says

    Rachel, after being here a while you may buy less read meat than in the US.
    FH, that was a good plan.

  40. mother in israel says

    Rachel, after being here a while you may buy less read meat than in the US.
    FH, that was a good plan.

  41. I can relate to some of the post. I live in a small French town where most products don’t have hechsherim. I buy my meat in Paris or have it delivered frozen but for the rest I have to rely on a list issued by the rabbinate and check labels (which are very thorough fortunately).

  42. I can relate to some of the post. I live in a small French town where most products don’t have hechsherim. I buy my meat in Paris or have it delivered frozen but for the rest I have to rely on a list issued by the rabbinate and check labels (which are very thorough fortunately).

  43. mother in israel says

    Abbi, we remember, many years ago, seeing fresh unkashered chicken at the grocery store meat counter. So at least then, it was produced.

  44. mother in israel says

    Abbi, we remember, many years ago, seeing fresh unkashered chicken at the grocery store meat counter. So at least then, it was produced.

  45. Rachel- i absolutely agree that what I said only applies to chickens.
    I eat rabbanut meat, so it’s not an issue for me. Beit Yosef is all chalak, but it’s sephardi chalak. They are more machmir on certain things and meikil on others (meaning, it’s not like the glatt back in the old country). You can really drive yourself crazy if you want. I choose not to. I bread shwarma hodu like shnitzel and bake i and it tastes just like breaded veal chops. I’m happy with that!
    Like MII said, I just buy much less meat and I tend to stew it. My mom shleps in real American shoulder roasts occasionally. I have yet to find decent ones here.

  46. Rachel- i absolutely agree that what I said only applies to chickens.
    I eat rabbanut meat, so it’s not an issue for me. Beit Yosef is all chalak, but it’s sephardi chalak. They are more machmir on certain things and meikil on others (meaning, it’s not like the glatt back in the old country). You can really drive yourself crazy if you want. I choose not to. I bread shwarma hodu like shnitzel and bake i and it tastes just like breaded veal chops. I’m happy with that!
    Like MII said, I just buy much less meat and I tend to stew it. My mom shleps in real American shoulder roasts occasionally. I have yet to find decent ones here.

  47. Great, now I’m going to keep thinking about that mouse head in the bag of frozen vegetables. Beyond gross!!!!!
    I’m glad I hardly ever buy frozen veggies here!

  48. Great, now I’m going to keep thinking about that mouse head in the bag of frozen vegetables. Beyond gross!!!!!
    I’m glad I hardly ever buy frozen veggies here!

  49. “They are more machmir on certain things and meikil on others (meaning, it’s not like the glatt back in the old country)”
    That’s why we are machmir to buy chalak ashkenazi meat only. A formidable task in the north. I keep complaining to my sephardic friend how hard is to be a frum ashkenaz in the north and she just laughs… on pesach anytime i saw something without kitnyiot I just had to buy it, whether i needed it or not.
    We barely ate red meat in the states and eat it less here (can’t find it).
    But sometimes I just need to have a hamburger, so I need red meat and… hamburger buns… even harder to find. SO I make my own… I became such a balabusta since I made Aliya, making bagels, pita, hamburger buns. Sometimes I feel like I moved to Russia except it’s in hebrew ๐Ÿ™‚

  50. “They are more machmir on certain things and meikil on others (meaning, it’s not like the glatt back in the old country)”
    That’s why we are machmir to buy chalak ashkenazi meat only. A formidable task in the north. I keep complaining to my sephardic friend how hard is to be a frum ashkenaz in the north and she just laughs… on pesach anytime i saw something without kitnyiot I just had to buy it, whether i needed it or not.
    We barely ate red meat in the states and eat it less here (can’t find it).
    But sometimes I just need to have a hamburger, so I need red meat and… hamburger buns… even harder to find. SO I make my own… I became such a balabusta since I made Aliya, making bagels, pita, hamburger buns. Sometimes I feel like I moved to Russia except it’s in hebrew ๐Ÿ™‚