that he would not reveal the drink’s secret ingredients, and the episode was “an enormous asset in persuading other conventional food firms to secure kosher certification.”
Geffen personally issued a kosher-for-Passover certification on Coke, eventually passing the baton to another rabbi.
At the same time, Abraham Goldstein, the founder of the Orthodox Union (OU) and its kosher-certification labeling, was also focused on the science of determining whether the ingredients in mass-produced foods would be acceptable for Passover as well as for year-round kosher-observant consumption.
Geffen was particularly interested in ice cream, surveying its manufacturers to determine what they were putting inside their products and ultimately deciding that Breyers ice cream would be acceptable to eat during Passover. But Goldstein was simply reviewing foods as they existed at the time. The fact that Coca-Cola chose to make a distinct version of its drink for Passover was a large exception.
A product that is kosher for the holiday requires full-time rabbincal supervision.
Rabbi Moshe Elefant, Chief Operating Officer of the OU’s kosher-certifying arm, pointed out that the OU began to certify Coke for Passover around 1989-1990, after the company removed high fructose corn syrup from its Passover drink and replaced it with sugar. These bottles are known today for their distinct yellow caps.
When the OU certifies a product as generally kosher, it is typically sufficient for rabbinical supervisors to make occasional visits to a company to make sure that the product is being produced in accordance with kosher standards. When it comes to Passover, however, making a product that is kosher for the holiday requires full-time rabbinical supervision. One other food that more recently illustrates this situation is quinoa, a type of grain that was only in recent years certified as both kosher and kosher for Passover by the OU.