Copyrighteous

I'm totally guessing on this, but it might be useful for disinfecting food processing equipment in Kosher food plants.

What ? Not drinking alcohol ? it's only 98% !
Is it taste good ?

Some Googling led to one interesting reference: http://www.ou.org/publications/ja/5765/5765fall/KOSHERKO.PDF

Also, as Patrick Regan suggested, it might matter if used for disinfection on equipment later used to process food.

Really boring and useless crap.

You're allowed by law to adulterate alcoholic drinks with "blenders", various substances which might add flavour or other things to the drink. Isoamyl alcohol is one of these: your blended whiskey can apparently be up to 2% isopentanol! (And the manufacturer then pays less tax because less of the overall drink is taxable ethanol.) I am depressed by this news. Anyway, since it might end up in drinks a kosher certification is a good idea. http://www.askmoses.com/en/article/555,2097204/Are-all-hard-liquors-Kosher.html is relevant here.

Stemp: Perhaps! But it's not even ethanol!

Stuart: Awesome! Thanks for the link. Seems likely that it's used as a food additive of some sort.

While it certainly isn't a food product, and not covered under kashrut at all, apparently some manufacturers of other household items seek kosher certification to denote cleanliness in manufacturing conditions. In this case, it seems the manufacturer is indicating that there is no likelihood of any animal products tainting the alcohol.

See this post about rubbing alcohol similarly marked:
http://www.kosherblog.net/2006/07/12/should-poison-bear-a-heksher/

Perhaps it is so the alcohol can be used in the production of kosher drugs?

1) What others have mentioned above was my first thought -- useful in disinfection, and therefore I suppose something to be scrupulous about; if you're going to be scrupulous, might as well be even more so.

2) A joke? :) This may be ruled out by above kosherblog link, but, well, if there were no other explanation, that would seem reasonable.

timothy

https://www.sigmaaldrich.com/sigma-aldrich/general_information/natural_kosher_cert.pdf
the other comments contain possible reasons: the cleanliness of the lab, its possible use in food, use to clean food equipment. If the link I quoted is the maker of this, it seems to prepare other food chemicals, so then maybe it got the certification because the lab does it with all their products.
the seal and associated name are from a large organization that certifies things as kosher.

Wow! Thanks for digging this up!

According to my AP Chemistry teacher [from last year], It is used for banana-flavored candy (fragrance esters).

Also, I assume that a Rabbi probably blessed the factory.

It's food flavoring (or at least was).

http://food.oregonstate.edu/glossary/i/isoamylalcohol.html

If it was found in a biochemical lab, it may have been intended for DNA purification by phenol/chloroform extraction. Isoamyl alcohol is added to phenol/chloroform mixtures to promote phase separation from the DNA-containing aqueous phase.

BTW it is not commonly used in disinfection - its boiling point is way too high for that. For alcoholic disinfection to work, the alcohol must evaporate, so only ethanol and isopropanol can be used for that.

It might also be used as an ingredient in solvent mixtures for TLC.