Omaha, NB - Kashering For Trucks To Keep It Kosher

Omaha, NB - Two trucking companies near Omaha have built Kosher Truck-Tank Washes to "Kasher" trucks, to meet the demands of food manufacturers. The washes are necessary for transportation of kosher food or their ingredients.

"Most companies now are totally kosher, totally following the kosher rules," said Rick Jasa. He and wife Linda Ingram-Jasa opened Ingram Tank Washes Inc., in Blair, Neb., about two months ago. They also operate Jasa Transit, which hauls only kosher food loads.

About $190 billion, or 40 percent, of products sold in U.S. grocery stores in 2005 were kosher certified. Only about $10 billion of those products are believed to have been purchased specifically because they are kosher.
The OU, one of the organizations that certifies kosher products and monitors them throughout manufacture and transportation, reported that some nonkosher consumers seek out kosher products because of concern for food safety and quality.

There are strict rules about slaughter and food preparation, and all ingredients must meet the requirements. Equipment used to prepare nonkosher food cannot be used on kosher food unless it has been cleaned with a special process.
At OFC/Schmidt Liquid Service in Plattsmouth, Neb., co-owners Roger Schmidt and Mike Beins reserve some of their 110 trailer-tanks as kosher certified. They said they are careful to follow the strict rules about how they can use those trailers. "You can't haul a load of soybean oil to the West Coast and haul grape juice back in the same tank," Schmidt said. "Animal fat is taboo. They don't want you to haul milk."

During a kosher wash, water is held at a higher temperature for a longer period of time, usually at least 190 degrees for at least 15 minutes. The process specifies standards for water filtering for particulates, for pre-rinsing and final rinsing, and for detergents used in wash cycles. Each tank is sealed with numbers that correspond to paperwork for the wash.

In Blair, Jasa said he and his wife spent about $1 million on the kosher wash and its facility, with about half the investment going for the pumps, boiler and other equipment. His company spent $450,000 last year alone on kosher washes for their trucks, Jasa said. Now they wash their own trucks as well as charge other companies to wash theirs.
Some trucks belonging to other companies might not need a kosher wash, but they get one anyway. "If we do a wash, it's easier to make everything a kosher wash. And we're meeting the highest standard across the board," Jasa said.

The Jasas' computerized systems include digital keypads allowing operators to request different types of washes depending on what was in the tank.
The wash systems produce printouts that are kept on file and inspected by a rabbi from the organization that certified the tank wash as kosher. Each truck tank also must be individually kosher certified. If a non-kosher food is hauled in the tank, the tank must be recertified as kosher.