New pots do not require kashering
December 2001
Rav Belsky reported that approximately 15 years ago he spent a number of hours in the factory of a major pot manufacturer studying the way pots are made. He did this in response to reports that all new pots require kashering because they are smeared with non-kosher fats during the manufacturing process. Rav Belsky's investigation showed that the pots are in fact smeared with a lubricant which contains significant amounts of (non-kosher) mutton fat but that no kashering is required.
The lubricant used in the forming of the pots isn't a concern because after the pots are shaped they are heated in a furnace to approximately 1300O F and come out of the furnace glowing red hot. This clearly qualifies as a kashering for any flavor which may have been absorbed until that point.
After the pots are formed they are polished on the inside and outside by spinning buffers. The buffers for the inside of the pots are similar to steel wool and no lubricant is used. The outside of the pot is polished by many buffers (depending on the size of the pot) and approximately ⅓ of the buffers have a ''lubricant sprayer'' adjacent to them. The lubricant has the consistency of watered-down toothpaste and may contain as much as 12% non-kosher animal fat. At Rav Belsky's request, a plant worker tasted the lubricant and reported that it tasted like motor oil. Then Rav Belsky tasted it and confirmed that it is nifsal mei'achila.
Rav Belsky collected the amount of lubricant which would typically be sprayed on a relatively large pot and found that it had a volume of approximately 3½ ounces. As such, less than ½ ounce of non-kosher fat would be sprayed on that sized pot (12% of 3.5 ounces = .42 ounces). [There is clearly no ChaNaN on a non-food item such as this]. Rav Belsky calculated that regardless of how little food would be cooked in one of these pots, the contents of the pot would contain 175-200 times the volume of the non-kosher fat absorbed in the walls of the pot. Less lubricant is sprayed onto the smaller pots and therefore the same ratio is true for all sizes of pots. [Furthermore, most of the lubricant falls off of the pot which means that considerably less than ½ ounce of non-kosher fat is absorbed into each pot].
No heat is applied to the pots but the company claims that that the friction of the rotating buffers can heat the pots to as high as 400O F. Rav Belsky's own tests showed that the pots don't get hotter than approximately 275O F. Within a few seconds after being polished, the pots cool down completely.
Thus, there are a number of reasons to permit the pots without kashering:
1. The lubricant is nifsal mei'achila.
2. Any non-kosher taste absorbed into the pot will definitely be batel b'shishim in the food cooked in the pot. As such, the pot qualifies as a utensil which is asui l'hishtamesh b'shefah. We are generally machmir to not use an asui l'hishtamesh b'shefah without kashering unless they are also aino ben yomo. The pots will surely be aino ben yomo when they are used and therefore they may be used without kashering.[1]
In addition:
3. The heat of friction in this case is not like a fire applied for an extended time whose heat penetrates the walls of the pot thoroughly. Rather, the outside surface of the pot is superficially heated by the buffers and this minimal heat quickly dissipates after the buffing stops. Thus, the pot is somewhat similar to a kli sheini (see Tosfos, Shabbos 40a s.v. v'shmah minah) where it is only a chumrah to assume that it absorbs taste.[2]
4. The lubricant is only applied to the outside of the pot and the food, of course, only goes into the inside of the pot. See Shulchan Aruch Y.D. 92:5-7 regarding such situations.
Rav Belsky read and signed this
