If Halal compliance was a checklist, then tick all the boxes, and you will be able to attain the Halal Certification. In bureaucratic Singapore, this is how we view any certification or accreditation body.

On the other hand, if halal compliance was approached as a holistic compliance to the Islamic lifestyle - then even when all the boxes have been checked, there is still a case by case qualitative consideration to be done - an example of such, is discussed in this episode.

If you would like to share your stories relating to halal, or surrounding topics, write to hello@jumaiyah.com, or DM me right here on Substack.

This episode is brought to you by @hcsconsultants.sg — simplifying Halal Certification for your business, every step of the way.

📩 info@hcsconsultants.com.sg
📞 +65 6348 8031 / +65 9143 5964
📌 Halal Certification Training Provider

We see non-muslim staff. We see the design and layout of the cafe resembling that of a bar. Sometimes, the cafe itself has items on the menu with fine print stating *contains alcohol*. Or worse still, we realise that there's a bar connected to the cafe, selling all the beverages that we know we shouldn't be consuming.

A quick question to the staff goes like this:-

Qn: "Is the food halal?" Ans: "We are Muslim-Owned"

Or.

Qn: "Is the food halal?" Ans: "Our meat is from a halal supplier"

So, muslim-owned = halal? halal meat supplier = entirely halal food? Not exactly.

The halal certification process

To understand the difference, we first have to understand what goes on behind and before an eating establishment / food product attains its halal certification. Every country has its own set of processes, but in general, when broadly summarised, there are 2 major steps.

Step 1: Verification of the ingredients

When an application first comes in, it will involve the certifier looking at a list of ingredients used in the production of that food product.

In the case of restaurants, this would involve the restaurant submitting its entire menu along with all the list of ingredients that it uses for the making of the items on the menu.

For Singapore's MUIS certifications, this would also involve each restaurant keeping track of who its suppliers are. It also requires the restaurants to hang on to the halal certificates of all the products from its suppliers (and all the other paperwork that comes with it).

This list of ingredients can involve simple raw materials like sugar, or rice, but most frequently for pre-packed and processed halal products, this involves the uncommon names of proteins and chemical compounds. Try memorising emulsifier codes and flavouring codes to get a feel of how complicated these processes can get.

With technological advancements in food manufacturing, ingredients are not so simple any more. While working in the halal certifications scene previously, I was trained to be able to decide if this compound warrants further investigations with just one look at the name of the compound, before I forward the application to my superiors. Trust me, having a chemistry degree really helped in this area.

Halal certifying bodies normally have their own database of codes and complicated chemical names of products along with the statuses of "halal" or "haram" or "doubtful" for their own references. They then use their database to decide whether or not to grant the halal status to certain products.

Step 2: The Production Process

Part of the certification process involves the certifier visiting the production plant to ascertain that there are no additional or dubious products involved in the production. At this juncture, I would like to highlight the level of strictness in halal would also depend on the country / mufti / madzhab that you are in.

In some madzhabs, only the ingredients matter, production process doesn't matter. For other mazhabs, like mine, it matters a whole lot.

So when you want to choose a halal logo to trust, it would be better to trust the one that is originating from your own country / mazhab as they would best understand that level of strictness.

So let's say the application passes Step 1, and it is found that no doubtful or non-halal ingredients are used, the application now goes to step 2, where the certifier visits the production plant.

In the case of an abattoir, halal auditors will look at who is the person doing the cutting. In the case of the production of cheese, or butter, sweets, or packaged products, they will inspect the machines used. Alarms would be raised if auditors find anything doubtful.

At this juncture, let me give a sneak peek as to what halal auditors have seen before, just to illustrate how serious this step is.

For instance, in the production of sweets, the sugar will be spun at high velocity in hollow machines to increase the concentration of the sugar. Usually to ensure that the sugar crystals don't stick to the walls of these hollow machines, its walls are actually lined with lard (pig fat).

Another example is when part of the food production process requires straining or a separation of liquids from a solid. Since pig intestines have been found to have the finest pores that provide the best filtration results and produces a higher quality product, the use of these filters will have to be checked.

So perhaps, just ask yourself if you would be comfortable with eating butter that has been strained using a filter that's made of pig intestines. When you've answered this question for yourself, then your choice of halal certified products over non-halal-certified ones would also follow.

