Until about two years ago kashrus organizations paid little attention to the kosher status of packaging materials used to contain food prepared even under the most stringent supervision. Therefore, it was quite probable that a can of soup —- made up of ingredients without even a trace of anything nonkosher, prepared on completely kosherized equipment, and where the water from the steam system having been previously used to cook cans containing nonkosher products, was completely drained —- was packaged and cooked in a steel can coated with a tallow based butyl stearate oil (BSO)! Fortunately, due to the efforts of Rabbi Jonah Gewirtz, Chairman of CSPT, working together with the Circle U and the Star-K, we were successful in having every major steel company in this country that produces steel for use in food packaging switch to a vegetable based BSO. Similarly, other lubricants and finishing […]