SX43@liverpool.ac.uk (11/30/90)
Salaam,
I am posting this for Ahmet Kideys who's having hassle posting.
Fazal. (I have cut it down for size).
Taken from soc.culture.jewish.
Subject: Some facts about Coke
From: krulwich@ils.nwu.edu (Bruce Krulwich)
Fact number one: There are almost definitely animal products in Coca-Cola.
One of the ingredients in Coke is glycerine, which is used in many products
(such as some dark beers and blended wiskeys) to keep other ingredients from
seperating. Some glycerine is kosher, being vegetable or chemically
derived, while some is animal-derived and thus not kosher. Coca-Cola gets
its glycerine from two sources. Most of it comes from a U.S. plant which is
kosher, but some comes from a west-German plant. Most of the glycerine from
the West-German plant is not kosher, and there is no control of which
glycerine is sent to Coke. The Rabbi I spoke to visited the West-German
plant personally and observed the plant operations, and determined that most
of their glycerine is non-kosher. Coke regularly gets glycerine from this
plant, as a small but constant percentage of the glycerine they purchase for
making Coke. There is no distinction made about the uses of the two
different sources of glycerine or which glycerine from the West German plant
is sent -- all glycerine purchased goes into a stock of glycerine used in
manufacturing Coke. It is clear from this that it is very, very likely
("almost definite," said the Rav) that there is _some_ animal product in any
Coke you get.
Fact number two: No Rabbi knows 100% of what's in Coke.
When the former mashgiach of Coke retired, Coke approached the O-U about
going under their supervision. The O-U's first request, logically enough,
was to know the complete recipe for Coke. The Coke board refused, saying
that they had to keep their "secret ingredient" secret. The O-U's next
request was to have what they call a "locked room" arrangement, where they
know all the ingredients that are available at the time the product is made
without knowing which of them are actually used. Coke also refused this
arrangement. Basically, there are only a handful of people in the world
that even know most of the ingredients in Coke (it's said that the top
echelon of the Coke board never flies on the same plane, because if it were
to crash the formula would be lost), and Coca-Cola is paranoid about anyone
finding out anything that they can keep secret. In short, any claims that
anyone knows all of the ingredients in Coke is untrue. The Rabbi I spoke to
confirmed this with the Coca-Cola board when he investigated the plant for
the O-U.
Bruce Krulwich