Manufacturers change kosher agencies more often than the industry admits, and usually for unglamorous reasons: nobody answers the phone, the pricing keeps moving, or a question that should take an hour takes three weeks. The transition is more manageable than most brands fear, provided it is sequenced properly.
The one rule that matters: do not cancel anything before the replacement is in place.
Why brands switch
- Slow or unreachable support. The most common reason by a distance. A production question on a Thursday that gets answered the following Wednesday costs real money.
- Pricing that will not hold still — per-visit charges, per-letter charges, travel billed separately, a renewal quote that bears no relation to last year’s.
- A contact who changes every year, so nobody at the agency knows your plant.
- Rulings without reasoning. A verdict with no explanation is hard to plan around and harder to design for.
- Being a small account in a large system, where your timeline is nobody’s priority.
- An acceptance mismatch — your certification is not recognised by a buyer you now need.
That last one is different from the others. If a specific buyer requires a specific certification, that is a factual constraint rather than a service complaint, and it should drive the decision on its own.
How the transition works
- Check acceptance first. Before anything else, confirm that your buyers accept the certification you are moving to. Switching to an agency your customers do not recognise solves a service problem and creates a commercial one.
- Get the new certification scoped. We review your products, ingredient list, suppliers and facility, and quote the real thing — not a transfer discount on a guess.
- Run the ingredient review while you are still certified. This is the part that takes time, and there is no reason for it to happen during a gap.
- Schedule the inspection. Often straightforward, since your plant is already operating to a certified standard.
- Time the changeover. We aim for the new certification to be in place before the old one ends, so you are never uncertified.
- Handle the symbol change. Artwork, packaging stock and sell-through are the practical work — see below.
- Notify your customers, with the new letter attached.
The packaging question
Usually the biggest real cost, and worth planning rather than absorbing.
You will have printed packaging carrying the old symbol. Product made and marked while you held that certification is generally fine to sell through — the question is your agreement with the outgoing agency, so read it. Where there is flexibility, sell-through of existing stock is often permitted for a defined period.
Practical approaches, in order of preference:
- Time the switch to a packaging reorder you were making anyway. Costs almost nothing.
- Negotiate a sell-through window with the outgoing agency and run the change at the next print.
- Change artwork immediately and write off stock — only worth it if the reason for switching is urgent.
Bring us the packaging question at the quote stage. It frequently determines the best timing for the whole move, and it is the piece brands most often leave until last.
What to tell your customers
Straightforwardly and in advance. Your business customers have your certificate in a file and will notice.
- Tell them before the change, not after, and give the date.
- Send the new letter as soon as it is issued.
- Confirm that nothing about the product has changed — which, in a switch, it has not.
- If a customer’s own agency needs to verify the new certification, offer to connect them directly.
Handled this way it is a non-event. Handled badly — a customer discovering it from an expired certificate — it creates doubt about a product that did not change.
What to ask before you commit
Do the same diligence you should have done the first time. Ask about all-in cost and what sits outside it, realistic timelines, who reviews your ingredients and how far up the chain, who your day-to-day contact will be, how fast a production question gets answered, and who the rabbinic authority is. The full list is here.
And ask the switching question specifically: how will you sequence this so I am never uncertified, and what happens to my existing packaging? An agency that has done this before will have a clear answer.
If you are considering a move
Tell us what you make, who certifies you now, and what is not working. We will tell you honestly whether switching will fix it — and if your issue is an acceptance requirement we cannot meet, we will say so rather than take the work.
Get a free quote, or read what our certification requires and how the process runs.