Kosher Coke: How the soft drink got the stamp of approval from rabbis in the 1950s

Is Coca-Cola kosher? A question you’ve probably never asked yourself, unless you’re Jewish. “Yes,” is the short answer. But there’s an interesting, longer response behind it.

Intriguingly, Coke has been a popular drink among Jews almost since it was invented in 1886, although some rabbis began questioning whether the beverage adhered to Jewish dietary law in the early 1930s.

Tobias Geffen started investigating after receiving numerous letters from worried rabbis. Geffen lived in Atlanta, where Coca-Cola has its headquarters, and was therefore appointed as chief detective by his counterparts.

Rabbi makes worrying Coca-Cola discovery: glycerin

After persuading the company to reveal to him their famed secret ingredient, Geffen found, to his horror, the drink contained a minuscule amount of glycerin, a sweet syrup-like liquid which adds extra flavor. While it may have enhanced the taste, glycerin was a by-product of soap manufacturing, which could potentially use fatty oils generated from meat processing, including from pigs and cattle, which aren’t kosher.

However, there was also the possibility glycerin could be created from vegetable-based fatty oils, which may have been acceptable. The issue was there was no way of being totally sure.

Why Coke was deemed non-kosher

Another consideration was whether the glycerin in Coca-Cola was considered as “bitul b’shishim” - nullified - due to it only representing less than one sixteenth of the volume of Coke. Geffen deemed that accidental use of the chemical meant it was nullified, but deliberate use, as was the case in Coca-Cola, signified it was non-kosher. Jewish dietary law had therefore been violated.

Keen to keep their Jewish customer base, Coca-Cola asked its glycerin supplier, Procter and Gamble, if it could deliver glycerin derived from vegetable fats, and it duly obliged. Problem solved.

Until the 1950s, that is, when rabbis discovered that glycerin made from vegetable fats traveled through the same system as glycerin derived from meat fats in the plants used by Procter and Gamble. The residue left by meat-derived glycerin “contaminated” the vegetable-derived glycerin and, suddenly, Coke was off the table again.

How Coca-Cola went from non-kosher to kosher

But once more, Coca-Cola and Procter and Gamble bent over backwards to find a solution, the glycerin supplier spending $30,000 on a parallel piping system that would keep kosher and non-kosher glycerin apart.

Finally, Jews the world over could enjoy drinking kosher Coca-Cola without any lingering sense of guilt, which they have been able to do ever since.

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