IS IT KOSHER?

“The Lord spoke to Moshe and to Aharon, saying to them: Speak to the children of Israel, saying: These are the living creatures that you may eat from all the animals that are on the earth.” (Vayikrah 11:1-2)

At the beginning of 2021, I was thrown head-first into the world of industrial kashrut supervision after the untimely passing of Rabbi Desmond Maizels, of blessed memory. For several decades, Rabbi Maizels headed the kashrut department of the UOS (Union of Orthodox Synagogues) of Cape Town and built it into an internationally respected organisation. I often marvel at how one person, with a very small team, was able to oversee so many factories, food services, abattoirs and other establishments. Since Rabbi Maizels’ passing, the kashrut department of the UOS of Johannesburg and Cape Town have joined forces and have grown their operations considerably. The joint organisation is now known as Kosher SA, of which I am a proud team member. Kosher SA employs rabbinical inspectors; shochtim (slaughterers); mashgichim (kashrut inspectors); food technologists/ingredients specialists; accountants; bookkeepers and data capturers. At last count, Kosher SA certifies over 1240 companies and 56170 products across the length and breadth of South Africa and further afield. My role is one of oversight rather than “boots on the ground”. I do not conduct factory or food services inspections, except on rare occasions. Rather, whenever a new establishment, factory or product applies for kosher certification, I will study all of the information gathered by our team and, if all requirements are met, I will sign the relevant certificate. For this purpose I use the Kosher SA internal website, knowns as KIMS, Kosher Ingredient Management System. My role also includes occasional visits to the beef, lamb and poultry abattoirs and to new wineries seeking certification. I also answer many kashrut queries from Kosher SA staff and the public. The latter interacts with Kosher SA via our WhatsApp line, Kosher Desk (number: 063 693 9417) and/or website, www.koshersa.co.za

Industrial kashrut supervision is a fascinating area of Jewish Law and there are always interesting questions that arise, many of which would not have bothered rabbis of previous generations who lived before the era of advanced food production. In this essay I will share with you a number of questions that have come my way and I will try to refer to the relevant chapter and paragraph in the Code of Jewish Law. Unless otherwise stated, all references are to the Yoreh Deah section of the Shulchan Aruch, which contains most of the halakhot of kashrut.  

South Africa produces an enormous amount of hake fish, a great deal of which is exported to foreign nations, including Israel. Some fisheries produce hake in the following way: they send massive fishing ships out to sea for about a month at a time to waters that are teeming with hake. These ships are actually moving factories and contain machines that skin, fillet, freeze and package the hake all within a few hours of being caught. There are no mashgichim on board these ships who witness that the fish possess fins and scales before they are skinned. This creates a challenge from a kashrut point of view because the final product is a skinless piece of frozen fish and the customer has no way of knowing if it is actually hake or some other species of fish, other than the assurance of the producers (see Yoreh Deah chapter 83). There are definitely other fish that are caught in the nets together with the hake, and this is referred to as bycatch. How can Kosher SA certify such hake when there was not a mashgiach present at the time the fish was skinned and the scales removed? After intensive correspondence with the fishing companies, we agreed to certify the hake. There were several factors involved, perhaps the most important being that the machines that skin and fillet the fish are calibrated for hake and only hake. If any other fish are fed into the machine, the machine will not produce a fillet.

Another related issue is how one can know for sure that the milk one is drinking is actually sourced from a cow, or other kosher animal. There is a general principle in the laws of kashrut that “whatever comes from a non-kosher animal is not kosher”, including milk and eggs (Yoreh Deah chapter 81). Thus the milk of camels and pigs is not permitted for consumption. Furthermore, the Sages decreed that one cannot purchase milk from a non-Jew unless there was a Jew present at the milking, lest the seller mix in milk from a non-kosher animal (ibid chapter 115). In the era of modern milk production where there are massive dairies producing hundreds of thousands of litres daily is there still a concern that the dairy might add in some non-kosher milk? In a landmark ruling in 1954, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein (Igrot Moshe, Yoreh Deah 1:47) rules that milk produced in factories is considered kosher based largely on the fact that dairies are under strict scrutiny by the government and will be heavily penalised if they dare to add any foreign substance to the milk. There are still many Orthodox Jews who do not rely on Rabbi Feinstein’s ruling and insist on milk that has been produced under supervision. This is referred to as chalav Yisrael. This will naturally limit one’s choices of dairy foods.

A common problem in large factories that produce both kosher and non-kosher products is the issue of shared boiler water and steam return. In many factories there are double-jacketed pipes. A double-jacketed pipe is a two-layer piping system consisting of a smaller, inner process pipe housed within a larger outer pipe. This design creates a concentric space for circulating heating/cooling media (e.g., steam, water, oil) to maintain, heat, or cool viscous fluids, or to provide leak protection (double containment) for hazardous materials. The product will run through the inner pipe and the water or steam will be in the outer pipe.  Although different products are not mixed together, they share the same water or steam. This would be like one pot within another. The outer pot contains the boiling water and the inner pot contains the food.  Imagine a case where the first inner pot contained a non-kosher product, such as shellfish. The shellfish pot was then removed and a second pot containing a kosher product, such as vegetables, was placed within the outer pot. Do we say that the water in the outer pot absorbed some of the taste from the product in the first pot and then emitted that taste into the second pot? This is a thorny matter. One solution is to ensure that the water used in the outside pipe is rendered pagum, inedible, by the addition of a foul-tasting chemical (See Yoreh Deah chapter 103). Thus, even if some taste is absorbed, it will be of no consequence. It has been my ‘honour’ to receive several samples of factory boiler water to taste to determine if it is pagum and, in most instances, it was truly repulsive! This is how far Kosher SA will go to ensure we certify products to the highest standards of kashrut! 

Lee, Chani Merryl & Naomi join me in wishing you Shabbat Shalom!   

Rabbi Liebenberg.

This week’s YouTube message: https://youtu.be/4UuBI34SUbo?si=l2HRbzaMTcg_1LRL

* Rosh Chodesh Iyar is Friday 27 and Shabbat 28 April. The month of Iyar includes the following events: Yom Hazikaron (4 Iyar, Tuesday 21 April); Yom Haatzmaut (5 Iyar, Wednesday 22 April); Pesach Sheini (14 Iyar, Friday 1 May); Lag B’Omer (18 Iyar, Tuesday 5 May) and Yom Yerushalayim (28 Iyar, observed this year on 27 Iyar, Thursday 14 May). The Molad (appearance of the new moon) will be Friday 17 April at 05h18 and 14 chalakim (a chelek, literally a “portion”, is a Talmudic measure of time equal to one-eighteenth of a minute, or 3 and 1/3 seconds).