Even though halal standards and requirements differ slightly from country to country, it does give me a little peace of mind knowing that another muslim has already looked at the production process of a certain product before I consume it.

Here's a little teaser of where other pig parts can be found..

Specifically for restaurants, Halal auditors would visit the restaurant itself, including all other areas where the food is produced for patrons of that business - like centralised kitchens or storage facilities - to ascertain that the food production for the patrons of that restaurant meets the halal certification requirements

Step 3: Maintenance and compliance

After obtaining the halal certification, there would be periodic inspections throughout the duration where the halal certification is still valid for the restaurant.

In Singapore, periodic inspections would be conducted by halal officers from MUIS. There are also private businesses that offer these services to restaurants so that their facility is being inspected at a more regular basis to ensure that every part of their operation consistently meets a high level of compliance for the maintenance of their Halal Certification.

Now that you understand the Halal Certification process, it’s time for the age-old question:

Is there really difference between a Halal Certified restaurant, and a muslim-owned eatery?

Short answer: Yes, there is.

Firstly, a muslim-owned enterprise hasn't necessarily undergone the rigorous and stringent process of halal certification, helmed by halal auditors.

Halal auditors are bound by standards set by their organisations, which are meant to be the knowledge-hub for halal matters for the community. For a muslim-owned establishments, the halal status of the food served is entirely dependent on the muslim owner.

Sadly, in my adventures with Halalfoodhunt, I have found instances where muslim-owned establishments sell alcohol, involve themselves in the sale of non-halal dishes, even though they purchase meat from halal suppliers.

Without highly alert muslim chefs, managers and owners, or auditors to do thorough spot checks on eating establishments, we won't really know what's happening in the kitchen before our food is served to us.

On another note, let's think well of our muslim brothers and sisters, and recognise that for most cases, they would not intentionally involve themselves in the sale of non-halal food.

In my adventures with Halalfoodhunt, while meeting with restaurant owners, I get very heartened when the restaurant owners themselves talk passionately about the subject of halal.

They will tell me where their cheese comes from, and sometimes also who their suppliers are. Sometimes, I even get warnings of which brands to avoid because of the halal risks involved with those brands!

One conversation with a Moroccan chef that I particularly remember went like this - "Sometimes they add wine in (this moroccan dish) to appeal to the non-muslim crowd, so you muslim, don't eat. And cheese, if you want good halal cheese, tell me, I will give you my supplier, don't buy from the non-halal ones from outside, you know what it contains, right?"

Halal-educated sellers will be better equipped to ensure the halal status of the food items that they serve, and halal-educated buyers will in turn become more discerning in their purchasing habits.

So is it necessary that a muslim-owned establishment gets the halal certification?

Getting the halal certificate is entirely voluntary, and it comes with a whole set of requirements. So if these requirements put a strain on your muslim-owned business, then your next option is to ensure that you are well-educated in the areas pertaining halal, so that you are able to make better decisions regarding your food suppliers on behalf of your muslim consumers :)

PS: If you are a muslim owner of a restaurant that is not halal-certified, and you're keen to learn about halal risk factors so that your restaurant is better equipped at choosing halal ingredients and suppliers, visit HCS Consultants - they conduct classes for businesses going for halal certification, and also the general public wanting to learn about halal.

After all, french fries is just... potatoes, right?

I chose french fries for this week's topic because I happened to stumble upon this video on my newsfeed.

Watch the video on how fries are made, and read on & may we all grow in a appreciation and admiration for all the people that work behind every halal certification. (I'm cringing just by recalling the amount of paperwork involved per product..)

French fries isn't just potatoes. The next time you are chowing down on those delicious fries, don't just gobble it down. Take time, let it linger in your mouth, and savour its every taste. The moment you feel that it taste even remotely like beef (the most common animal fat used) - there was probably beef fat, essence of beef, beef marinade or even beef stock - in the oil that your delicious fries are fried in. And since we are on the subject - yes, pork and lard can be used to flavour oil as well.

For added measure, I want to touch a bit on our choice of cooking oil. If it’s not halal-certified, it is likely that the animal essences have already been added into the oil and bottled up and placed on the supermarket shelves for you to purchase.

As seen in the video, there is pre-frying done as well, before the french fries are being frozen. Commercially, after pre-frying (the non-halal bit has already been infused), the fries are then frozen, packed and brought to the super market shelves! Voila!

