Inside a Glatt Kosher Beef Plant | Hastings, Nebraska

[music] >> Hastings, Nebraska, population 25,000, part of the American Midwest. >> [music] >> For a town famous for inventing Kool-Aid, >> Oh, yeah. >> this is not a place you'd expect to find a minion of Jewish people. >> [music] [music] >> This is a glatt kosher beef production facility. Hundreds of cattle arrive here daily. They're processed, packaged, and shipped across the country. Producing kosher meat requires trained religious [music] experts present at every stage of the process. >> [music] >> I'm here with Nachman Rosen, who's been working at this facility for over 15 years. So, Nachman, how many people are here on a general basis? [music] >> We have approximately 20 people here who are involved in the kosher process to make sure that [music] the end product is actually a kosher product. >> The company takes care of them. Apartments, a daily minyan, Shabbos meals, bais medrash packed with sefarim, and everything needed to maintain a full Torah life. >> This is a calling. Those of us who are willing to do this [music] know what we're going to have to sacrifice for this, and we do so willingly. We're actually treated very well over here, and it makes us want to come back again. [music] >> Overseeing the entire production are two major hashgachas, the OU and the Vad Hakashrus of New Square. >> We are only following a protocol that they set. They have someone who's actually on top of it and cares about it, communicates on a regular basis, and make sure that we do the what we were [music] hired to do. And that's what it takes to have a kosher production. >> [music] >> Every day, roughly 520 cattle arrive at this facility. >> Rabbi Rosen, out of those 520, how many on a regular day come out kosher that's going to get to my table? >> So, most of our production ends up in non-kosher. Say on a good day, we're at about 30%. >> But, that number keeps shrinking. Half of every kosher animal, the hindquarters, cannot be used for the kosher market in the United States. >> So, we're left with about 15% on a good day that goes to the kosher [music] market. >> Together, we will follow that 15% from the moment the cattle arrive through the schechita, the checking, the nikur, the soaking [music] and salting, every step has a rule, every rule has a reason. This is one of the most complex food production processes in the entire [music] kosher world, and it happens here every single day. Join us as we go inside and get a first-hand look >> [music] >> at this incredible operation. This is where it all begins, the cattle pens. Making their way from local farms and neighboring states such as Iowa and Kansas, hundreds of Angus beef arrive throughout the day. >> Rabbi Rosen, how many cows come a day? How much do these cows weigh? >> We get about 520 heads per day. Animals weigh about 1,500 lb. >> The trucks pull up, unload [music] the cattle, the cattle go into these pens, and then from there to the base of schechita. >> From the pens, >> [music] >> the animals move single file into the schechita room for the first step of producing kosher meat. >> We're standing outside [music] the place where all the action begins. What goes on inside this room? >> So, in the schechita room, we have three shochtim. [music] One being the shochet who performs the actual schechita. Then, we have the bodek klav and the bodek yavesh. The bodek klav's job is to check the klav after each and every schechita. He's called the bodek klav since he receives the hollow to be checked while [music] it is still wet from being rinsed after the shochet. However, should the bodek [music] klav detect even the slightest imperfection on the hollow or should the hollow lose its kashrus, for instance, when it comes in contact with any hard surface, [music] then the bodek klav will hand the hollow to the bodek yovish. Drying the hollow results in a more accurate [music] bedika. The bodek yovish will then perform a very thorough bedika >> [music] >> and this is a great hider in shochet. >> Before [music] the shochet is performed, each animal is assigned a number. >> First one in is going to be number one. Second one in, number two, and so on and so forth. >> One by one, the animal step into the box. [music] The box then rotates around, placing the animal on its back for shochet munachas. >> [music] >> Once the shochet is performed, the cow is [music] then hoisted up onto a moving rail and begins its journey through the skinning room and towards the first processing room. >> [music] >> Here's where everything comes up after everything skinned until it goes out after the bedikas. What's step one? >> Okay, so step one is going to be that the carcass is going to be numbered. Tags will be affixed to the [music] carcass, to the head, to the tongue, to the lung. >> Next, the head and tails are removed. The belly is opened and the organs and intestines are gutted. [music] Now, the kosher inspection process can begin. >> The [music] bodek does an internal inspection. He'll cut open the diaphragm, put his hand into the lung cavity, and check the lung by feeling around the different lobes. >> [music] >> On a note matching the animal's number, he marks his findings. If there's a possibility [music] the cow is kosher, he marks the spot that needs to be further inspected. At this stage, he also checks the stomach cavity for punctures. [music] >> If there is a possibility that this lung will be kosher, he'll send it down for final inspection by the body coach. And