Juliann-

Thanks for the leads and your offer of help.

I'm already working on kosher certification, although I probably won't be
able to afford it right now.  BTW, no prayers are involved-it's just using
allowable ingredients, certain cleaning procedures, and preventing
contamination.  The cost comes from regular inspections to make sure that
all procedures are maintained.  (The reason for separate machines is that
the cleaning procedures are burdensome.)

With my background in manufacturing, I am familiar with isolating things,
running clean rooms (that has to do with airborne particulates), etc.  What
I need are standards, ratings, and formal procedures as well as general
advice.  In any system of measurement, "zero" has to be defined.  It is
either less than some value or less than the limit of detection.  It's
never absolutely none because there's no way to know that for sure.  How do
we know what is "good enough" and how to tell when we've achieved it?

The deeper I dig, the less I am sure of.  So far, I haven't found any
usable standards--and, since there's no reason to think they'd keep them a
secret, there probably aren't any.  It may turn out that with all the
science and technology supposedly available to us, religion may hold the
only answer.  I love the irony--but I'd prefer a technical spec.

You're right about plant foods.  I'm lucky in that my personal food
problems are not all that that severe.  My heart goes out to everyone who
has to worry about trace amounts--it seems like a real crapshoot out there.

Barbara