KOSHER TOOTHPASTE SHAM

Back on Dec 4, 20008 we ran an article about the bogus claims of a certain toothpaste company which has now secured the hashgacha of the OU.

On Dec 8, 2008, KOSHER TODAY essentially ran (in truth: so did we) the press release issued by the toothpaste company. Here is the paragraph as it appeared in Kosher Today:

New Kosher Toothpaste Launched as Rabbis Express Concern Over Kosher Status of Toothpaste
New York…A new kosher toothpaste was launched by American Lion Toothpaste Manufacturing. Recently certified by the OU, the toothpaste produced by a Malaysian company was on display at last month’s Kosherfest. While kosher consumers have always taken for granted that toothpaste is inherently kosher, kashrus organizations say that there may be reason for concern, primarily because of some of the new flavors that are marketed nowadays. The most kashrus sensitive ingredient often found in toothpaste is glycerin, which is often animal based, and usually makes up one third of the product. Glycerin which is not certified kosher should be assumed non-kosher, rabbis say. “We’re very proud to have met the strict kashrus standards of the Orthodox Union,” said A-L executive Joereen Koek, daughter of the Malaysian company’s founder. “And we’re pleased that our devotion only to toothpaste gives us the expertise to deliver popularly priced products that kosher consumers can use with confidence.”

The sentences in bold are the crux of the issue. The statement is patently false. Rabbis may say that non kosher glycerin makes toothpaste trefe, but they would be less than honest if they said that. For the same reason that there is no HALACHIC issue with gelatin gell caps used in meds, so, too, there is no problem with the glycerin used in toothpaste. (Rabbis who claim that there is a problem with gell caps made from gelatin are being dishonest and outside the halachic system.)

But wait, here is a great idea: When a shochet on the line at Empire realizes that his chalaf (knife) was not sharp enough, he stops the line. As it is essentially impossible to identify the trefe bird from the pile of birds, according to the shulchan aruch, we take out one bird and designate it as the trefe bird. That is the halacha. We have to ask, however, according to “some” rabbis why should we accept that halacha? Why are there not “some” rabbis saying that we can not eat the other birds from that run, because one of them is trefe? As indeed one of them is, but halacha allows us to eat it anyway.
Bah humbug!