the body coach will decide its kosher status. [music] >> [music] >> The chest is opened, the lung is removed, and it moves to the body coach. The external [music] inspector. He looks at the note and begins checking the lung. While a pump is placed in the lung with air, water is applied to any area in question. >> [music] >> If it bubbles, there's a hole beneath the sircha, and the animal is treif. Based on the size of the sircha, how easily it can be removed, and its location on the lung, the animal's kosher status is determined, [music] and the findings are marked on the screen. Now that the status of each animal is confirmed, parts that were separated earlier can be matched back through their numbers. >> Right over there, there's a mashgiach who watches the computer screen. As soon as he sees a kosher, he'll collect the kosher tongues, the kosher [music] cheeks, and tag them as kosher. >> With the inspection complete, the cow is put down the middle and makes its way towards the cooler. But not [music] before a few stops along the way. >> What [music] you see behind me are carcasses on the way from shchita and bedika into the coolers. >> While the meat is still warm, a feather [music] bone popper compresses the meat to separate it from the ribs. Next, using a circular saw, the meat is scored at the 12th rib. >> They're counting to the 12th bone, and that's where they will [music] score to show where they're actually going to separate the forequarter from the hindquarter. The forequarter will go to kosher, the hindquarter will go to non-kosher. And we have a mashgiach that actually counts and makes sure that it was cut in the right place. >> Further down, the mashgiach is tagging [music] the kosher cows based on their kosher status. >> So, here's the carcass number. This is the tag. And according to that, we know the kosher status. The different colors will represent [music] different levels of kosher. So, we have Beit Yosef, Glatt, Chalak Rabbinut, Kasher Rabbinut, Keress will be a non-kosher status, which is due to stomachs being punctured. M'vaylo will be a bad cut or pegima in the knife. The last one will be treifa due to the lungs having circles and so on. >> [music] >> Finally, the cows make their way into the cooler where they're separated onto different rails based on their tag. >> So, we keep them on different rails. The kosher, as you can see, have their own rail. These are all Beit Yosef. Behind that, there is another rail of Glatt. And they'll be traveling through [music] the plant on its own rail. Once we're done with the bedikas and the mashgiach has tagged it as kosher, the meat will come into the cooler and will stay in the cooler until it's ready to be further processed. >> [music] >> After chilling in the cooler, the meat is now ready for further processing. The first step, the nikur. [music] >> Nikur is what we call in English porging, devaining. We remove veins, blood vessels, and cheilev, forbidden fats. >> [music] >> We have a mashgiach in the morning that inspects all the work done. If there's any additional cleaning up that needs to be done, he'll do that in the morning. >> [music] >> The meat is now cut at the 12th rib, right where the score was made earlier in the process. >> [music] >> The forequarters will move on to for next step in the koshering process. The hind quarters, however, are joined the non-kosher animals for separate processing. [music] The kosher parts are now headed for melicha and hadacha, the final step in the process of kosher meat production. >> So, right now we're in the soak and salt room before it goes into the hadacha rishona. We check the makom hashchita, the place where the schita was made, and sometimes a little blood remains there, so we cut [music] that away before we soak and salt. >> First, a full immersion in water for 30 minutes. Next, [music] the meat is laid out on a perforated surface and salted from every angle. The salt draws the blood out, which drains through the holes below. An hour later, the salt [music] is rinsed off and the meat passes through three separate water baths. >> There are three hadachas achronas [music] that are required l'chatchila. So, the first hadacha would be the shower, which is the nipputs, which takes off the salt from the meat. The second [music] and third would be the first and second tubs, where the meat is immersed in. And then we have a third one, and that is already a chametz in minutes. >> [music] >> The skirts, the hangers, the tongues, and other smaller parts are handled separately. >> They're done separately. They're dipped into smaller tubs, and then they'll be salted by hand on these conveyors. And if you notice, we do the salting on a surface that has holes where the blood can drip down. >> [music] >> After the soaking and salting, the meat is ready for the packaging. The meat is separated, sorted, and packaged [music] for the market. >> [music] >> Producing kosher meat is not a simple task. From the shchita, the bedikas, the soaking and salting, all while keeping track of every piece of meat through each step of the process. Step next door into the non-kosher packaging operation and the contrast [music] is immediate. The difference in size is the clearest illustration of what this entire process amounts [music] to, the 15% of kosher meat that will make it to our tables. Next time you're enjoying kosher meat, take a moment to appreciate the work and the sacrifice [music] that goes into the kosher meat production process. >> [music] [music]