In the last issue of The Jewish Homemaker, we discussed at length the production of kosher fatty acids and oil. There is a closely related issue that merits our attention: the transport of these products, both in their raw and finished states.
Approximately fifteen years ago, the OK sent a mashgiach to conduct a routine check of the storage of oils at a port facility in California. His job was to insure that the kosher oils were stored in tanks where non-kosher oils and fats had not previously been kept. The oils involved were tropical oils, a category that includes palm oil, palm kernel oil, and coconut oil. These oils usually come by boat from Malaysia, Indonesia, or the Philippines.
Rabbi Shmuel Leizer Stern, the mashgiach, asked us why, whereas we found it necessary to inspect the tanks used to store the oils domestically, we didn't apply the same standard to the boats used to transport the oils across the ocean. Good question. At that time, no one in the kashrus field was checking the boats — in fact, the idea simply had not occurred to any kashrus organization.
Integrity in kashrus includes upgrading standards when one finds that improvement is necessary. My father, of blessed memory, recognized that Rabbi Stern's suggestion had to be implemented, and we immediately began investigating the matter.
During our extensive research, we found that the owners of the transport ships try their utmost to sail with a full load. The reason is strictly economic: the fuller the shipment, the more profitable the voyage. Therefore, after transporting a kosher load from the Far East to the U.S., the likelihood exists that a boat will return home carrying a non-kosher load.
Boats coming from the Far East to the U.S. do not always travel via the Pacific Ocean; they frequently go by way of Europe, again for economic reasons. In Europe the oils may be stored in various ports. The main such port, in Rotterdam, has two primary tank farms, which store both kosher and non-kosher products. Very significantly, when traveling to the Far East, which is rich in tropical oils but poor in animal oils, the ships transport animal oils, mainly to Japan, which lacks natural resources.
In addition, Australia and New Zealand are purveyors of large amounts of animal fats, along with products produced from animal fats. Our investigation disclosed that not only the holds of ships, but also the isotanks — tanks in which oils are transported, and which are similar to the tanks you see carrying milk and oils in the U.S. — are used for animal oils and fats. Finally, on the ships we found that there are pumps used for both kosher and non-kosher oils.
Clearly oil and fat supervision was a more complicated task than we had previously thought. We were now presented with the problem of monitoring the ships and isotanks as well as the tank farms (the port facilities) where the oils are stored.
We shared our knowledge with other major kashrus agencies, but found that not everyone was interested in a radical revision in oil supervision. This was surprising, given the fact that all along domestic trucking companies were being monitored for the same reason we now had determined that the boats required supervision. Yet for some reason some other agencies did not deem it necessary to supervise the boats.
In Europe at that time, there were kashrus agencies that required a full-time mashgiach at all kosher oil factories, yet were not inspecting the boats or the tank farms. Unfortunately, years later some major kashrus agencies continue to deny the need for supervision of transport boats, claiming they have never found boats carrying non-kosher loads. This is odd, because these agencies do require supervision of boats originating in Europe.
Indeed, as this article was being written, I was informed by one of our Rabbinic Coordinators that he had rejected a container because it previously carried a non-kosher load. We hope that the agencies claiming they have never found a non-kosher oil load on one of these tanks will reconsider. Our first step in implementing supervision of the ships was to arrange visits to the shipping companies and to the boats themselves. We first visited a major international shipping company, with offices in the Northeast. Afterwards we visited their ships. We were dismayed to find that the information given to us by the office of the shipping company did not accord with the data given us by the ship's captain. The shipping company claimed that all boats departing the Far East to the U.S. travel only the Pacific route. The captain of the first ship I visited told me that he had just come from the Far East through Europe!
The significance of this was obvious and critical: if he came directly from the Far East via the Pacific, it was unlikely that he carried animal fats. If he went through Europe, the likelihood of his carrying animal products was much higher.
After much effort, we slowly overcame the obstacles and implemented a system to monitor the previous loads carried by ships that were to be used for the transport of kosher oil. We accomplished this by requiring the ships to document the history of their previous loads. This attestation must be accompanied by a document from an independent surveyor company, whose function it is to verify cleanliness and other information concerning these boats. This provides verification from an independent source of the details presented to us by the companies.
Of course we had to design a system for cleaning tanks that had been used for non-kosher oils. Our method involves cleaning out the tanks with hot water and subsequently steaming them for at least half an hour. This is the best method available to us for cleaning the tanks.
For boatloads coming from companies certified by the OK, we implemented a certificate system. Each boat has to be approved by the OK before it departs. A certificate stating that we have verified the kashrus of the vessel carrying the oil or the oil-based product — by the above method — is issued for each load. As an additional safeguard, every isotank is secured by a numbered seal; if the seal is broken, we know tampering has occurred. The seal number is on the certificate, along with the quantity of the approved item. Again, if the number or quantity doesn't match, something is awry.
Of the two farms, one was a modern facility, which was very nicely laid out. Here we were able to trace the lines and pumps easily. The other was an old farm, with pipes going in all directions to different manifolds — junctions from which the oil is pumped to various sections of the plant. While the second farm posed a greater challenge, we were able to set up sections in both tank farms dedicated to holding only kosher products.
Now that a system for keeping kosher products separate had been put in place in theory, we needed a way to monitor that our program was followed in practice. At the beginning we kept track by checking paper records to see which product was stored in which tank. Today the companies are computerized and can store the history of the tanks electronically, including which products went through each pipeline and pump.
After setting up the tank farms, a similar system was set up to monitor the barge companies and truck companies that transport the oils from the tank farms to factories inland.
The results of these efforts have been rewarding. We are pleased to report that the OK system for supervising tank farms and transport ships functions smoothly. These are regularly monitored by competent mashgichim, and the consumer can rest assured that the kosher oil certified by the OK is truly kosher.
We wish our reader audience a kosher, sweet, and prosperous New Year.