NATIONAL
A tale of complexity, and
high monetary stakes,
regarding Coca-Cola and
kashrut supervision today.
Things
Go Better
For Coke
With The OU
ELLEN BERNSTEIN
Special to The Jewish News
ne year ago, Coca-
Cola wasn't it. At
least, in Orthodox
circles. At that time
the world's largest and
most influential kashrut
agency, the Orthodox Union
(OU), put out the word that it
could no longer be certain
that Coke was kosher.
Thus was born a contro-
versy over the popular bev-
erage's long-accepted
hechsher or kosher certifica-
tion, a dispute that the OU
insists was solely motivated
by the need to maintain high
standards of kashrut. But
critics of the OU say that
politics, even greed, played
into a decision that forced
food establishments under
OU supervision in New York
to stop serving Coca-Cola
for 10 months.
The negative publicity
generated by the OU, say
critics, may have led Coca-
Cola to believe it's better to
do business with the kashrut
certification agency that
wields the most clout. The
Orthodox Union flatly
denies its actions got its foot
in Coke's door.
But the results are that
the OU now supervises
Coca-Cola, at least in the
New York area, and the
kashrut agency's "ban" on
Ellen Bernstein reports for
our sister paper, the Atlanta
Jewish Times.
the beverage has been lifted.
What was behind the Or-
thodox Union's loss of con-
fidence in Coca-Cola's ingre-
dients — and how the issue
was resolved -- tells a tale of
the complexity and high
monetary stakes involved in
kashrut supervision today.
The answer appears to lie
less with the OU's distrust
of the beverage's ingre-
dients than with its distrust
of a smaller, competing
kashrut agency that was se-
lected by Atlanta-based
Coca-Cola, USA to supervise
its beverage early in 1990.
Varying Standards
Throughout the United
States, dozens of kashrut
agencies and mashgichim
(kashrut inspectors) are
hired by companies to en-
sure that only kosher ingre-
dients and kashered equip-
ment are used in the manu-
facture of a food product.
In the half-billion dollar
Kosher food industry, food
manufacturers spend $20
million a year on rabbinical
supervision. The result is a
hechsher or kosher certifica-
tion that makes the product
acceptable to the growing
kosher-consuming public.
But not all hechshers are
considered equal in the ko-
sher-keeping world. There
are rabbis and agencies with
less stringent standards of
kashrut. Such supervision
has, from time to time,
demanded double checking
by agencies that hold to a
more exacting standard.
On the other hand, not ev-
ery product requires inten-
sive scrutiny. The gray area
in kashrut inspection makes
some products, such as cer-
tain apple or cranberry
juices, acceptable with a
marginal certification or no
certification at all. Other
products, such as meats and
baked products, require
stringent supervision by a
more widely accepted kash-
rut agency.
Coca-Cola is a beverage
that leading rabbinic au-
thorities believe never need-
ed intensive, ongoing scru-
tiny to maintain its kosher
certification. Its hechsher —
dating back to Atlanta Rab-
bi Tobias Geffen's inspec-
tion in 1935 — is based on a
thorough knowledge of what
ingredients go into the man-
ufacture of the beverage.
These ingredients never
change except during Pass-
over. (Kosher for Passover
Coca-Cola, requires inten-
sive supervision because the
sweetener is changed from
corn syrup to cane sugar to
meet Jewish dietary restric-
tions.)
For 30 years, Rabbi Sim-
cha Elberg of New York cer-
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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