Just FYI, “taco shells” are just fried tortillas, or bent, U-shaped tostadas, if you will. The type of corn tortilla that you use determines the texture during frying.
As others have noted, this is not so. A rabbi needs to supervise and certify to be sure that the food has been properly slaughtered, cleaned, handled, packed, etc. – analogous to federal and state inspectors certifying that factories producing foods or drugs meet federal/state standards.
My addition is that, in Judaism, food or objects are NEVER blessed. In the prayer(s) before eating, we bless/thank God for providing us with food. In the prayers after eating, ditto. We never bless the food itself. “Bless this food” has no role in Judaism.
Given that rabbis aren’t required for any particular ceremonial purpose associated with kosher products, but rather serve to certify that the food is prepared in accordance with the regs, would it be possible to have a kosher organization use specially trained laymen for this purpose? Has any such organization done so, perhaps because the demand for kosher products exceeded what the rabbis could handle? It seems like this would be most likely to occur in Israel, but I guess it could happen anywhere with an especially large population of Jewish-keeping-kosher folks. (Sorry, I forget the word.)
Somewhat related: Do the rabbis who do kosher cert specialize in it and do nothing else? Can you go to the rabbinical equivalent of a two-year college for just kosher cert, but not the full rabbinical shindig?
Thanks to all for the interesting discussion on this–it’s all really interesting. I wound up eating at a number of kosher restaurants over the summer in NYC; learning about it that way is even better (and much tastier! :)).
You don’t need to be a rabbi to be a mashgiach, which is what the person who oversees food production and preparation to ensure compliance with the kosher rules is called. You do need to be Jewish, keep kosher, and observe the Sabbath and other Jewish laws.
Though, if I’m reading the Wikipedia article correctly, it’d be a rabbi who does the actual kosher certification:
Sounds like the duty of the mashgiach is to keep things kosher once the rabbi’s given his seal of approval on the kosher kitchen, and perhaps notifying his rabbi if he has concerns that standards may be slipping.
I always thought it was a rabbi who did the actual kosher certification, but my information there has always been 2nd (or more) hand…
Cheers,
bcg
The certification process is really no different from that of other certifying bodies, such as Underwriters Laboratories - only for a ritual rather than a safety purpose. However, the fact that the stuff is actually checked by a neutral certifier does indirectly serve a safety and quality function as well, where other certification bodies are absent … yet another example of where it is difficult to tell if seemingly pointless (outside of cultural context) ritual actually has, in fact, a practical purpose.
As one non-Jew put it to me, “I eat Kosher hot dogs; at least that way I can be reasonably sure they aren’t made of rat meat”. 
Hebrew National did an absolutely hilarious TV ad campaign based on that theme. A smiling Uncle Sam, holding a hot dog, while a suitably stentorian voiceover narrator talked about all the impurities that the Federal government allows in your hot dogs, but Hebrew National doesn’t because “We answer to a higher authority…”
Cheers,
bcg
Gotcha. Thanks! 