What is Halaal Certification? Halaal Certification is a recognition that the products are permissible under Islamic law. These products are thus edible, drinkable or usable by Muslims. Halaal Certification from Halaal Trust an oldest established Islamic organization helps to build Halal consumer's confidence without suspicion or doubt over the consumption of the food products in restaurants, Hotels or in the form of medicines and vitamins. It is an authoritative and reliable testimony to support food manufacturers' claim that their products have met strict Halaal requirement by the Shariah Law. The certified Halaal food products are not only accepted domestically but are marketable to worldwide Halaal consumers. This opens an opportunity for export markets specially in those countries which do not permit sale of non-Halaal food products. Moreover Halaal products are not only welcomed by Muslim consumers but by non-Muslim consumers as well as Haalal certificate represents high level of hygiene, cleanliness, safety, nutrition and is produced stringently under the requirements of the Islamic Dietary Law. It is estimated that 70% of 1.6 billion Muslims worldwide follow Halaal food standards, and that the global Halaal market is currently estimated USD $600 billion. Today, Halaal trademark is an important marketing tool in the international arena particularly if the product is aimed at penetrating Muslim countries. Muslim consumers will have greater confidence in purchasing such products without questioning its authenticity. Producers who do not have the Halaal Certification would lose a large segment of potential customers from around the world. In addition, the Halaal Certification is also required by an importer to the country. Global Halaal Market A Muslim must know that it is ALLAH S.W.T’s order to use Halaal and to abstain from manufacturing, selling and using Haraam products. By carrying out this order, Muslims can achieve financial benefits in the world besides the reward in the hereafter. Not only do the Muslims all over the world buy products with Halaal logo but non-Muslims also prefer Halaal certified products for their good quality. I observed this attitude of Muslims and non-Muslims towards Halaal foods during my stay in South Africa. There, I myself would prefer those food products which had an authentic Halaal logo; for it was a non-Muslim country. This is the case not only in South Africa but all the Muslims living in non-Muslim countries as minorities show the same behavior. Therefore, the products with authentic Halaal logo exported from Pakistan or any other Muslim country to non-Muslim countries bring in more sales than those of non-Halaal certified products. The non-Muslims have got this point, and they have not only started to export the Halaal certified products but have also launched the Halaal certification bodies themselves to capture this market too. It is a matter of great regret that Muslims are not taking any notice of this sensitive religious issue. Therefore, neither do the Muslim consumers demand Halaal nor do the Muslim manufacturers deem Halaal certification necessary. I visited many slaughter houses in South Africa which, despite being owned by the Jews, managed to provide Halaal meat for Muslim consumers under the monitoring of a Halaal certification body named SANHA. This is the case in products which can be used by both Muslims and non-Muslims. Even those products which concern only Muslims are also being manufactured by the non-Muslims for business purpose, for example, cap, rosary, and praying mat made in China. These are the completely Muslim-related products, but China manufactures them to capture a huge market of Muslim consumers. The main motive behind this is _ as one important principle of commerce says_ to survey how many consumers are there for the product you are going to launch, to which religion and group they belong, who will buy the product- the young, or the old, and whether males will be more interested in it or females. Consumers of Halaal Products According to the report published in 2009 by “The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life” which is a subsidiary of an American think tank “Pew Research Center”, 23% of the world population is Muslim. The whole population of the world is about 6.8 billion, and 1.57 billion of them are Muslims. It means that the every fourth man of the world is a consumer of Halaal products. The above-mentioned report shows that the region-wise population of Muslims in 2009 was as under : Asia-Pacific - 972, 537, 000 Middle East-North Africa - 315, 322, 000 Sub-Saharan Africa - 240, 632, 000 Europe - 38, 112, 000 America, Canada - 4, 596, 000 Total - 1, 571, 198, 000 Global Halaal Market Size According to the statistics issued by “World Halaal Forum”, the estimated global Halaal food Market size in 2009 was as under: Global Halaal Food Size (USD, 000, 000) Africa - 150.3 Asia - 400.1 Europe - 66.6 Australia - 1.5 America - 16.1 Total - 634.5 By comparing the Global Halaal Food Market with global food market in 2009, the same report stated that the global Halaal food market was 16% of the whole global Food Market. At that time, the global food market size was 3, 992.2 Billion US dollars, and the global Halaal food market size was 634.5 Billion US dollar in2009. According to a Malaysian government organization regarding Halaal industry called HDC, if non-food Halaal products are also analyzed with Halaal food products, the market size of Halaal products will be about 2 trillion US dollars, of which 62% products are beverages, 22% pharmaceuticals, 6% nutraceuticals and 10% cosmetics & personal care products. It is to be kept in mind that these statistics do not include the Halaal services like Islamic banking. Shariah Ruling on Animal Sources : Pig has been explicitly declared Haraam in the Holy Quran. Besides, animals or birds which prey another animal and bird, or whose food is only impurity, are not allowed to consume. Examples are lion, wolf, jackal, cat, monkey, falcon, vulture, etc. Apart from the above-mentioned, all animals and birds are Halaal. Examples are parrot, starling, dove, sparrow, quail, swan, pigeon, deer, duck, rabbit, etc. The meat of permitted animals and birds will be Halaal only if they are slaughtered in compliance with the Shariah. According to the majority of Shariah scholars, among aquatic animals, only fish is Halaal. Food Additives : Food Additives are substances added to food to enhance its flavor or appearance or to preserve it. Food Additives are added for various purposes : Food additives have no or less nutritional values. These are added to food for different purposes. Their names are different according to the purpose they are used for. For example, to mix the water with oil, emulsifier is added in Ice cream, chocolate and margarine, etc. It means the function of emulsifier is to mix substances which do not mix by themselves such as oil and water. The name emulsifier is because of a specific kind and purpose. So, any ingredient added as an emulsifier is a food additive. Some Food Additives used as Emulsifiers : The Following food Additives are added to products as emulsifiers : Soy Lecithin Yolk Polysorbate Sorbitan Monostearate Types of Food Additives According to Sources : In the same way, food additives are used for different purposes like flavoring, durability, stabilizing, coloring, etc. There are three types of food additives : Natural Natural Identical Artificial Natural, For example, beetroot juices with its bright purple colour is used to colour other foods such as sweets. Nature Identical food additives are the man-made copies of substances that occur naturally. For example, benzoic acid is a substance that is found in nature and is also made synthetically. It is used as a preservative. Artificial Additives are substances made synthetically and are not found naturally such as Nisin (E-234) which is used in dairy products and puddings, etc. List of documents for halaal certification : Application form-ahsc-001-m Plant address document. System and process of slaughter. 4Details of slaughterer Copy of tread license. Copy of certificates. Bio data of technical expertise with certificates. Copy of slaughterer certificates. List of big buyers.
Uluberia, Howrah, West Bengal 
