Hi all,

A Rabbi does NOT bless the food to make it Kosher. He checks out the
ingredients and the sources when dealing with different companies.  In other
words, there are many ingredients out there that are NOT Kosher such as
gelatin, pork, lard and many other things.  If a company wants to get its
products certified as being "Kosher" they have to go through a whole process.
 First the certifying organization will check the ingredients list, then they
will let the company know if there are any questionable ingredients that
could be changed if necessary or if it is impossible to certify the products
for whatever reason.

OIls have to be from Kosher sources.  This means that if a company has a
Kosher line and a non-Kosher line, then the machines have to go through a
whole process to become "Kosher" again so that they can run a Kosher run. The
whole process is very complicated because the company that certifies the
products have to find out the original sources of each ingredient and etc.
This is one of the reasons why Kosher food tends to cost more.

Kosher meat and chicken have to go through a special slaughtering process and
then several things have to be done in order to determine whether or not it
is Kosher to be eaten.  The animal can't show any signs of disease, lung
punctures, and etc.  If so, then it can't be used. It then goes through a
process of salting and soaking to remove any visible blood. Certain parts of
the animal are not used according to tradition for various reasons which I
won't go into here. There are very few animals that are Kosher and they have
to have two things: Split hoofs and chew their cud. Fish have to have fins
and scales.  In both of these cases, if one sign is missing, then the animal
is not Kosher.  Birds are Kosher based on tradition so we do eat chickens,
ducks, and turkey. If everything meets the approval of the Rabbi that is
certifying the things, then it gets the Kosher symbol, otherwise it doesn't.

The laws are very complex and complicated so a person who certifies products
has to be very versed in the laws and etc.

Hope this answers some of the burning questions you all have about Kosher
products. Oh, btw, vinegar has to be Kosher too. So pickles have to be
certified too.

Dina