Karma Candy Inc: Your Branded Confectionery Manufacturer for Over 46 Years

HAMILTON, Ontario, July 16, 2008 - Karma Candy Inc, one of North America's largest contract confectionery manufacturer announced today that it has received Kosher certification from the Kashruth Council of Canada (COR). This certification process was a significant undertaking as Karma Candy produces a wide variety of confections and uses a number of different ingredients.

To be certified Kosher the active and inactive ingredients of confections had to comply with the requirements of the Jewish religious laws pertaining to food and dairy. Manufacturing, packaging and handling processes also had to meet the certification standards. To maintain certification, the manufacturing site is subject to periodic inspections from the COR.

"We have achieved the requirements of Kosher Law and are certified Kosher Pareve for our Hard Candy lines and Kosher Dairy for the Chocolate lines," said Mary Franco, Head of Quality Assurance at Karma Candy.  "Working together with the Kashruth Council of Canada to certify the Emerald manufacturing facility has been a cooperative effort".

Many consumers are choosing kosher for religious requirements, while others are choosing kosher for the higher quality or dietary reasons such as allergies, dairy free and vegetarian concerns.

"We have seen a strong demand for kosher confection in the North-American market as well as internationally. With Kosher certification from the COR Kashruth Council of Canada, we expect to see new opportunities realizing in near future” said Greg Merlihan, General Manager of Karma Candy Inc.

The Kashruth Council of Canada, known by its trademark (COR), has been in existence for more than 50 years and is one of the most recognized kashruth agencies in the world. COR guides the observance of kosher dietary laws in Canada.

Today, more than 900 facilities, retail and commercial carry the as a symbol of kashruth certification, and over 45,000 products bear the certification symbol. Their goal is to provide the highest level of kosher supervision using the latest scientific technology.

The objectives of the Kashruth Council of Canada are to promote the observance of Orthodox Judaism by ensuring the availability and identification of kosher products and in particular:

• to provide kashruth supervision and certification to all types of food service production and manufacturing businesses;
• to promote and encourage the production, distribution and use of kosher food products and services; and
• to promote awareness amongst consumers about the use of kosher products, the importance of such products in Jewish observance and to identify for consumers which products meet the traditional standards of kashruth.