When Alana Elliott launched a company producing nut- and dairy-free snacks two years ago, one of the first decisions she made was to call up a rabbi and have her products certified kosher.
It wasn't that Ms. Elliott, president and founder of Victoria-based Nonuttin' Foods Inc., believed Jews were going to be especially big consumers of her nut-free granola bars and trail mixes.
She had her sights on bigger markets - the legions of health-conscious shoppers who populate the West Coast of Canada and the United States, as well as vegetarians, vegans and those with allergies to milk, who are all known to look for kosher certification to ensure that their foods are meat- and dairy-free.
"It's often the first thing people look for on a package," Ms. Elliott says. "It has nothing to do with religion."
Demand for kosher products is skyrocketing. As health-savvy consumers become more concerned about what is in their food, many non-Jews are equating kosher with safety and quality.
"Consumers perceive that a kosher product is a well-looked-after product," says Gustavo Sherman, co-owner of Tree Hugger Organics Inc., an organic-orange-juice distributor based in Toronto that is certified kosher.
Even though they may be popular in health circles, there is no guarantee that kosher products are good for you. Plenty of kosher snacks contain processed sugar and fat, such as soft drinks, cookies, chocolate bars and chips. Kosher deli meats and salami often contain the same additives and preservatives as their non-kosher counterparts.
Rather, the value of kosher products for non-kosher consumers comes from the extra set of inspections manufacturers are forced to go through to maintain certification, the rabbis say, adding that the inspections force producers to adhere to higher cleanliness levels.
Mr. Sherman says the kosher symbols on packaging - that declare products free of either meat, dairy or both - are often more widely recognized than designations showing a product is organic or peanut-free. Muslims purchase pork-free kosher foods when halal is not available, and those with allergies to shellfish, which is prohibited under Jewish law, also look for kosher products.
The Orthodox Union, North America's largest certifier of kosher foods, has seen booming demand for its services, with the number of companies it certifies jumping 50 per cent in the past decade to 2,500, says Rabbi Aharon Brun-Kestler, head of certification. "It's not coming from what you'd think of as traditional markets," he says of the demand.
The group deploys rabbis to oversee production at 6,000 facilities in 85 countries around the world.
In Canada, local kosher authorities also say they have never been busier. The Jewish Community Council of Montreal received a record 20 applications for kosher certification last August, up from an average of four or five applications a month.
Loblaws sales surpassed expectations when the grocery retailer opened a kosher meat section last year in downtown London, Ont., leading the retailer to believe a portion of sales are driven by non-Jewish consumers, says Wes Brown, a Loblaws spokesman.
Loblaws' other kosher counters in Ontario and Quebec posted double-digit growth last year, Mr. Brown adds, even in small markets such as Windsor, Ont.
In Vancouver, a new kosher restaurant opened last year, while a major downtown hotel recently put in an application to certify its banquet hall, says Rabbi Avraham Feigelstock, chairman of BC Kosher, the certifying body of the Orthodox Rabbinical Council of British Columbia.
The rise in demand for kosher products in North America has led to a corresponding rise in kosher certification of overseas production facilities, especially in China and India, where North American food suppliers are increasingly looking to source ingredients.
