Preparing for Passover 2022

For those who would like to read the full Passover guide for usual times:
Rabbinical Assembly Guide

Like last year, the Rabbinical Assembly offers alternative options for Passover preparations and observance that fit within reasonable interpretation of Jewish Law, and the times in which we live.

Tips to keep in mind when purchasing food for the seder:

Matzah - One is obligated to avoid hametz throughout Passover, but the obligation to eat matzah is limited to fulfilling the rituals of the first/second night seder alone. Each home should have at least enough matzah for each person to fulfill the obligation of אכילת מצה, eating matzah, for [each] seder - about one piece of matzah per person, per seder.

Karpas - Can be any vegetable. In Israel, boiled potato is a common food for karpas.

Maror - If horseradish is not available, people are encouraged to find other vegetables or fruits that can bring a tear to the eye when consumed raw: hot peppers, fresh ginger, mustard greens, raw lemon. In Israel, romaine lettuce is commonly used as maror.

Egg and Roasted Shankbone on Seder Plate -- A roasted beet may be used in place of the shankbone. (Babylonian Talmud, Pesahim 114b)

Kashering/Cleaning:
Cleaning this year may again be more difficult as many of us have been in our homes living differently than normal. But the general rule is, places should be well-searched and specifically cleaned for hametz only if it’s a place for which and in which hametz is normally consumed and cooked. Furthermore, the prohibition of owning & seeing hametz applies specifically to amounts of pure hametz that is at least the size of an olive (k’zayyit). This is your yearly reminder that dirt is not hametz.

Cleaning/Kashering for elderly/infirm: 
In these households, if there is an already living-in-home caretaker in place, cleaning and kashering should be carried out, to the extent possible, according to the guidelines which apply to all. In a household where there is no able-bodied caretaker in place, the residents of the household should do their best to remove hametz from every surface that will be used for the preparation or consumption of foods during Passover. These surfaces should be wiped down with all-purpose cleaning materials. If possible, refrigerator shelves should also be wiped down.  If the oven will be used during Passover, the walls of the oven should be wiped down and aluminum foil placed between the rack and the baking dish.The self-cleaning function is of course also an option, though some general wiping down should be done first, especially of any grease build up, which is known to be a potential fire-hazard.

For homes in which vessels will not be able to be kashered in the normative manner (due to physical capability or general concerns of danger with heating elements), we recommend designating a few cooking vessels to be used for Passover cooking before and during the holiday, to clean them well, and let them sit for 24 hours (or at least overnight).  So long as they don’t have visible foodstuff caked on, they are acceptable for preparing Passover food.  This technique can also be used for cutlery and non-porous dishes as well.  

Purchasing of Food: 
Hierarchy of purchasing:  While the CJLS formally permitted Ashkenazim (who choose) to consume kitniyot in 2015, the CJLS encourages everyone to consider putting aside the Ashkenazic custom of eschewing legumes (beans and lentils) corn and rice during this time.

Below are guidelines for following “best practice” under trying circumstances:
It is important to note that many products that are plain, unflavored dairy products (like milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, and hard cheeses), frozen fruits and vegetables, packaged legumes, and rice can be purchased with a year-round hekhsher before Passover as a matter of course.  This is not latitude granted during difficult circumstances, this is normative halakhah.  It is only if they are purchased during Passover itself that many of these items need to carry a Kosher for Passover certification.

In general, we tend to be strict on our Passover lists due to the overall complexity of certifying individual items. This year we have simply relied on our current knowledge to lessen the burden we are all feeling, while still being within the normative constructs of Passover Kashrut.

This year, due to the limitations on product availability and in order to limit individuals having to check multiple stores, if you are unable to find an item below with a Kosher for Passover certification due to COVID-19 then here's what you can do.
  
Food requiring no Kosher for Passover certification no matter when purchased: 

Pure bicarbonate of soda, without additives
Eggs 
Fresh fruits and vegetables (including pre-washed bagged) 
Fresh or frozen kosher meat (other than chopped meat)
Nestea (regular and decaffeinated)
Pure black, green, or white tea leaves
Unflavored tea bags
Unflavored regular coffee (Decaf using Swiss Water Process is also fine)
Olive oils (and other pure oils)
Whole or gutted fresh kosher fish
Whole or half pecans (not pieces)
Whole (unground) spices and nuts
OU/Star-K Raisins
Kosher wine
Plain butter, either salted or unsalted
Unflavored Seltzer Water, Sparkling Water (without additives)

The following list of basic foods is ideally for pre-Passover purchasing food, but could extend, if determined necessary based on food supply shortages, and their likely production before Passover began, to purchase on Hol-HaMoed/intermediate days of the holiday as well. 
 
