Price Controlled Foods in Israel

Some readers wanted more information about government regulated prices for certain foods in Israel, a.k.a. price controls.

Here's a quick rundown of what you need to know:

The price listed is the MAXIMUM price for the specified item - of course a store can discount it further, if they want to!

If a store is selling price controlled items for a higher price, they are in violation of the law. You can (and should) report these violations.

I'm showing prices for the entire country, excluding Eilat, by the way. Eilat is exempt from Ma'am, so prices there will be lower.

Lechem Achid (I believe this is about 65% whole grain) - 750g loaf, 5.29

White bread, 750g loaf, 5.29

Challah or yeast cake, 500g, 5.77 (don't ask me what kind of yeast cake this is referring to, I have no idea!)

Lechem Achid, sliced and packaged, 750g, 7.93

White bread, sliced and packaged, 500g, 7.05

Regular Kitchen Salt, Fine Kitchen Salt, Fine Table Salt, and Coarse Table salt, 1 kg, 2.07

3% milk, 1 liter, bag, 5.04

1% milk, 1 liter, bag, 4.74

3% milk, 1 liter, carton, 6.27

1% milk, 1 liter, carton, 5.87

Eshel, 4.5% fat, 200ml, 1.59

Gil, 3% fat, 200ml,  1.45

Sour Cream, 15% fat, 200ml, 2.37

Butter, regular, 100g, 3.73

Emek Cheese (at the cheese counter),per kg, 44.52

Gilboa Cheese (at the cheese counter), per kg, 42.21

XL eggs, regular, 1 dozen, 13.90

L eggs, regular, 1 dozen, 12.80

M eggs, regular, 1 dozen, 11.80

If you see a store charging higher prices, you can report them to the regional supervisor.

Last year, the Ministry of Finance decided that Badatz milk products are also price regulated products, so stores cannot be charging more for the Badatz-supervised milk, leben, butter, sour cream, and Emek and Gilboa cheese, FYI.

Homemade Cream Cheese - 2 options

My family loves cream cheese. Seriously. Before we made aliyah, that was me that used to buy out all the cream cheese whenever it was on sale!

Here, though, cream cheese is far more expensive, so it feels like a real indulgence, but sometimes we just HAVE to have it, especially for Pesach!

A friend told me she buys sour cream and drains off the whey to make something that tastes like cream cheese. I was looking at the sour cream in the store, and there it was, right next to the cheaper "Gil" and "Eshel" leben packages. I've taken to using Gil anytime a recipe calls for sour cream, as it is cheaper AND lower in fat.

So, it was time to experiment!

I added a bit of salt to 2 containers of Gil, lined a strainer with a basket style coffee filter, placed it over a bowl to catch the whey that drains off, and filled the lined strainer with Gil. Then I covered it with cheesecloth so nothing would fall into it (like bugs) and let it drain. After about 1/2 -1 hour, I moved it to the fridge, and let it drain overnight.

I pulled back the cheesecloth to show you what it looks like while draining

By morning it was nice and thick and very much cream-cheese-like.

And SO much cheaper than those little containers of cream cheese that sell here for a fortune!

I also tried it out with sour cream. Same exact process, except that if it's not hot, I leave it to drain overnight outside the fridge, and then move it to the fridge for up to 24 hrs before transferring it to a container.

Over time, I've decided this works best with sour cream. I buy the 500g containers, for about 6 shekels. It's so easy and inexpensive! (look for a tub labeled "shamenet")

Let me know what you think!