Is Your Product Certified Halal?

By: Anum Khan

The halal industry is vast and is hitting the mainstream market from halal food stands to nutritional supplements. More Muslims are seeking foods and products that are halal, and in response, the market force is providing consumers with just about everything that can be halal (from hot-dogs to toothpaste). An estimated 1.8 billion people consume halal food and products every year and is reported to be worth a $2.1 trillion industry, with an annual growth of $500 billion.

What is halal?

According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, the definition of halal is “1) sanctioned by Islamic law; especially: ritually fit for use <halal foods> 2) selling or serving food ritually fit according to Islamic law, i.e. a halal restaurant.” It is not just food, nutritional and medicine that can be halal, but anything that is “permissible for Muslims.”

It is not just about halal food, but drugs and nutritional supplements that also can be halal-certified. Nutrition Enhancement is a small family owned and operated company that provides Halal-certified Omega 3 fatty acids fish oil. This nutritional supplement does not contain any pork by-products, when others may. Emad Yaseen, the creator of this nutritional supplement, with a Ph. D in Nutrition and Food Science as well as more than fifteen years of experience in health and wellness tells Elan Magazine that Muslims may not necessarily know that fish oil nutritional supplements may contain pork-based gelatin or other by-products.

Yaseen says that while working for a major food company in 1999, he was not able to eat their products because some of the ingredients included pork by-products. This company (will remain nameless because of legal concerns) exported their products to the Middle East and catered to majority Muslim populations without modifying their foods to exclude pork by-products. The only country to ban the imports of these food products was Malaysia because of its comprehensive food regulations. Yaseen decided to create alternatives to basic nutritional supplements that are available globally now. He also seeks to create awareness about these issues as some information about what is halal or not can be misleading or abstruse to understand.

How does a food or product become halal-certified?

Creating food and other products that are halal-friendly must undergo a lengthy process. Here are some of the main guidelines. For food, nutritional supplements and other products to be certified halal, they are not to be contaminated with pork, pork by-products and alcohol. For meat to be halal, animals— which are to be healthy and not sick or injured and that are not carnivorous animals or birds of prey—must be slaughtered a certain way, and the Islamic prayer must be orated. Additionally, animals must be raised on halal feed. In order for Muslims to supply halal food and products, these processes must be followed. It is important to note that not all organizations have the same standards and regulations for foods and products to be halal-certified.

International-

The International Halal Integrity Alliance (IHI) works globally to help promote the halal industry in non-Muslim majority countries by encouraging manufacturers to comply with Halal-friendly guidelines. The IHI works to “uphold the integrity of the halal market concept in global trade through certification, collaboration and membership.”

Those that work in the halal food and products industry are collaborating across the spectrum to share best practices and establish methods of harmonizing halal food requirements and regularizing the supply chain. In February of 2012, Saudi Arabia will host the first ever international conference to analyze halal food standards and create a system where there is a systematic check on the quality and regulations food and products must undergo to be ordained halal.

U.S./North America-

In the US, there are organizations such as the Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America (IFANCA) and Halal Food Standards Alliance of America (HFSAA) that certify food and products to be halal. The HFSAA states it is the “premier standards and certification bearer of the Halal Advocates of America” with established relationships ranging from farm and livestock operations, producers and name brand companies to grocery and meat stores and other distribution centers where goods are purchased. The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) is working towards creating the first American Halal Accreditation Board as a resource for consumers and countries looking for halal food and products.

IFANCA is the “leading Halal-food certification organization in North America” in which its certification symbol, the Crescent ‘M’ is used to distinguish its products to be halal-friendly across the world. More than 23,000 products globally carry the “Crescent M” symbol belonging to companies such as Kraft Food Company, Nestle and PepsiCo (which are halal certified for certain regions of the world, not including North America). Companies that are halal-certified for global, including North American regions include: Abbott, Cabot Creamery Cheeses, China Mist, Wonderful Pistachios, Kontos, and Saffron Road. Maria Omar, a spokesperson for IFANCA tells Elan Magazine “IFANCA is one of the few halal certification organizations in the world whose food technologists, ingredient reviewers and (plant) auditors hold advanced food science, nutrition, health science, and dietetic degrees” with more than 20 years of experience.

IFANCA employs a two-stage halal-certification system. The first stage entails an in-house formula analysis of all ingredients used. Food scientists break down the product to the raw ingredients analyzing it for any cross contamination. The second stage requires a plant audit of the facilities used in making the products. If a facility is found where there is cross-contamination, IFANCA provides solutions to companies to make their products halal. For example, for a pizza company to make halal cheese and vegetarian pizzas even though they also make pepperoni pizzas, it must first make their cheese and vegetarian batches and then, their pepperoni batches. For the next production of pizzas, all machines used for production must be cleaned and sterilized before cheese and vegetarian pizzas can be made again.

Omar states that certifying products and food to be halal are undergoing more stringent processes today since there are advances in science and technology that are better capable of detecting cross-contaminations with non-halal products or ingredients. Additionally, not all ingredients make it to the food label, such as processing aids or packaging material that may contaminate products. Before a product makes it onto the shelf, it must go from raw material to processing, refining, producing, packaging, shipping, storing, etc, which after passing through numerous hands, makes it possible for cross-contamination. IFANCA created a Halal Industrial Productions Standards 25-page report, outlining how food and products can become halal-certified.

Challenges

Many Muslims want the traditional route of hand-slaughtered meat, rather than machine-slaughtered. However, in today’s current food industry set-up where food demands have increased, to keep up with larger populations to feed, Omar highlights how it is not economically possible nor are there enough trained workers to sustain the volume of hand-slaughtered meat. In these conditions, if a company cannot use hand-slaughtered meat, IFANCA has to accept machine use during zabihah halal-slaughter to help halal consumers receive “the next best thing available.” IFANCA shares its standards for manual and mechanical poultry slaughter here.

“We have to keep this situation in perspective by remembering that halal is still a very young industry in the food processing world [30 years],” Omar elaborates. She gives the example of how halal gelatin was slowly introduced into mainstream global food supply chains. Before 1994, no one was making halal gelatin anywhere in the world. “Today, more than 11 major companies worldwide manufacture halal gelatin,” explains Omar, “which means introducing halal technical solutions takes time – although consumer demand and research and development can speed up the process.”