All pure fruit juices 
Filleted fish
Frozen fruit with no additives
Plain cheeses (without added flavor morsels)
Non-iodized salt 
Pure white sugar (no additives)
Quinoa (with nothing mixed in)* GF ideal
White milk
Some products sold by Equal Exchange Fair Trade Chocolate (See available options here )
Frozen Vegetables (needs to be checked for possible hametz before cooking) 
Chopped meat
Plain, non-flavored almond milk, rice milk, soy milk, cashew milk.  
Non-flavored Cream Cheese with ingredients of milk and cream, salt, stabilizers (xanthan and/or carob bean and/or guar gums) 
Non-flavored Yogurt with milk and bacteria, only (which are Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermopiles). 
Canned Tuna with just tuna, water or oil, salt, and pyrophosphates 
Canned salmon with salt
100% maple syrup
100% Agave
Ground Salt and Peppers
Plain (non-Flavored) Decaf Coffee
Pure Honey
Dried Fruits with no additives (Prunes without potassium sorbet)
Canned vegetables/fruit with year-round hekhsher in which ingredients are the item itself, salt and water.
Club Soda
Many whole, slivered or chopped nuts are without additives and permitted (check allergens)

Kitniyot: 

Fresh kitniyot: Corn on the cob and fresh beans (like lima beans in their pods) may be purchased before and during Passover, that is, treated like any other fresh vegetable. Many do not consider green beans to be “kitniyot”, fresh or otherwise. This is certainly an accepted & longstanding practice among communities. This particular addition would be even for those who do treat green beans as kitniyot--i.e., when fresh they should be treated like any other fresh vegetable.

Dried kitniyot (legumes, rice and corn) can be purchased bagged or in boxes and then sifted or sorted before or on Passover. These should ideally not be purchased in bulk from bins because of the concern that the bin might previously have been used for hameitz, and a few grains of hameitz might be mixed in.  In any case, one should inspect these to the extent possible before Passover and discard any pieces of hametz. If one could not inspect the rice or dried beans before Passover, one should remove pieces of hametz found in the package on Passover, discarding those, and the kitniyot themselves remain permissible.

Frozen raw kitniyot (corn, edamame [soy beans], etc.): One may purchase bags of frozen non-hekhshered kitniyot before or during (if  necessary) Passover provided that one can either absolutely determine that no shared equipment was used or one is careful to inspect the contents before Passover) and discard any pieces of חמץ  hameitz). Even if one did not inspect the vegetables before Passover, if one can remove pieces of (hameitz) found in the package on Passover, the vegetables themselves are permissible.

Requires Kosher for Passover label at any time: 
All baked goods
Farfel
Matzah
Any product containing matzah
Matzah flour  Matzah meal
Pesah cakes
All frozen processed foods
Candy
Chocolate milk
Herbal tea
Ice cream
Liquor
Soda
Vinegar
Margarine

Another way to potentially find acceptable foods without a specific Kosher for Passover designation during pre-Passover shopping, when the situation demands, is to prefer certified Gluten Free (and oat free) products.
 
Note: Products that are certified gluten-free may be consumed on Passover based on checking for specific ingredients on the product label.

• In an effort to definitively alert consumers to the presence of wheat gluten in packaged foods, the FDA mandates that any product including the words “gluten-free,” “no gluten,” “free of gluten,” or “without gluten” must contain less than 20 parts per million of glutinous wheat, spelt, barley, or rye. This eliminates the possibility of a gluten-free packaged food containing 4 of the 5 hametz-derived grains in any quantity that would be viable according to Jewish law.
• Furthermore, this eliminates concern over any shared equipment that may have imparted hametz, since the amount of 20 parts per million is much more stringent than the halakhic principle of batel b’shishim, nullifying hametz in trace amounts (1 part in 60, about 1.6% or less of the total volume)

Lastly, many of us have already opened products in our homes that are Hametz-free, but used in the course of normal year-round cooking. If one is able to ascertain/highly assume that no hametz contaminated the opened product, or at best a negligible amount, it is possible to use such products during Passover this year.