Cream of Tartar, Yes - Chewing Gum, No!
 
When these argols are first removed from the walls with a torch, they are as hard and as dry as a rock.
 

By Rabbi Berel Levy

First I must correct a serious error made in my last column with reference to Bitsyn (substitute for Walnut and Pecan) produced by Pillsbury company. It stated: “this product is not under our supervision.” It should have stated: “This product is now under the ok supervision.”

Some time ago Yeshiva University published a pamphlet on Kashruth and mentioned that cream of tartar was not kosher. This decision was made by Dr. Moses Tendler who is the consultant for the students of the Yeshiva who published this magazine. He based his decision on a letter received from a company which did not give a complete description of the manufacturing procedures. Arrangements were made for me to visit the factories in Italy and Spain from which all cream of tartar and tartaric acid are imported.

Cream of tartar is produced from the argols or white stone which is the reddish incrustation of crystallized cream of tartar upon the inner walls of wine vats during fermentation. These argols are removed from the walls with a torch. They are as hard and as dry as a rock. After this they are allowed to dry in open burlap bags (not plastic) for two to three years. (This was not included in the “report”). They are then placed in a furnace of 800 to 900 degrees. (Also omitted from the “report”.) At this point it complies with the halacha, according to the Darkei T’shuva and the Achiezer. After the argols are baked in a furnace, they are ground to powder form. Part of the powder is put into sulphuric acid and part into carbonate of soda. Then they are blended. The color is removed by carbon, it is filtered and then dried. The final product is a white powder that has no wine taste.

Calcium Tartarate is derived from the skins of grapes after the wine and alcohol have been removed.

I have brought samples of each stage of the production. I have shown them and described the production process to Dr. Tendler. He agreed with me that it is kosher. I have also shown both products to Gedolei Yisroel and they also agreed that it is permissible to use them.

I have had many occasions to discuss the ingredients of chewing gum. In chewing gum there are three questionable ingredients: oils or stearates, glycerine and glycerol resin. Most companies will not guarantee that any of these ingredients used by them are kosher. There is one company that has supervision and this company does assure that they are using only kosher ingredients. This company produces a gum base for themselves and they also export it to Europe and Israel. In this gum base they use glycerol resin that they purchase from Hercules Chemical Company. I called the company and I asked several questions and they gave me the following answers:
Q. Do you use kosher glycerine in this product?
A. Yes.
Q. Is the product heated?
A. Yes.
Q. How do you transfer from non-Kosher to kosher?
A. We purge the equipment with the kosher product and we do not use the kosher product. (This means that they do not clean the equipment. They do not wait 24 hours from one production to the second. They do not use water for purging.)
Q. Is there a rabbi present to supervise the kosher purge and production?
A. No.

This means that one must take the word of the company that they are using kosher glycerine while the non-kosher product is available in the factory.

This summer I visited a factory in London that produces glycerol resin. I saw the production. The resin is cooked with glycerine and then is released and deposited on gravel ground. It is allowed to harden for a day. The next day, the resin is removed with drills that are used to dig the streets. One can imagine how difficult it is to completely remove the resin and clean away all the deposits. The company claims it would take at least a day.

It is possible that the final product may be kosher because of the amount of glycerol resin used, and other extenuating circumstances. The amount of glycerine used in the resin is more than ten percent. I do not know exactly how much is used in the chewing gum.

The reason I am writing this is because of an incident that I was involved in in Israel. The Vaad Horabonnim of the Agudas Israel gives a Hechsher on chewing gum using gum base with supervision from America that contains the above-mentioned glycerol resin. This is the same gum base that the other companies in Israel are using. One of the distinguished rabbis of the Vaad met with me and asked me about the gum base and I gave him the above information. For some reason or other the Vaad felt that they wanted to investigate it for themselves. One of their representatives visited the States and apparently made an investigation. An American friend told me that he investigated the chewing gum base plant with the above-mentioned representative and I wanted to know if he had visited or contacted the glycerol resin company. His answer was negative and he told me the representative was leaving “tomorrow.” On my last trip to Israel I offered to write down the name of this company for them so as to make sure that they would contact it. They did not take down the name.

Incidentally, the Adah Hacharedis in Israel wanted to give a hechsher on chewing gum and asked me to investigate the ingredients of a gum base which is used in the chewing gum that is produced in Israel. This gum base uses the aforementioned glycerol resin. The Adah did not give a hechsher on such chewing gum.