Want your food kosher in space?
While some of the food can be kosher, it is presently not possible for an astronaut on ISS to maintain a completely kosher diet.
It has nothing to do with the space station per se; it has to do with our food production facility,” Kloeris told Space.com. “We have a single packaging room on the U.S. side. All of the food that’s part of our standard menu that we provide — from what I understand, in order for them to be kosher and halal, they have to be done in separate, unique facilities. Therefore, everything we package would not meet that requirement.”
Kloeris noted that it’s possible to travel with a limited allotment of kosher or halal foods, in order to honor an astronaut’s heritage; every astronaut is allowed a certain number of crew-specific containers sent to the space station, which can account for about 10 percent of their diet.
The same limitations also apply to halal food for Muslims.
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While some of the food can be kosher, it is presently not possible for an astronaut on ISS to maintain a completely kosher diet.
It has nothing to do with the space station per se; it has to do with our food production facility,” Kloeris told Space.com. “We have a single packaging room on the U.S. side. All of the food that’s part of our standard menu that we provide — from what I understand, in order for them to be kosher and halal, they have to be done in separate, unique facilities. Therefore, everything we package would not meet that requirement.”
Kloeris noted that it’s possible to travel with a limited allotment of kosher or halal foods, in order to honor an astronaut’s heritage; every astronaut is allowed a certain number of crew-specific containers sent to the space station, which can account for about 10 percent of their diet.
The same limitations also apply to halal food for Muslims.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either. IMPORTANT! If you donate enough to get a book, please email me separately to tell me which book you want and the address to mail it to.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Good!
This is not entirely true. If they wanted to, the prep room could be cleaned, non-kosher items removed, a run of food produced, then go back to buisness as usual. Many plants that make kosher food do it this way. Stagg Chilli in fact does it this way. The vast majority of the time, they do not bother getting the production line certified kosher, but on some schedule, they do an extra cleaning, get supervision in house, and do a large run of kosher stock. I met the guy who organizes this in Atlanta a few years ago. Welch’s grape juice does something similar around Passover time.
Why is kosher food for space important? Are there so many Jewish astronauts? Next step, pork-free food for Moslem astronauts (BTW, are there any of them?)
Alex
Future workers and scientists.
Robert would the water still be considered clean even after recycling?
This is another example of how free market capitalism works better than a centrally controlled system. As geoffc mentioned, the free market already found a solution for several food producers to the general public, and once “space food” can be supplied by non-government sources (e.g. when Bigelow and other non-governmental space habitats become operational), then nations, companies, and organizations will have more freedom to supply their people with specialized foods and to meet other specialized needs.
Government organizations are notoriously inflexible, attempting to create a one-size-fits-all solution to solve a mutually exclusive problem. Free markets are immensely flexible, attempting to create solutions that satisfy as many people as possible, even if that means they need separate processes and extra work.