"We need kosher certification. Can you send a rabbi out to bless the plant?"

   Everybody who works for a kosher certifying organization has been asked this at one time or another.

   It's one of those questions with no right answer.

   Kosher diplomacy starts at this point, because the kosher certifying body needs a lot of information, and if the company is asking questions like the one mentioned above, its personnel need even more.

   It is worth knowing what initially led the company on the other end of the line to ask for certification. Was it a manufacturer's marketing decision? Is the inquirer a supplier of ingredients to a company which is applying for certification? Has some Jewish distributor approached a company that makes a product he wants to sell and, in turn, asked them to "do it kosher" for him?

   In the United States, a kosher symbol on the package is regarded as positive product differentiation‹it can often increase sales by ten to fifteen percent. Moreover, there is a greater awareness for the potential of the kosher marketing niche than anywhere else in the world. To start with, people in the U.S. are more knowledgeable about differing cultures. In addition, many kosher certifying bodies send representatives to major food fairs to encourage companies to consider becoming kosher and to explain the particulars involved. This way a company determined to expand will seriously consider applying for kosher certification and often have a rough idea of what the procedure entails.

   On the other hand, however, suppliers of companies looking for kosher approval, and manufacturers asked to make their products kosher, frequently don't even know to begin the process. Often times, the responsibility gets passed to the quality assurance group or the regulatory affairs section (the division that makes sure that labels and ingredients conform to local laws such as the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Regulations), or occasionally to the product development department. In the United States, the regulatory affairs people may have access to the names and addresses of kosher certifying bodies, but for the other sections of the company, and for non-U.S. firms, this information is often difficult to obtain.

   What the company representative usually does at this point is call around to their friends in other companies (people in these specialized areas tend to know each other) until at last they get the name and number of (we hope) a good, dependable, exacting, and honest kashrus organization‹one like the OK, for instance. And being that this person in charge of the undertakings may know absolutely nothing about kashrus, he or she might not be able to differentiate between a reliable and worthless hechsheirim. Unfortunately, there are shoddy outfits operating out there who will take advantage of these corporate innocents, (over) charging them a fortune for a certification which isn't widely accepted.

   At this point comes the phone call with the initial approach to the kosher certifier. And then comes the bad news. First‹it costs money! Second‹it can be difficult. Every ingredient has to be initially cleared (some soft drinks have over a hundred flavor elements alone), the factory may well then have to be kosherized and no amount of blessing is going to do anything. Third‹the company will lose some of its independence: it will have to sign a contract with the certifying body (let's assume it's the OK, one of the best hechsheirim) assuring them that no ingredients, suppliers, or factory procedures will be changed without first informing the OK.

   All this can be a bit of a shock. Money! Effort! Hands tied! Is it all worth it? And the representative goes away to think about it, to analyze the market and potential profits, and to decide whether or not to proceed.

   More often than not, the numbers work out, and the company files an initial application (and deposit). When properly completed, this questionnaire will provide the OK with the basic information it needs to determine whose expertise will be required.

   At this point, the OK office staff will check the company's list of ingredients‹even ingredients have ingredients‹their suppliers, and where deemed necessary, request kosher certificates about these products from a reliable supervision. Although there are still items which can be used without certification (where the process is totally synthetic, for instance), modern techniques of food production ensure that almost nothing is straightforward. Identical chemicals can be obtained via both kosher and non-kosher sources, and differing processes for production can involve or exclude non-kosher catalysts. All certification bodies have built up lists of substances which are never problematic, those which are acceptable from specific suppliers whose procedures have been investigated, and those which must have certification because they are not normally made in a kosher manner.

   While ingredients are being investigated and kosher certificates requested, the field staff will confer with the OK's rabbinical authority to sort out the production side.

   From the process description in the application (and from years of experience) the rabbis of the OK Labs can determine which problems they are likely to meet and how complicated the factory's problems may be. There may also be a need to alert the company about non-ingredient edible contamination‹like non-kosher release agents (to get jellies out of molds easily, for instance). This assessment usually dictates the choice of representative for the initial factory visit. No company can be certified without a thorough on-the-ground analysis of the plant by a halachic authority.

