17 Replies to “Kosher”

  1. 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.

  2. 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/

  3. 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

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. Hi All, The bottle is from the Sigma-Aldrich Corporation (I work there).
    Kosher materials like this are used for all sorts of applications, from flavors, to fragrances, to cleaning. Isoamyl alcohol is used for both flavors and cleaning, and needs to be kosher so it can be used in kosher products, and on the same equipment as kosher foods. Plus, as stated above, in the food industry, kosher status is generally recognized as being above average quality, because a lot of attention to cleanliness and quality is put on the ingredients at each stage of harvest, production, and distribution.

    We have a kosher white paper if you’re interested also,
    http://www.safcglobal.com/safc-global/en-us/home/white-papers/complexities-of-kosher-ingredients.html

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