In August 2004, the Malaysian Government launched their new Halal standard at MIHAS, the first Malaysia International Halal Showcase. One year later, this new standard, known as MS1500:2004, which was developed over a three-year period according to ISO methodologies, is making a bid to become an internationally accepted Halal standard. Hajj Abdalhamid Evans looks at the implications for the Halal industry.

Even a cursory glance at the Halal meat industry will let you know that there is no global standard for Halal. Definitions of Halal, while generally agreed upon all over the Muslim world, display some significant gaps when it comes to their application to what is now a global industry, particularly for certification purposes.

Raising The Standard

With the increased attention focused on the Halal issue, and consequent demand for certified Halal products, the lack of any standard is becoming an increasingly common subject for discussion among industry insiders.

It is an issue that is not going to go away. As anyone who attended MIHAS 2005 in July, the world’s leading Halal trade expo in Kuala Lumpur, will testify, the Halal industry is clearly buzzing, and has hardly even warmed up yet. There is much, much more to come.

Some outside observers have commented that Malaysia’s pitch to become a global Halal Hub needs a bit of clarification, both for themselves and for others. One government official from a visiting overseas delegation noted wryly, with some justification, that Malaysia seems to want it all its own way. “You want to be the global Halal food hub, and dictate Halal standards to everyone else… but you’re a net food importer; you don’t even feed yourselves.” Touché.

However, Malaysia’s strength as a potential Halal Hub lies not so much in food production, although there are clearly moves afoot to reduce the food bill. Events over the last 12 months have shown that Malaysia is already a defining leadership role in the development of this global industry by its focus on certification, standards, and trade promotion.

MATRADE, the Malaysian External Trade Development Corporation’s commitment to MIHAS 2005, by flying in over 100 trade buyers from 15 countries and managing the trade matching section of the Expo, resulted in 753 meetings that concluded over RM220 million in deals. Not a bad two days work.

“We have a mandate to aggressively promote Halal over the nest few years, and have a strong commitment to the Halal sector,” commented, MATRADE’s Director of Product and Service Promotion, Zakariah Kamaruddin. A role for the OIC?

Part of Malaysia’s commitment includes the promotion of MS1500 as an international standard. At a July meeting in Yemen of IOC Foreign Ministers, Dato’ Mustafa Abdul Rahman, the Director General of the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM) presented MS1500 to the OIC Fiqh Academy for their approval.

While the OIC has no official authority to determine a Halal standard, a rubber stamp by the OIC will place the MS1500 in a very strong position. It is the only Halal standard that has been drawn up by a Muslim country.

Malaysia is already one of the only counties in the world in which the Halal certification is carried out by a Government body (as opposed an Islamic Association).

Approval from the OIC could well make MS1500 a de facto standard for the Muslim world – and by implication, for the rest of the world as well.

Raising The Stakes

And this is where it will start to get interesting. On the one hand, there are many Muslim countries where there is no such thing as Halal certification, where they claim, not unreasonably, that as everyone is Muslim, why do they need any certification?

On the other hand there is, in every Muslim minority, a growing selection of Halal certification bodies for whom the issuing of certificates is, if you will excuse the expression, something of a cash cow. Predictably, the different certification bodies will tell you that they are the original or the best, and that the others are not as good or are only in it for the money.

And if you think that makes it confusing for the consumer, imagine what it does for the producers, the global majority of whom are non-Muslim, and just want clear and stable definitions.

There is plenty at stake. For the main meat exporting countries, the loss of Halal status translates in to significant loss of revenue as Muslim markets in the Middle East, Asia and even the EU and USA represent a major source of export revenue.

New Zealand, for example, has been among the first to recognise that Halal compliance creates market integration i.e. if the Muslims insist on Halal and the rest of the world is happy to eat Halal…why bother with non-Halal? With an export-driven meat industry, Halal slaughter is reported to be ‘near universal’ in New Zealand with up to 98% of all export lamb being Halal.

Consequently, recent delisting of all but one of New Zealand’s beef processors by Malaysia’s JAKIM for non-Halal ‘thoracic sticking’ has caused major disruption to their exports (see www.halaljournal.com for details). At the time of going to press, only Affco’s Moerewa works north of Auckland remains on the list of beef processors still licensed for export to Malaysia.

And because New Zealand and Australia share certain legislation, the same story applies to Australia, where six slaughterhouses were delisted by JAKIM for the same reason. Combined loss of exports was reported to be $53 million.

