Halal Meat Standards Benefit Everybody

Halal Meat Standards Benefit Everybody

Over the years, I’ve traveled in predominantly Muslim countries for both work and leisure. Choosing to specialize in Halal meats had less to do with that and more to do with believing in responsible food production. It’s not only about being accommodating and catering to what others consider important, it’s also about making the business better all around.

The Halal Meat Industry In a (Wal)Nutshell

In order to be considered Halal, meat must meet a specific set of standards made for those who practice Islam. Without getting into specifics, Halal foods must avoid certain ingredient sources, types of slaughtering and additives.

As the Middle East becomes more regularly traveled to and from, Halal is becoming a much more common dietary consideration for menus. Airlines and hotels should be particularly aware of this. Of course, Halal food has a strong presence in the western hemisphere and is becoming more mainstream even among non-Muslims. Please make a stop to Halal street vendors in NYC if you haven’t yet.

This is important because catering to Halal standards has benefits for the whole food industry.

Requirements to Process Halal Meat

Besides being able to follow the strict guidelines, food processors must possess soft skills to confidently produce Halal products. For starters, companies must be be nimble and hands-on. Conforming to the laws require knowing where the ingredients came from, how they were processed before getting to you, additional and precise labeling, separate storage, and strong oversight.

To be capable of all this, a food processing facility must be educated, aware and invested from top to bottom. A company’s agility, culture and safety practices all come into play.

What Halal Standards Teach Meat Processors

Companies focused on mass-production are tempted to skip the finite quality control steps that ensure adhering to rules like Halal. Improving efficiency and profit margins does wonders for innovations in technology and process, but often these sacrifice niche security measures. Overly cautious approaches may seem old fashioned, but in the end it protects food quality and customers.

This kind of approach to food processing has applicable lessons to other areas. A huge topic in food production is allergies. No matter what you think about the increasing amount of food allergies, you simply cannot ignore this need for consumers. It’s important to a portion of the population, just like Halal is important to Muslims, and so the industry must comply with increasingly complex standards. The care taken to avoid cross contamination with allergens is adaptable to that for Halal meat processing. The motivation and the needs may be different, but if you’re good at one you have the capabilities to be good at the other. Look in the news for any number of headlines about recalls (for allergens, mislabeling, foreign objects, etc.) and you’ll notice that, oftentimes, the issue could have been avoided, nipped in the bud or reached smaller levels had stricter standards been in place.


This level of care and hands-on involvement turns out not only safer product, but better product. Consistency, ingredient sourcing, quality control and even corporate transparency all improve when dietary considerations are catered to appropriately. There are always the bad eggs who take shortcuts or even outright lie in order to get business, but they are the outliers. When food production shows true care, everybody benefits.

Richard Fagan

Research and Development Director

8y

I have lived and worked in Kuwait for 5 years, in which time I have been heavily involved in Halal meat/food production and sourcing from global suppliers. I really enjoy articles shining a light on halal meat manufacturing practices and Halal standards. Mostly because it is often not clear to majority of people/consumers (even Muslims) what Halal actually means or involves. What I find unique about halal is that it is more open to interpretation than other standards. I have yet to find 1 stand alone set of guidelines for the the world for halal meat production. There is a GSO standard for the GCC (gulf countries) however I have seen and met many certifiers and brands that actually employ differing guidelines which are accepted as Halal. BRC, ISO, EFSIS, FSIS, Red Tractor, Freedom Foods and other assurance and are sets of widley broadcast, widley known, well understood and recognised quality systems of food standards. Together with production practices such as HACCP they give every manufacture in the world one scale to be measured by and include such things as traceability & animal welfare!

Willi Wurm

Master of Meat Science and Processing at SORGO-Anlagenbau, Austria

8y

I returned from a Kazachstan Start Up Project and I have learned one thing even working before in Arabic Countries. For a Muslim economy and wealth is counting less when involving Halal Procedures. Halal must be lived and breathed. Business Leaders told to me that they rather prefer to export their products to Russia instead of selling Halal in their own countries (quite well now because of EU-sanctions). They never compromise from their hearts and good so!. It`s useless stuff to guarantee inredients or other western economy goals and ideas. For real understanding you or me have to stay there for at least three months understanding culture, needs an integrity. I did and understood.

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