Should poison bear a heksher?
Apologies for my absence these last several weeks. I’ve been working long hours and also trying to eat in a healthier, less indulgent manner so, regrettably, my usual hobbies of cooking, eating, and blogging have fallen by the wayside.
Some time ago, I noticed in my medicine cabinet a bottle of rubbing alcohol with a Kof-K heksher. It seemed only slightly peculiar, so it fell to the recesses of my mind. A question sent to the blog about an OU-certified Shoprite variety restirred my curiosity: does rubbing alcohol present any particular kashrut concerns that would require it to fall under religious supervision?
The answer to that question, I learned, is a firm “no,” but the Orthodox Union’s response left me unsettled, as most of their measured, political responses do.
We certify many products that don’t necessarily require a certification, Isopropyl Rubbing Alcohol being one of them. The company may choose to certify a non-edible product as kosher as a sure sign of cleanliness. We do, however, make certain, once we are already certifying the product, that there are no animal derivatives or the like in the alcohol.
My discomfort manifests in three regards, listed by increasing severity.
Distortion of Kashrut Certification. I’ve often seen in kosher-related marketing materials that every-day consumers, Jewish or not, see kosher certification as a sign of “cleanliness” akin to the Good Houskeeping seal of approval. While it makes for quaint chatter, kosher certification is nothing of the sort. Kosher-certified means, plainly, “assured to be prepared in accordance with Jewish dietary laws.” Our non-Jewish lactose-intolerant friends, for example, should be encouraged to use the “pareve” distinction to assure absence of dairy ingredients, but we must resist representing “kosher” beyond its true essence.
Irrelevant Use of Kashrut Certification. If Jewish dietary law does not impact a product’s fitness for use, no form of kosher certification should be made available. We’ve witnessed this on the blog before, regarding chicken eggs; additionally, there is a specific group of foods which absolutely does not require supervision (known as “Category One” items), and yet many can be found with hekshers.
Disregard for Life-Threatening Danger. Isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol is poisonous, affecting both the central nervous system (headache, dizziness, confusion) and gastrointestinal system (abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, gastritis), with the potential to cause blindness, coma, or death. There are three classes of people who are inclined to consume isopropyl alcohol: alcoholics, children, and those who attempt suicide. Imagine, heaven forbid, a Jewish child or a Jewish alcoholic who is unfamiliar with the aforementioned risks but notices that this bottle of “alcohol” has an OU or Kof-K heksher — it’s “kosher,” so it must be safe to drink, right? All of a sudden, a pseudo-righteous desire to assure “no animal derivatives or the like in the alcohol” has become lethal.
Like me, you may be quick to blame these certifiers for stepping beyond the bounds of kashrut supervision, but the blame is not entirely theirs. I had the great pleasure to speak at length to a rabbinic representative from the Kof-K regarding the matter, and he described the complexities of his work. It often starts with a well-meaning, but uneducated consumer. Mr. Cohen, while visiting his local supermarket, asks a clerk if the store carries kosher-certified peppercorns (a product which you and I know does not need certification). The well-meaning clerk, who hasn’t a clue, informs his supervisor that a customer wanted kosher-certified peppercorns but couldn’t find it. The well-meaning supervisor passes the information to the store’s regional purchasing director, and the well-meaning director, eager to bring better products into his stores, asks his spice supplier if they carry kosher-certified peppercorns. The well-meaning supplier, aware that future business with the supermarket chain could be riding on this request, assures the purchasing director that he can deliver — “my garlic powder has certification, why not get it for peppercorns, too?” So, the supplier calls up his friendly rabbinic supervisor and says he needs his peppercorns certified. “They don’t need certification, they’re kosher as is,” insists the rabbi. “Well, my buyer wants them certified,” replies the supplier. The rabbi reiterates, “They’re naturally kosher, I’d be ripping you off to certify them.” “Okay, so let me put your symbol on it for free,” suggests the supplier, but the rabbi can’t allow that either — a heksher is a valuable trademark. So, at the end of our well-meaning road to irrelevant certification, the rabbi, committed to serving (and retaining) his clients, levies a nominal surcharge so his heksher can appear on the supplier’s peppercorns, and everyone — the rabbi, the supplier, the director, the supervisor, the clerk, the customer — is happy with the newly-certified product. The price hasn’t changed, and the symbol probably attracts a few other enthusiastic (and ignorant) customers — but kashrut at its essence suffers as a result.