Shariah and Animal Welfare

The reason for this situation boils down to this – and is also true of other of non-Muslim meat producing countries: correct Shariah-compliant Halal slaughter is seen to be in conflict with animal welfare legislation.

This is where, as stated earlier, it starts to get interesting. The main comment on MS1500 from the OIC Fiqh Academy was in regard to the matter of stunning. MS1500s states that stunning prior to slaughter is ‘discouraged’, but not prohibited, and the OIC Fiqh Academy reportedly requested a stronger position to be taken on stunning before they could give their endorsement.

Stunning is poised – sooner or later – to be the next Big Issue for the Halal meat industry, and the OIC’s comments will no doubt serve to sharpen the focus on this already contentious issue.

Let us just stand slightly, and look at stunning with a cool eye.

• Stunning is not part of Halal slaughter. The parameters for Halal slaughter have been in place for over fourteen hundred years. When closely examined, they can be seen to be specifically designed to ensure both animal and human welfare.
• Industrialised meat production procedures in non-Muslim countries, prompted by an often emotive animal welfare lobby, introduced stunning, and it has – until now- been largely overlooked by the Muslim consumer.
• An estimated 90 per cent of all Halal meat is from stunned animals.
• Based on the evidence of EEG and ECG monitoring conducted at the Hanover Veterinary College, stunning is more traumatic for the animal than simply cutting the throat. Stunning registered classic patterns for severe trauma; simple Halal slaughter registered as deep sleep.
• Meat from stunned animals retains more blood, and therefore higher toxin levels, and is consequently less healthy for human consumption.
• Some stunning procedures are considered health hazards due to atomisation and dispersal of brain matter into blood stream, and therefore the meat, with consequent BSE-related risks.
• Stunning allows a faster through-put of animals through the slaughtering system, and is therefore deemed more profitable.
• Stunning produces a slightly higher weight per carcass due to reduced bleeding out of the animal.

The emergence of a new breed of Muslim food producer, such as Coop Islami in Dubai, and National Halal in the UK, both of whom take a strong non-stunning stance, is likely to play a role in changing the current indifference of the average consumer.

National Halal in particular is attempting to pioneer the creation of a Halal/Organic standard for their UK products. Significantly, the Soil Association, the Organic standard bearers in the UK, require all animals to be stunned prior to slaughter in order to be classified as organic.

While the UK Government has recently protected the legal rights of the Muslims and Jews to slaughter without stunning, such legislation is rare, and is an issue that both Australia and New Zealand are going to have to deal with, sooner rather than later.

The Time Has Come

The time has arrived for the Muslims to put down their knives and forks long enough to take the creation of a Halal standard as a serious matter. Clearly, the industry needs a standard, and just as clearly, the major meat producers also want a standard.

This was emphasised by the Brazilian Government delegation to Mihas 2005 – between them representing probably the largest meat and poultry exporters in the world – who confirmed their total commitment to the Halal market.

Simply put, like all non-Muslim producers, they just want to be told what to do to be Halal. No one wants to see containers of chilled meat sitting at the quayside unable to be exported, and shifting goal-posts are not in anyone’s interest.

‘All this confusion creates artificial shortages and price increases in the market,’ said one industry insider. ‘It is bad for business. We just want to see one standard and get on with things.’

Given the current arrangement of the pieces on the board, the adoption of Halal standard will not be a simple operation. However, with a market estimated at several hundred billion dollars annually, and with heavy-weights like Nestlé, Carrefour, Unilever, Walls, McDonald’s, KFC, Burger King and Tesco playing an increasingly active role, this market is unlikely to go without a standard for too much longer.

Indeed, with retail giants stepping into the ring, the focus of Halal is likely to widen further to take in such additional issues as cold-storage and transportation. The demand for a verifiable secure Halal supply-chain is just around a not-too-distant corner, and will also require clear standards, an issue touched on but not sufficiently covered by MS1500.

It is no accident that port authorities from as far afield as Rotterdam, Marseilles, and the UAE have all been recent visitors to Kuala Lumpur, all of them talking Halal Hub strategy.

In this respect Malaysia is already viewed in a leadership role, and there are clear signs that both Government and private sector are gearing up to rise to this challenge.

One thing seems clear. The way in which MS1500 is handled in the next few months – by the OIC, the Malaysian Government and the Halal Industry players both big and small – may well determine the shape of this emerging market for the next decade.

Stay tuned.

**This article was first published in The Halal Journal Sep/Oct 2005 edition, and was written by Hajj Abdalhamid Evans.