Behind the Scenes: Kashering a Plant

Massive tanks over here. And those massive  columns and all of these tanks over here,   every single one of them, we've kashered. Raw  oil such as coconut, palm, soy, and canola are   brought to this plant and hydrolyzed. Hydrolysis  is simply the process where water and steam are   injected into the oils at tremendous pressures  and at great temperatures. This has the effect   of breaking apart the fatty acid chains from the  glycerin core. Glycerin is used in syrups and   liquids across the board. Just about every syrup  you can think of contains glycerin. Fatty acids   are used in applications just about universally.  Fatty acids are used as emulsifiers. Typically,   water does not mix with oil. When an Emulsifier  is added, they mix and form a suspension. That   is where fatty acids are used in kosher  production. This plant had once used tallow   in addition to vegetable oil. They have gone  all vegetable oil, and we have kashered this   plant almost completely. Very soon, this  plant will be selling kosher fatty acids.