L.A. kosher meat market targeted in federal probe

JTA — The US Department of Agriculture is investigating a Los Angeles kosher meat market for selling meat that was improperly certified.

Doheny Glatt Kosher Meat Market is being probed, the USDA confirmed to the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday. The department did not provide details because the investigation is continuing, the newspaper reported.

Mike Engelman, the store’s owner, was videotaped on March 12 directing his employees to unload boxes of meat from his car while Doheny’s kosher supervisor was absent. The footage led the Rabbinical Council of California to revoke the shop’s kosher certification on March 24, the day before Passover.

The market has reopened under new rabbinical supervision.

Eric Agaki, a private investigator whose undercover videos brought the scandal to light, told the Los Angeles Times that he met with USDA investigators on March 25 and provided them with his investigation materials.

Agaki, who is Jewish, told the newspaper that he initiated the investigation on his own and that he did not believe that other kosher meat distributors “set him up.”