Sri Lanka cannot afford to lose markets because of people’s mindset and perception of Halal
Awareness about what you consume making these choices healthy for individuals, is the right of the individual but not many people take it very serious.
The Business Times recently interviewed Halal Accreditation Council (HAC) Director and CEO Ali Fatharally who explained ‘Halal’ and ‘Haram (forbidden)’ in the food chain.
“Let’s forget the two terms ‘Halal’ and ‘Haram’ and talk about two other names instead, that the World Health Organisation puts forward for people to pick from the supermarket and eat or drink,” he said very openly and noted “This is what that has gone wrong among the people’s mindset and conception today.”
“The misconception of Halal is associated with different religious organisations. The damage has been already done in Sri Lanka because it’s a term followed by the Muslims. There are scientific reasons for the terms ‘Halal’ and ‘Haram’ which people do not want to accept. It helps the entire humanity to avoid consuming food and beverages since you do not know what is in it,” said Mr. Fatharally.
He also mentioned that it is a personal choice of an individual. Halal is not something that only Muslims should abide by because it is clearly mentioned in the religion but a normal layman can take it as a practice with his/her own preference. There are different food products in the supermarkets that are Halal certified and non-certified which does not have a price difference.
Most companies that are Halal certified in Sri Lanka are for the reason that they look at the market in a worldwide scale. The corporate sector understands the concept behind Halal but the message a common man gets is challenging. “When you say Halal, people think only about slaughtering and killing animals. But they don’t even try to understand that with technology there is no fresh food that you get today, whereas everything is processed,” he stated while adding that none of the slaughter farms in Sri Lanka is Halal certified because of government regulations.
“Creating the safety factor in people’s minds is what we are trying to get through. It doesn’t mean that non-Halal certified food items are bad or unhealthy. As a global recognition any food product that states Halal certified, is a passport to get through any country in the world. People draw a line for themselves that if something is not Halal certified, it is Haram, just like you are considered dumb if you haven’t passed an exam,” he added.
Mr. Fatharally noted that the whole mandate of getting the certification is, it boosts Sri Lankan exports to West Asia and brings a lot of revenue to the country.
HAC is the official local body to certify any food products. The company was started in December 2013 and is incorporated under the Companies Act. It is recognized by the World Halal Food Council with various auditing and international standards that are followed around the world.
Many countries require water to be certified and it happens in four stages namely filtering, science stage, ceramic stage and charcoal stage. The activated carbon in water comes from dead and old animal bones which is unhealthy to purify water. In some western countries bones of pig are used as charcoal. “When it comes to Halal certification we have to make sure that every integral part of the chain is considered.”
Certification depends on the nature and the criticality of the product and how willing the company is to adopt to compliance. Certification of a food product takes around one to three months because there are certain standards and protocols to follow, submit the ingredients used, technical team has to visit the site to check the materials handled and what it contains and laboratory tests have to be conducted.
“We dig deep to find out the raw materials involved in the production process and whether dead animal parts are used. We don’t request for the recipe or the composition involved in the manufacturing process which is an added risk for us. Even after a company is Halal certified, we do follow ups by sending our auditors so that the standards are maintained constantly,” noted Mr. Fatharally.
He also mentioned that hotels in Sri Lanka have not captured the Halal certification market. “We don’t see the Halal conscious tourism boom in Sri Lanka. It’s just through word of mouth that people believe the food is Halal certified at hotels. The demand is slowly increasing and 4 to 5 hotel chains in Sri Lanka are now gearing towards certification with lots of structural changes in the hotel kitchens.”
There are 188 companies with the biggest brands in Sri Lanka that are certified under HAC with 4000 different products on their shelves. Most companies are Halal certified for one particular reason, not because they love Islam, want to be a Muslim or want to follow the lifestyle of the prophet, but because of the money that can flow into the country with the Halal certification.
In countries like Malaysia and Australia people like to consume Halal certified food because they know the fact that it is monitored by someone and the assurance is guaranteed. By end 2017 the market value will be US$ 2.3 trillion where everybody would want to capitalise on this market, noted Mr. Fatharally.