So, step one: become a better-educated consumer! Know what products are kosher without supervision (I’m in the process of compiling some of that information, stay tuned). Keep your rabbi on speed-dial if you have a question while in the supermarket.
Step two: become a more active consumer! If you find a product with a clearly irrelevant heksher, contact the producer and let them know they don’t need the symbol to get your business, and tell them why. While you’re at it, carbon-copy the kashrut agency or write them a separate message questioning their decision to certify.
Step three: pressure the kashrut industry! In addition the per-product agitation, push the industry as a whole (i.e. the Association of Kashrus Organizations) to adopt and publicize uniform standards on what they will or won’t certify. If there’s no chance Agency B will certify peppercorns, then Agency A needn’t worry that his client will jump ship over the matter. As for non-edible items with kashrut or kashrut-esque concerns, like dish detergent or pet food, perhaps certifiers should adopt alternative symbols that indicate some conformance with Jewish law but do not suggest any fitness for consumption.
It would be a real tragedy if serious harm had to befall a Jewish child or alcoholic before such policies change.
One of my favorite hobby horses. The Chabad rabbi who helped me become more observant taught me to preferentially buy non-certified products if no certification was needed, precisely to counter this sort of thing.
I think the relevant torah verses (which I’ve quoted to more than one Rabbi) are Devarim 16:19 and Exodus 23:8.
I am not a Rabbi, but I disagree. There may be uses for products other than directly ingesting them, which affect kashrus. Such as cleaning your dishes or sink with the product. Yes, no hechsure is needed for such things, but if you knew that one soap was made from pig fat and a second was not - wouldn’t you rather use the second on your kosher dishes? In this case, you may want to put the rubbing alcohol in one of your kosher cups (to do something other than drink it), and not have to worry about treifing the cup. And who is to say whether a dog would try to drink rubbing alcohol…
But that would require people to use their brains– as religious Jews do in Europe– and understand what kashrut really is, how to read ingredients, understand additives/colors…
There are over 8000 “ingredients” that do not require a hashgocha. Are you prepared to list all of them?
The company wants the symbol on the product b/c they know the kosher consumer looks for the symbol first and the nice package second. This was borne out a number of years ago by a major cereal manufacturer.
If a person would have to know those items that dont require a hechsher they would also have to know how they can be used so as not to need the hechsher.
What would the simple consumer say if they knew that Foil or soaps dont need a hechsher? They would go nuts but that is the fact.
CS
Andy J., it seems that you wrote your comment before getting to the bottom of Jabbett’s post, where he clearly stated that there could be an effective system for dealing with non-edibles that raise kashrut concerns.
As to the general point, there is absolutely no reason (other than laziness on the part of consumers) that we couldn’t have a system that does not require hechshers on *every* product. This system works perfectly well in Europe and I think it’s hard to claim that, as an aggregate, European Jews are necessarily smarter or better able to retain information than American Jews. Further, we already have a system like this for most of our alcohol products - Jews know, without hechshers, that non-flavored domestic beers are acceptable, and that’s just the most basic example. Given the already high bar required by Jewish observance to learn about your practice, I don’t see why asking people to understand what they’re buying and eating and the relevant kashrut issues behind them is too difficult. This is an area, like many others in Jewish practice, where individuals need to take ownership of their observance and learn the “what”s and “why”s. As we are likely to see, once the ongoing antitrust investigation into kosher meat producers becomes more public, kashrut organizations are already more powerful than their mandate should allow and take advantage of their unique position. A more self-sufficient and informed consumer body would improve the overall state of the kashrut industry in America.
Sure, educating kosher consumers is important. But we have to look closely at the ethics of supervising agencies that accept thousands of dollars to give hashgacha for products that don’t require any kosher certification. That’s tantamount to preying on the naievete/insecurities of the producers and consumers and could be characterized as fraud.
Hi, Judi. It was my hope through providing the narrative to show that things aren’t as clear cut as agencies “preying on naievete.” First, I was informed that the amounts charged in such situations (certifying inherently kosher foods) are not such that the product’s price is affected; it’s overwhelmingly the case that additional sales offset the cost of certification — both points that I made subtly in my post.
I was also told a story of a food manufacturer who asked an agency to certify the machine grease that lets cans move freely along their conveyor belt. Since the request was absurd, the agency refused, but the manufacturer insisted they had to have kosher machine grease. It was discovered that the manufacturer misunderstood his rabbinic administrator who demanded that all supplies entering the facility have kosher certification. The agency spoke with the rabbi, cleared up the situation, and kept the company from paying unnecessary fees for irrelevant certification.
