There's no question that I generally prefer Bet Shamai over Bet Hillel, halak over glat, and the JDL over the ADL.
Knowing that, it should come as no surprise that I am "suspicious" of kashrut agencies that tell me this or that product is kosher when I have reason to believe otherwise.
Something recently caused me to revisit liquor lists, in particular scotches, blended and straight.
Several of the kashrut agencies state that (while perhaps not recommended) all scotches, except those that clearly state on the label that they are aged in a former wine barrel, are "kosher."
Among the scotches that lack a statement about wine casks are Chivas and Johnnie Walker.
So, these are then "acceptably kosher" products?
I know some "orthodox" rabbis who drink both Chivas and Johnnie Walker.
If you lean toward Bet Shamai, neither scotch is acceptable.
But they don't state on the label.
Who am I, neither a rabbi or food chemist, to claim Chivas and Johnnie Walker are not suitable?
I am the guy who contacted the distilleries and got the information from the "horses mouth."
There was no problem. Everything was via email.
Chivas is a blend of scotches aged in wine and Bourbon barrels. How much of this and how much of that is a tightly guarded secret, so the Chivas people told me.
Johnnie Walker's people simply told me their product is not kosher.
My point is that if I can find out about a product with minimal effort, why can't kashrut agencies do the same.
The flip side of that point is, if they don't do it for scotch, what other products do they simply accept as "kosher" without bothering to actually check? Can we trust the kashrut agencies?
Several years ago, before Pesach, I asked a major certifying agency why some products, kosher for most of the year, suddenly were not K4P. There was no suggestion of kitniyot.
The answer was that "we're not sure" about some of the processes a thrice-removed ingredient went through. Translation for someone who "leans toward Bet Shamai" is that the kashrut agency really didn't know how the thrice-removed ingredient was prepared before being added to another ingredient.
Maybe the thrice-removed ingredient was cut with grain alcohol and that would make it unacceptable. But the kashrut agency was unable to tell me what made the final product unacceptable for Pesach.
I understand that to be in the kashrut business a person needs to be a food chemist. I understand why a person in the kashrut business must work with rabbinical authorities who both know, and care about, the Law with a capital "L."
I also understand that, apparently, some kashrut agencies are taking the easy way out. "If it doesn't say (something) on the label, then it's considered kosher."
In truth, the kashrut agencies should be warning "If it doesn't have a kosher label, assume it is not (kosher)." I know there are places where a kosher label is not "politically correct," but there are ways to advertise a product's kashrut status sans a kosher label on the product container.
In this day and age of emails and instant messaging, it behooves those of us to "lean toward Bet Shamai" to do our own research, at least for the major ingredients.
As the song asks: Who you gonna trust ? (http://www.lyricsmania.com/who_you_gonna_trust_lyrics_magnum.html)
