OU Kosher Certifies Toilet Cleaner. Why Not Impossible Pork?
The Orthodox Union’s kosher division has been certifying toilet cleaner as kosher for years. Why not certify the latest plant-based meat substitute from Impossible Foods?
Why Doesn’t OU Kosher Certify Impossible Pork?
In a recent JTA opinion piece, David Zvi Kalman argued that OU Kosher’s decision not to certify Impossible Pork was justified because it draws a (he argues, helpful) line in the sand in regards to super-realistic meat substitutes. According to this article, kosher-keeping consumer Rena Kates “doesn’t think she can stomach Impossible Pork. ‘I have this visceral reaction to it,’ she said. ‘There is something about pork that is just triggering.’ ” Rabbi Menachem Genack, CEO of the OU’s Kosher division, pointed to Kates’s reaction and others like it in saying that, “[OU Kosher] agency officials decided that a product called ‘pork’ just wouldn’t fly.”
I’m not sure I buy that argument, and it seems that same JTA news article doesn’t buy it either. JTA points out that OU Kosher “certifies other products that aim to replicate the pork experience.” Indeed: while most of the 31 results for “pork” on the OU Kosher product search page are seasonings or rubs that happen to include the word pork, there are three that might cause Kates to have that same visceral reaction: Sauer’s Savory Pork Chops with Apples, Stonemill’s BBQ Pulled Pork, and Ortega’s Authentic Pork Carnitas Street Tacos. How can OU Kosher defend the “pork in the product name” argument if they already certify products called Pork Chops, BBQ Pulled Pork, and Pork Carnitas as kosher?
Taking a moment to look at Kalman’s argument, it’s an interesting thought experiment: Impossible Pork is so hyper-realistic that we have to be careful about it taking the place of meat, and, therefore, “inasmuch as meat matters, it matters that the meat isn’t pork.” I’m not sure I agree with his conclusion. To quote Facebook user John Schochet, “The ‘new technology’ reasoning might properly apply to lab grown meat, but not 100% plant-based meat.”
If Toilet Cleaner is Kosher…
When a Beit Yosef private rabbinic group certified cigarettes as kosher for Passover in 2013 (H/T Kalman’s article), even the Israeli chief rabbinate thought that was a step too far. While I guess one could argue that, like aluminum foil and saran wrap, cigarettes are food-adjacent in some way, the Israeli chief rabbinate made their opinion clear: “‘Poison is not kosher. For all days of the year, not just Passover,’ said the chief rabbinate’s spokesman, Ziv Maor.”
Given that OU Kosher doesn’t certify “items that have no connection to food, such as bicycles,” it may come as a surprise that this toilet cleaner has been certified since at least 2013 as kosher pareve for Passover and year round (except the UK version, which is kosher dairy (!), and not kosher for Passover). Toilet cleaner isn’t even food-adjacent. Why is OU Kosher charging Seventh Generation to certify its toilet cleaner as kosher?
Making the Sustainable Choice
Seventh Generation’s mission is to “transform the world into a healthy, sustainable & equitable place for the next seven generations.” They’re quite thorough when it comes to the sustainability of their ingredients and packaging.
Kalman notes that “The rise of plant-based meat substitutes has been spurred by ethical and environmental concerns around meat production.” If OU Kosher has any interest in helping make the world a “healthy, sustainable & equitable place,” I would suggest they take two clear steps:
- Cease the practice of certifying toilet cleaner (after all, it’s even more poisonous than cigarettes).
- Certify Impossible Pork as kosher.
It’s quite likely that my suggestions will go unheeded, though I’m holding out hope. Genack did say that “Impossible Pork came close to carrying the agency’s label, and still could one day.”
As for the toilet cleaner, back in 2013, “Maor, the spokesman for Israel’s chief rabbis who oversee kosher supervision of foods, said… ‘There are some communities who consider it important that everything they bring home has a kosher stamp on it.’”