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Future of Halal - from Niche to Mainstream
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BY
Farah Abu Bakar
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The Halal Industry, which started out as a compliant to strict pre-requisites for Muslim consumptions and way of life, has now become a lucrative market that goes beyond geographical and religious borders.
Originating from an Arabic word, Halal is defined as
permitted or allowed by Islamic law. JAKIM defines
Halal in accordance to the definition of Order of
the Trade Descriptions (Use of Expression “Halal”)
1975 are as follows:
When used in relation to food in any form in the
course of trade or business as a trade description or
as part of a trade description applied to food, the
expressions ‘Halal’, ‘Borne Halal’ or ‘Muslim Food’
or any other expression which shows or may be
read as indicating that Muslims are allowed by their
religion to eat food that is the expression shall have
the following meanings, namely food in relation to
the expression or expressions are used:
1. Not consist of or contain any animal parts or
products from which muslims are banned by
islamic law to eat or not slaughtered according
to islamic law; |
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2. Does not contain any substance declared to be
unclean according to islamic law;
3. Not prepared, processed or manufactured
using any device that is not free from these
things unclean according to islamic law and
4. Not in the preparation, processing or storage,
or close contact with any food that does not
meet the requirements of paragraph (a), (b)
or (c) or any substance declared to be unclean
according to islamic law.
Due to the strict Islamic Law on permissible
food, the Halal Industry emerged specifically and
exclusively to cater the needs of the Muslims.
Hence, the need for Halal certification arose. Like
many other industrial activities and trades many
years ago, Halal Certification has been driven
by the export business to Muslim countries. The
first certified products were poultry, cookies and
toothpaste. This expanded to frozen meat and
poultry, processed meat and food service items.
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