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No Pork, No Lard

I also want to touch a bit on the "No Pork No Lard" signals that we see quite a bit. These are claims that restaurants / eateries use to indicate that Pork and Lard are not used in their food production. However, it is still not too clear if this ultimately translates the food being halal - sometimes it does, but sometimes, it doesn't.

Despite not using pork, or lard as raw ingredients, there may be other meat flavoured 'oil' that has bee infused in the oil used in the establishment. These flavourings are added into the oil to give the fries that distinct taste and unique flavour to the fries. If animal essences are used, then these animal essences must be from halal sources. You may have a halal abattoir producing these items, or from another producer of animal flavourings that has attained halal certification. If not, then it deems the fries to be non-halal.

Ending this article I want to emphasize again about how my articles not meant to judge you for your food choices - it is merely to inform.

It's not about "choose this, not that". It is not even about telling you if something is Halal or Haram. My mantra is this: if your choice of food would be different if you had known 'this thing', then you should know 'this thing'. I will share 'this thing' with you.

Till next time, Halal First, Everything else later.

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To connect with me, email hello@halalfoodhunt.com.

“But it’s just cake!”

That’s what I hear commonly amongst my friends when confronted with the question of whether or not the delectable cake that is sitting behind the glass at a store is halal.

The first defensive response is always to reduce the importance of the matter because our nafs for the cake is so much greater, haha! After that, we normally would attempt to reason out why the food item should be halal by default.

“I mean, it’s just cake, right? When you bake cake, you don’t purposefully put alcohol in it, nor do you use meat to make the cake – well, unless its flavoured rum & raisin. So, an innocent chocolate cake or, the red velvet cake should be alright, yes?”

Ingredient-specific

Being fully aware of the different standards of halal in different countries around the world, and also the different scholars’ views on the matter, what I write this article merely with the intention to inform, so that our readers are able to make better choices – halal choices – as opposed to the decisions they would make if they had not known.

Fresh & Natural Ingredients - good!

In this day of social media, we have come across chefs who strongly advocate the use of only fresh and natural ingredients in their food.

This means, they will reduce or entirely avoid the use of additives, emulsifiers, flavourings, colourings, improvers and the likes, in their food.

I vividly recall how Chef Mimi taught us how to extract the lavender flavour from lavender flowers, as opposed to using the more convenient lavender flavourings in bottles sold off the shelves.

Only when the cooks, chefs, bakers, use only natural ingredients that I know that there is a good chance that the bakes they make would be halal. We still need to ask about other pre presence of other ingredients - like meat, or extracts that would otherwise risk the halal status of the food.

Additives, emulsifiers...?

Shortcuts to baking and cooking often involve the items previously mentioned, like additives, emulsifiers, flavourings, colourings, sauces and the likes.

These items are created and put into food for the purposes of enhancing the flavours, to make the preparation easier, make it last longer, or to change the texture (softer, harder, stronger, lava-ish).

Since these items are manufactured and processed, absolutely anything and everything can go into the production these additives. Let me give you some examples.

Emulsifiers
Emulsifiers are added to cakes to improve the texture of the cake (extra moist, soft, fluffy crumbs - you know, to make it extra sedap, haha!), sometimes to increase volume of the cake, or to extend its shelf life or to help with the mixing of fat an water ingredients. This ingredient risk the halal status of food it is used it… when it is sourced animal derived. If the emulsifier is derived from fatty acids of animal fat, then it is an immediate red flag. Emulsifiers are one of the things in the baking space that I would say is a non-negotiable and would require it to be halal certified.

Other than the animal content that could probably be found in the ingredients that are used to make your favourite bakes, there are also those with the alcohol content.

Vanilla Extract
The most popular and conventional way to extract vanilla flavour from Vanilla beans is to use alcohol - either Vodka, Rum, or Bourbon - with at least 35% alcohol in their solution. So, when a baker uses Vanilla Extract, they would inadvertently be adding alcohol into the cake, therefore making it not halal.

It is REALLY hard to find vanilla extracts that is halal.

Just like how wine is being added as one of the final ingredients before they plate the food to enhance the smell, much of the flavourings used also contain alcohol to enhance the taste or aroma, in the same way.

Other than the halal additives mentioned, care should also be taken into consideration when choosing the basic ingredients for baking – like butter.

Oh. Butter. Don’t even get me started on butter.