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HIGHLAND PARK, N.J. (JTA) — Kosher is power in the marketplace. Just ask Shinobu Chuman and Joseph LaMotta.

"With the kosher mark, people know it is the best quality," said Chuman, sales manager for Takara Sake USA Inc., a Berkeley company that makes seven kinds of kosher sake, the Japanese rice wine.

LaMotta, son of boxing champ Jake LaMotta and president of New York's J. LaMotta's Food Products Inc., which markets "Tomatta Sauce," said kosher certification says your products have a stricter degree of supervision.

"It means the ingredients are fresh and the factory is clean," he said. "When you have that symbol on your bottle, it really says something about your product."

Chuman and LaMotta were among the hundreds of buyers and vendors attending the recent Kosherfest international food show in Secaucus, N.J.

Kosherfest was a place for sellers to try out new products and for buyers to see what would be available in the months to come.

Barbara Regenbaum of Mom 'N Pops of New Windsor, N.Y., was showing customers a wide selection of chocolate pops in the shapes of dreidels, menorahs, Jewish stars and Santas. Santas?

"There are other people who want kosher products," she said with a smile. "They perceive kosher as like the Hebrew National commercial says, subject to a higher authority. They see it as better."