Butter, cheese manufacturers grapple with kosher requirements

By Kate Sander, Cheese Market News

To be or not to be kosher. That's the question butter and cheesemakers in Madison, WI, are currently asking themselves. However, for many, it's not so much a question of whether or not to make kosher products as it is a question about how to do it economically.

Demand for kosher products is such that many butter and cheesemakers believe kosher certification is necessary for at least some of their products.

"There's a fairly significant level of the customer base that looks for that additional supervision and assurance," says Bob Wills, president, Cedar Grove Cheese Inc., Plain, WI, who manufactures some kosher cheese. "The bigger the customer we're dealing with, the more interest they have in it."

However, meeting the requirements of the rabbinical certifying agencies isn't particularly easy. First of all, many butter and cheesemakers say that it can prove expensive.

To make kosher cheese, for example, a rabbi must be present to put the rennet in, and having a rabbi present is one expense, says Wills. And for Alto Dairy Cooperative, Waupun, WI, which was going through the final steps this week so that its whey products can be kosher-certified, there were capital expenditures to make necessary piping changes, says Ron Wagner, director of procurement and whey sales, Alto.

Another challenge, say industry members, is that kosher requirements aren't spelled out in a written format by the various organizations that certify product.

Rabbi Moshe Elefant, executive rabbinic coordinator, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America (OU), tells Cheese Market News that the OU is working on putting some documents together to help the dairy industry better understand what is necessary for kosher certification.

Rob Byrne, vice president of regulatory affairs, American Butter Institute (ABI), also says ABI is working with the dairy industry and the OU to clarify requirements and address industry concerns. Elefant was one of three rabbis who were invited to attend ABI's annual meeting this spring to talk with industry members, he says.

Still, Elefant notes that the food industry is a dynamic one, and with constant change there will never be a definitive document spelling out every detail.

Elefant does explain, though, some of the basics of kosher dairy products. He notes, for instance, that milk — and therefore cream — are inherently kosher according to Jewish law. Cheese can be made kosher by having a rabbi put a kosher rennet in the vat.

One doesn't have to have kosher cheese to have kosher whey, though, he says. Kosher whey can be a by-product of nonkosher cheese, as long as it's not above 120º and the cheese is made with a kosher rennet.

Like most things in the dairy industry, however, it's not as simple as that. Cheese and butter manufacturers say that the rabbinical organizations now have started to prohibit whey cream that contains any amount of cream from a mixer molder in a Mozzarella production line from being declared kosher.

Elefant says this can be due to two things: first, the water in the mixer molder that touches that cream is typically over 120 degrees and second, if the cook water touches cheese that is nonkosher the cook water makes the cream nonkosher as well.

The kosher standards haven't changed, Elefant says. However, in recent years the rabbis have learned that cream isn't always just sweet cream and that some whey cream either is too warm or touches nonkosher cook water. According to Jewish law, this whey cream then can't be called kosher. Whey cream that isn't affected in one of these prohibited ways can still be declared kosher, he adds.

Dick Baker, president, Baker Cheese Co., St. Cloud, WI, is one cheese manufacturer who has been caught up in the rabbinical organizations' scrutiny. Previously, whey cream wasn't an issue. The fact that some cream from the mixer molder was mixed in with other whey cream wasn't something his customers were concerned about.

However, earlier this year, a customer was told by a rabbinical organization that his cream supplier's cream must be certified kosher in order for the end product to be kosher. Baker's sweet cream is certified kosher and is sold as such. His whey cream, on the other hand, is not kosher because of the mixed-in milkfat from the mixer molder. Because of this, there are concerns about whether Baker's customer can continue using this whey cream.

Unless a cheesemaker wants to dump the milkfat from the mixer molder, there isn't much else he can do, Baker adds. One solution, he notes, may be to charge more for kosher whey cream to cover the costs of disposing milkfat from the mixer molder.

But doing that in a competitive industry isn't easy either. Indeed, a common sentiment expressed by industry members is frustration because kosher products aren't necessarily considered value-added. On the other hand, though, kosher certification does open up new markets, they say.

Kosher certification doesn't mean a product is of higher quality, Timon Zander, director of sales and procurement, Zander's Creamery, Cross Plains, WI, points out.

"Kosher has an impact because it has a perceived quality image," he says, noting that kosher means that product has been made in accordance to Jewish law, not that the product is all-natural, organic or of a higher food grade.

Only a small portion of the population needs kosher products for religious reasons, he adds, noting it's not something required by the general public.

However, Elefant says that kosher products are in demand from the public for a number of reasons, including ensuring customers receive quality products. Besides Jews, other religions such as Muslims look to kosher products, he adds.

Still, industry concerns are widespread, with some manufacturers being required to have all kosher products if they have any at all. Some butter manufacturers say they have been told by their certifying organization that they can only make kosher products or nonkosher products because both can't be made in the same plant without fear of the two being commingled.

Grassland Dairy Products, Greenwood, WI, faced that problem earlier this year, and now only accepts kosher cream.

"We've had to let go of some high quality, upstanding suppliers of whey cream," says Dallas Wuethrich, president, Grassland Dairy, explaining that since that time the company has been short a large amount of incoming product.

The solution to the commingling concern, Elefant says, can be to either have a rabbi present for the manufacturing process or have two clearly separate lines so there is no mixing of kosher and nonkosher product. Dairy industry members note, though, that these solutions can be prohibitively expensive.

In addition, there are some questions about whether there is an even playing field in the industry. While not suggesting that anyone in particular is using nonkosher whey cream in their kosher butter or cream cheese products, Bill Koch, senior vice president, sales and marketing, Level Valley Creamery, West Bend, WI, questions whether everyone his company competes against uses all kosher ingredients in their kosher products. Level Valley stopped using nonkosher whey cream about three years ago.

"The OU isn't finished with work on figuring this one out," Koch says.

Elefant says he recognizes there are concerns within the dairy industry about kosher certification and that his organization is trying to work with the industry on them. There are some things he can't negotiate — "we don't write the rules, we live by them," he says — but he believes that both the rabbis and the dairy industry would be best served by ongoing dialog.

"The success to any relationship is communication," he says. CMN

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• Alto will conduct cheese yield pilot project