Guidelines for production methods for halal foods

Halal food and production methods

Today, most foodstuffs are produced using industrial methods, starting from the very first stage of production. For this reason, the associated industry is now also referred to as the food industry . To ensure the permanent availability of numerous foods, they are produced in large quantities in factories. Furthermore, numerous product lines are manufactured in parallel or sequentially in the same factory. This has an impact on the manufactured products and is reflected, for example, in the information "May contain traces of nuts" on food packaging, even though no nuts are intended to be included in the desired product. The keyword here is cross-contamination. This refers to the unwanted transfer of contaminants to objects, items, or similar. In the case of food, this would be, for example, the contamination of halal fruit gummies with pork gelatin. 

Manufacturing process: Animal cruelty prohibited in halal foods

Not only the selection of the animal species, species-appropriate husbandry and dignified treatment, and gentle, painless, and stress-free slaughter are criteria for classifying a product as permissible (halal); there are also numerous factors to consider when processing the raw materials. For example, it is of little help if all the rules are followed until the slaughter of a cow, but cross-contamination with pork fat occurs during the subsequent processing of the raw product. To avoid such mistakes, various certifiers have also issued guidelines for industrial manufacturing processes. Although these guidelines are based on the Koran and the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad (s), they must be constantly updated and reviewed on the basis of existing processing techniques and individual circumstances.

Guidelines for the production of halal foods

If a permitted animal species has been selected for the manufacture of a product and slaughtered in accordance with Islamic guidelines, care should be taken during processing to ensure that

• the production line for halal products must be separated from other production lines, or at least parts of the relevant factory
• all machines are cleaned and dry, and employees on the halal production line have no contact with non-halal foods.
• Halal meat must not be contaminated at any stage, from slaughter to transport, storage, and processing, through contact with pork or other non-halal foods.
• All additives comply with halal guidelines.
• the packaging process also prevents cross-contamination with non-permitted (haram) products.

Listing all aspects sounds very abstract. How does this affect everyday production? Which products are affected?

Haribo sweets without pork gelatin, for example

Fruit gumsarea good example of the criteria listed above. While some manufacturers have completely switched their product lines to vegetarian or vegan raw materials, others specificallyproduceseparatehalal products. For example, while classicHaribo fruit gummies sometimescontainpork gelatin, which is not suitable for halal classification, a separate factory in Turkey exclusivelymanufactures halal products. This special factory onlyproduceshalal Haribo sweets without pork gelatin, eliminating the risk of halal and non-halal sweets coming into contact with each other. This prevents any cross-contamination. Only certified halal raw materialsareused forhalal production.

These considerations can also be applied to fast food. Many large fast food chains have vegetarian or even vegan products in their range that could in principle be consumed by Muslims. It is important that employees change their gloves before making a sandwich or burger, use contamination-free knives or grills, and store the relevant foods separately. If these aspects are not observed, the products in question may be classified as non-halal (haram). 

^1Paraphrasedfrom http://www.eurohalal.eu/index.php/halal-richtlinien.html