   Some plants are very simple and absolutely standard, such as an old-fashioned smoked salmon factory. Anybody frum who can read and write can assess this sort of setup.

   Other problems often arise, however. Enzymes and fermentation products, for example, come from highly sophisticated micro-biological plants. For these, and for complex edible oil refineries, it makes sense to send a highly-trained food technology expert. He'll then tour the plant, often asking questions on the basis of his knowledge of processing ("But how can you do that without using such-and-such chemical?"‹and of course they do use it, but left it out on the application form‹and needless to say, it's traif), and writes a detailed report of the factory's equipment and usage. This description enables the OK's halachic expert to make decisions regarding acceptability, kosherizing, and so on.

   In many instances the transition goes smoothly. However, there arises from time to time a scenario where a very complex, very traif plant will require a number of rabbinical decisions to determine the best means to kosherize the equipment. And even after the decisions and alterations are administered, the plant will probably only be able to produce individual kosher batches under constant supervision rather than achieving a permanent kosher status. In these cases, both the technology expert and the halachic expert will have to view the factory together, often on-site in discussion with the plant management, to work out methods of producing to the described kosher standard.

   So what are they looking for? If the ingredients are all acceptable (and you don't want to know how rare that is), what problems can there be?

   Most commonly it is shared equipment that creates difficulties. Spray dryers and industrial-scale pasteurizers, for instance, are very expensive items, and an efficient setup will keep them as busy as possible. Though the plant may have a separate line for its processed kosher product, it may very well share the single spray drier with the other lines. How does the certifying body handle this?

   Similarly, heating and cooling systems in an efficient plant may link otherwise separate lines: the steam keeping the traif material hot condenses, returns to the boiler, is heated to steam again, and is re-circulated to the putative kosher production, making everything traif. Common water cooling systems have the same problem. In most cases, if the water/steam condensate can be made thoroughly unpalatable, this can provide a workable solution‹but what about the plants which demand that even the cooling water or condensate be potable?

   And then there are other difficulties. Simple scenarios like the Moroccan sardine canning plant which cans camel meat when sardines aren't in season, or the jam factory which produces wine jellies from time to time. Or complicated ones like the plant described in the following technical kosher expert's report:

   "On my first visit the then plant manager had sworn that the tomato paste drier never, but never, handled anything other than tomato except that they might on rare occasions push their new product, gum arabic, through the system (gum arabic is a problem everywhere). The limited plant records that were available at that time showed that the tomato paste drier had indeed for many months handled only tomatoes. The new plant manager has started ( in February) to keep real, centralized records not only of what has been produced on each spray drier but also what they had intended to spray on each drier. These records show that wine was dried in May, that gum arabic is a regular feature, that vegetable products had been dried and that they had intended at least once to dry a mil-based productŠ

   "I have found it impossible to get a full list of other products made. Their recording system is so primitive as to be barbaricŠ"

   Once the representative has made his initial visit to the factory and sent in his detailed report, the rabbinical authority takes over. For the OK, this is Rabbi Levy himself. With the report as his starting point, he talks to the plant personnel and to the OK representative to see if a suitable halachic solution can be found. Changes of ingredients, kosherizing equipment, additives to boiler water, and as a last resort supervision for individual batches are among the alternatives he considers.

   There are companies who often pull out at this point, afraid that complying with halachic requirements just isn't worth the trouble and expense. But on the whole, if Rabbi Levy finds an answer, it's one that the company can live with.

   If the company agrees to the kosher requirements, the requisite changes are usually made within a few weeks. If there have been major alterations to the plant setup, a further visit will be made to ensure that everything remains up to standard.

   At this stage, a contract is signed (typically for one year), specifying among other things how often thereafter the plant must be visited to guarantee conformity with the contract's halachic specifications. Then the company pays the fee for certification.

   It is only now the plant can start producing and marketing its chocolate-covered instant tofu Œn' fish flakes* with the OK on the label‹just what you've all been waiting for.

* No, this is not a real product so don't ask for it!

Henye Meyer is a freelance writer living in Manchester, UK.