It’s healthy to question authority, but ultimately the consumer and his dollars hold the power. If it weren’t lucrative for companies to certify their products, they simply wouldn’t do it.
Chaim– To get started on the “8000 ingredients,” check out Rabbi Eidlitz’s list over at KosherQuest.org. If you’re the cynical type, note that he has no financial interest in certifying kosher food, so he can be more upfront about the subject.
The CRC also maintains a few useful lists:
Spices
Dried Fruits
Booze
Thanks for the quick response. I agree that consumer pressure can drive the frenzy for unnecessary hechsherim, but the ones pushing the current craze for mehadrin-mehadrin-mehadrin-everything are the rabbis of the shuls that answer to the OU… you can probably see where I’m going here.
Look, I can go to my dentist and say, for whatever crazy reason, that I need a molar pulled- even though there’s no legitimate reason for doing so. He can either refuse and, possibly, recommend that I see a psychologist (correct answer), or he can reason that I won’t be easily talked out of it and I might find another dentist who’ll humor me and pull the tooth, so he might as well make a few bucks for himself (wrong answer!).
My point is, it’s the rabbis who are advocating the current wave of stringencies, and their congregants aren’t going to ease up until the rabbis say it’s okay.
Repost this before Pesach!
I always get a kick out of KP bleach.
Andy J asked if we knew that one soap was made from pig fat and the other soap was kosher, wouldn’t we rather use the kosher soap. Most people would answer that the kosher soap is prefered. However, that would be a sociological answer and not a halachic answer. According to halacha, as Andy noted, one can certainly use non kosher soap on kosher dishes. However, we do need to be careful of how we characterize our answer. Sociological preferences are not halacha. Second: He mentions that there could be a problem of putting a treif substance into a kosher cup thereby treifing up the cup. Actually, that would not apply as the substance is not food and would not treif the cup because there is no issue of kashruth. And even if it were actually treif, the cup would not be treifed (can we make up that word?). Third- he raises the issue of a dog drinking alcohol. That would not be relevant. Alcohol is poison. Do dogs drink poison or do they have some sort of animal warning system?
Part Two: In Europe, they put out large lists of acceptable foods that have no certification. For example, see the London Beit Din’s kosher guide. The main reason for that is that they have so few certified products by comparison to what we have here. Yet, in spite of that, they manage to keep kosher by having a good knowledge of the products that are GRAK (generally recognized as kosher). Over on the Kosher Nexus, we have on occasion listed many GRAK items (plain seltzer, regular tea, etc). We need to know more about the things we buy as Jon pointed out. Not everything needs a hechsher. Why filtered spring water carries a hechsher is beyond me.
Part three
Every year, products come on the market with a hechsher that leaves us wondering. In the Kosher Nexus, we wrote about KP window cleaner. I guess if you run out of plates, you can eat off the window. Really- KP window cleaner? Was P T Barnum Jewish?
Part Four
I have to agree with Jon. Rubbing Alcohol should not have a hechsher. It frightens me that someone might drink the stuff. And according to the research I did, it seems that people do drink the stuff all the time and end up in the hospital. Some even die.
Part five
Easy hechsherim (like on spring water)do not cost very much, and the low fees that the hechsher company collects may be used to off set the much higher fee they might have to collect from someone else. So, in the end, it is a trade off. Company X pays a little, but it allows the hechsher company to subsidize Company Q. So what could be bad? Alcohol with a hechsher seems bad to us.
The supervising agencies, and the largest one in particular, have created an industry out of thin air and have ultimately done Judaism a large disservice - not a service. This is what a rav is for.
It is a pet peeve of mine that things that were universally kosher in the old days are no longer acceptable because they don’t have a supervising agency, eg, many shnaps and fish from a non-Jew. This is madness and it ain’t cheap. And I don’t buy that trash that they protect the unwitting consumer.
I don’t believe any of the certifier. They certify they get money but if something is wrong with the product we can’t blame them.
Great info. Thank you. I was concerned because I cleaned my oven (while it was still hot), with a cleanser that didn’t have a hechsher, and I thought that I treifed it as well as my countertops that I sprayed this cleanser on. I feel so much better. Thank you and Good Shabbos!