Baking&Snack - May 2013 - 46

SPECIALTY CERTIFICATIONS

conditioners or whey, I consider it
halal,” he said.
When it comes to halal, Mr.
Ahmed said the main principles
bakers must remember are no animal fats or alcohol. Bakers need to
use vegetable-based shortenings
and oils exclusively and flavors that
do not use alcohol as a solvent.
One major difference between
kosher and halal criteria is kosher
requires that the equipment must
be used exclusively for kosher production. Nothing non-kosher can
touch the equipment or else it must
undergo kosherization, a sanitation
process that brings equipment back
to its original state. Mr. Ahmed suggests that if bakers must run halal

products and non-halal products on
the same line, halal should be rim
first thing after the line undergoes
its regularly scheduled sanitation. If
non-halal foods are processed first,
then the line must be cleaned before
halal products can be processed.
The certification process even
involves packaging. Halal requires
no animal byproducts be present in
packaging material. Kosher certification ensures that the package is
sealed properly so it won’t become
contaminated by non-kosher foods
before reaching the end user.

Going through inspection
While the certification process may
sound daunting, it isn’t something

Polarizing kosher labels
Many consumers think kosher is kosher, but not all kosher certifications are created equal. Bakers must decide
which certifications to pursue and how it will affect their
consumer base. Kosher includes three subheads of
labeling: kosher dairy, kosher meat and pareve. Kosher
requires that dairy and meat never mix, so these subKosher certification labels
categories help prevent kosher-observing people from
vary depending on whether
accidentally consuming dairy and meat together.
the product contains meat
Products labeled kosher dairy contain some form of
or dairy product or neither.
dairy while certified kosher meat involves some meat
Kosher dairy certification
component. The third label, pareve, is a neutral kosher informs consumers that a
certification, designating that the kosher product conproduct contains a form of
tains neither meat nor dairy and can be paired with ei- dairy and cannot be paired
ther. Bakery products are often certified dairy or pareve; with a meat product.
Star-K Certification
however, sandwich bread cannot be certified dairy.
Avrom Pollak, PhD, president, Star-K Certification, explained that this is
because sandwich breads are often used to make sandwiches containing meat, this rule prevents consumers from accidentally using a bread
containing dairy to make a sandwich with meat.
“One might forget that this bread was certified dairy and has butter
or whey powder or dairy proteins, he said. “If that were the case, they
”
might inadvertently eat the bread during a meal with meat in it.
”
Many bakers choose pareve certification because this works across the
board with consumers and foodservice customers who can add meat or
dairy to a baked good without concern.
Bakeries that choose to certify some products dairy and some pareve
must make adjustments in their operations and ingredient storage to
ensure dairy ingredients do not contaminate pareve ingredients. Kosher
certifiers routinely help bakers juggle both types of ingredients to ensure
cross-contamination cannot happen.

/ Baking & Snack / May 2013

bakers should shy away from. “It’s
not a complicated thing today anymore. Sometimes, they just need
to tweak one or two things,” Rabbi
Fogelman said. Ingredient inventory checks have gotten simpler and
quicker with most suppliers offering
kosher-certified items.
The plant inspection also should
not be feared. “Bakeries think rabbis
are there to catch them making
a mistake,” Rabbi Fogelman said.
“We’re not here to catch you making
a mistake. We are here to help you
and guide you. We are on your side.
We want you to be successful.”
A rabbi from a certifying organization will inspect the plant and
help bakeries organize everything
from paperwork to production to
ensure transparency is maintained
and cross-contamination is impossible. “Just the other day, I had a
company thank me for helping them
organize their paperwork,” Rabbi
Fogelman recalled. “We help you
with your paperwork because you
have to be organized so we can see
what is going on.”
Halal certification is much the
same with an ingredient inventory and inspection. Mr. Ahmed
stressed, however, that bakers
should research a halal certification organization before selecting it.
Some organizations will allow alcohol in baked products and still certify them halal. While this may be
easier on the baker, the baker risks
losing consumers. According to Mr.
Ahmed, many Muslim consumers
will not buy halal-certified products
if alcohol exists in the ingredient list
or is used during processing.
A kosher label may be the standard for major food companies, but
halal is a bit more on the frontier.
Bakers can benefit from both by ensuring their products’ presence in
national supermarkets and foodservice outlets or reaching an underserved consumer and prepping to
reach a global audience.

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