Take A Leaf From M'sia On Halal Food Standards, Says Expert

Bernama -- The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other Middle East countries should emulate Malaysia in regulating halal food production to prevent governments and consumers from being defrauded, said an industry expert.

Midamar Corporation director Jalel Aossey said countries like Malaysia and Brunei had well established regulatory bodies to verify products were halal-compliant and that protection levels were in place in countries like the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

"There's growing demand for a universal standard across all halal products," said the representative of one of North America's largest suppliers of high quality halal meat.

According to Aossey, regional governments needed help from the industry to combat fraudulent halal food certification practices and build consumer trust.

"Close cooperation between governments and active certifiers in the region can help block non-halal food items from reaching supermarket shelves as halal products," he said at the Halal World Expo Forum which runs alongside the Halal World Expo 2008 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre here.

He said people had to realise that it was not impossible and not too costly to put the correct halal standards in place.

"Inspection teams can be sent to the various countries where food is being produced to allow it to be inspected, at that country's cost.

"This is nothing when you consider the huge dollar volume of food products exported to the UAE and other Gulf countries. Malaysia has set the stage for the rest of the world to follow," added Aossey.

According to him, of the American products that were found on supermarket shelves in the UAE and elsewhere in the Gulf region, about 95 percent would be the same products found in the United States' supermarkets.

"But some how, on the way from the US to the Middle East, these products magically become halal. Consumers are no doubt becoming more aware of this reality and want to know what is being done to protect their religious beliefs," he said.

Aossey asserted that there was no regulation of halal certification in the US as anybody could get hold of a good printer and turn out a certificate that looked genuine.

"Corrupt certifiers get a taste for the money generated producing "paper halal certificates' for companies without actually performing any work. It's all too easy for them to operate in an unregulated industry," he said.

He said, however, credible certifiers would send slaughter teams and auditors to production plants to check that processes were fully halal-compliant.

Aossey said exporters rather than manufacturers were more likely to approach corrupt certifiers, acquire halal certification, put Arabic labels on the product and ship it to the Middle East.

"The manufacturer may not have a clue where the product ends up or that their products are being misrepresented as halal," he added.

Organised by IIR Middle East, the Middle East's leading showcase for the US$2.1 trillion global halal industry concludes Thursday.