The Johannesburg Beth Din revoked the kosher certification of a popular Jewish South African catering company after finding “more than 20 treif chickens” in its kitchen.

The Stan & Pete catering company is the largest and oldest kosher caterer in South Africa, operating since 1975, and are well known in the country’s simchah circuit.

The Beth Din of Johannesburg said that the discovery of the non-kosher chicken was made on Erev Purim by a senior inspector during a “rigorous system of weekly random spot inspections”, Yeshiva World reported.

It said: “An emergency Beth Din hearing was immediately convened and the managing owner of Stan & Pete was summoned to explain the fact that he had in his kitchen such a large batch of Treif chickens.

“He could provide no explanation for the presence of the Treif chickens and the Beth Din was left with no choice but to make the painful decision to withdraw his kashrut certification, and to notify the public immediately of the decision.”

Ashleigh Elad, a member of the Johannesburg Jewish community, wrote on Facebook: “The fallout has been massive. So popular is Stan and Pete that it is unlikely that any Jew in Johannesburg has not eaten its food.”