The executive administrator for the Kosher Overseers Assn. of America won't set foot in Europe because he thinks Europeans didn't do enough to avert the Holocaust, yet he drives a '62 Mercedes.

He tells a visitor not to bother buckling up, yet he speeds 70 m.p.h. in the fast lane, swerving across solid white lines so as not to miss a freeway exit.

He always wears a traditional Jewish skullcap, yet he likes to vary his appearance by sometimes wearing over it the white straw cowboy hat he recently picked up in China.

And though this rabbi recently told a reporter that only orthodox Jews are "real" Jews--that the members of the large reform and conservative branches are merely "going through the motions"--he has been criticized in the past for bucking mainstream orthodox thinking over what can and cannot be considered kosher.

Meet Rabbi I. Harold Sharfman, leader of one of a handful of national kosher certifying organizations, who has thus carved himself an increasingly prominent role in the food industry. For in these environmentally troubled times, kosher is no longer a niche market.

With little fanfare, an increasing number of national and international corporations have gone kosher, with combined sales of more than $3 billion. By far, most of the sales increase comes from health food fans and Christians, says Steve Walz, kosher editor for the Jewish Press. "They regard the kosher seal as the equivalent of the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval," he says.

Muslims and Hindus, whose religious food requirements are similar to Jewish ones, make up much of the rest of the increase, says Sharfman, with Jews constituting less than a quarter of kosher sales.

Nor are kosher foods always the obvious picks. They range from See's Candies to Dole pineapples, from Ronzoni macaroni to Bazooka bubble gum, from Sunkist orange juice to Knudsen's dairy products. Kosher foods also include King's Hawaiian Bakery and Country Hearth corn bread; A & W Root Beer and Seven-Up; Pillsbury Dough and Campbell's Soups--as well as the drinks and snacks on American, Delta and Northwest Orient Airlines.

Even Thrifty Ice Cream is kosher. Silvia Geiger, quality control supervisor for Thrifty Ice Cream, says her Los Angeles division went kosher a year ago after many customers demanded it. Thrifty estimated it would lose about 20% of its ice cream business if it lost its certification.

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