Halal Integrity in an Adulterated job World

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Assalamu Waleikum,

Fat free; sugar free; natural; fiber enriched, these are buzz words we see on many consumable products that vie for our attention. Yet, it increasingly becomes clear that we must read the labels on every single packaged food product and get an advanced degree in Food Science to understand if our food choices are lawful to Allah, that is, halal.
Many of us have purchased groceries, as innocuous as yogurt, cereal, or candy only to have someone in our family shriek, “This has pig” or “This has liquor” in it! If we are lucky enough to live in an area with other Muslims, we try to be conscientious and buy from our local Muslim vendors. However, let’s consider if we know the chicken and fish are halal, we may still be suspicious about the beef. After all, it has a USDA label on it; so does the USDA know if something is halal? Who is watching out for the consumer?
Well, the answer is that there are some legitimate God fearing guardians out there, but the system is still coming together whereby we can assuredly state that all products that claim to be halal truly are. This is why ISNA is diligently making progress in creating the first American Halal Accreditation Board so that U.S. consumers know and other nations can trust the integrity of U.S. halal foods. Although there are several American certifiers, very few are accepted by some other countries that have governmental organizations to approve their halal imports. And, let it be known, that the USDA does know what halal is. When ISNA and the American Halal Association met government officials in Washington, DC, they referenced “Guidelines for the Use of the Term Halal” from the Codex Alimentarius of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Besides improving food safety, animal welfare, and guarantee of halal status for American products, the bonus incentive to develop a U.S. halal accreditation board would be to open U. S. products to a global market that would accept the integrity of American accreditation.
To find out more about halal integrity in the U.S., Maria Omar, Director of media relations at IFANCA, the largest U.S.-based certifier of halal products, highlighted the certification process. IFANCA certifies with their Crescent M symbol, 23,500 products worldwide. American consumers recognize several of their clients like Kraft; Abbott Nutrition; Cargill; Nestle; and Pepsi, but not all products of these companies are halal. These companies market to the world, and they value reputable halal certification, as required by the countries they deal with.
Not a Simple Process
One of the first points Ms. Omar asked me to realize was that the creation of food is no longer a simple process. Today, food undergoes many changes of hands, factories, companies, and even geographic locations to get to its final state. In other words, a raw material could be extracted in Venezuela; processed into powder (or ingredient) form in the USA; shipped to South Africa for production; and then sold in Canada at grocery stores. This is the main reason why non-meat based food and pharmaceutical products has had the potential for haram ingredients or contamination.
Even though I was well aware of this fact, breaking down with the simple example, such as chocolate, showed me how many different steps in food production and processing have the potential of exposing a normally halal product like chocolate to haram ingredients or contaminants. Consider the widely loved and seemingly innocent product like chocolate. Chocolate is made from cacao beans that are essentially handpicked from plants. Beans are opened, fermented and dried by hand. However, after that they are shipped to another processing plant that converts them into liquid, powder, or any other ingredient form for future use. It also means that they change hands and get exposed to different other types of manufacturing ingredients and processing aids.
Some of the ingredients that are added along the way may be sugar, milk powder, emulsifiers, flavors, and preservatives. With each new additional ingredient, it has to be examined whether the creation of these new ingredients—even if used in small amounts—are also halal. Processing aids, like enzymes, are ingredients used to chemically hasten the production from one stage to another—such as converting cacao beans to cacao liquid. Emulsifying agents help provide the smooth texture to chocolate, and preservatives help increase the chocolate’s shelf life. Processing aids, such as lubricants, help flow the chocolate product through the factory’s various machinery and stages.
In the end, the final product is a packaged bar of chocolate. As innocuous as it may sound, packaging itself is now a rising issue for halal contamination. Sometimes the packaging may be made from an undesirable source; sometimes it may be coated with a haram product, like a wax.
When I heard this, my first thought was that I needed to read the ingredients labels more carefully. However, it turned out that it was not as simple a solution as that.

A quick check with IFANCA’s food technologists and different websites reveals that the FDA does not require manufacturers to list names of processing aids and packaging materials used.

Ms. Omar described the scrutiny products, like the chocolate bar, would receive at the Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America’s halal certification process. IFANCA was established in 1982 in Chicago by a group of concerned Muslim food technologists. By virtue of their scientific professional education, they were of greater understanding why so many packaged goods and foods, like chocolate, would not fit the bill for the Islamic diet. This really concerned them and led them to form IFANCA.
They set up a halal certification process in-house closely based on certification models of other food certification companies—organic, kosher, etc. It all begins with filling out a comprehensive application with details about the product’s complexity and production volume size. IFANCA staff can quickly provide a time and price estimate for completion of the rigorous process.
Using the same example of chocolate, Mujahed Khan, one of IFANCA’s in-house food technologists explained to me the time difference it would take to review cacao powder and a chocolate bar. The bar of chocolate would have gone through many more stages of production, and ingredients compared to the cacao powder extracted from cacao beans. Hence, reviewing the ingredient formulas for the chocolate bar would be longer. The client company is always informed about this time frame as well as the associated cost in review. Although IFANCA is a not-for-profit, its food technologists are employees and their time is compensated. A longer ingredient evaluation process means food technologists will be paid for their time.
Similarly, the size of the manufacturing process also affects the time and cost it takes to audit the company. Auditors are professional staff hired to assess the industrial production of the product. If the chocolate is handmade in a small enterprise of 1-2 people, naturally looking over their production facilities and advising proper changes will take much less time. However, if the same chocolate product is produced in 5 factory units, in huge volumes such as 100,000 bars a day, the time associated to review all the machinery, lubricants and packaging will take a much longer time—and the cost will reflect this.
After a company has agreed with the timeline and procedure, the first step is to review all ingredients used to manufacture that product. This is called the Ingredient Review Stage. The in-house IFANCA food technologists trace the product’s suppliers and sources to track and verify if each ingredient used in the product is halal. Take for example the emulsifying agent lecithin, used to improve the texture of chocolate. Lecithin can be made from plant sources as well as animal sources—and it is the job of the in-house food technology team to do the back-end research and determine if this chocolate producer’s lecithin supply is appropriate for Muslim consumption. IFANCA’s food technology teams have food science or scientific degrees. They are trained in-house and work in teams. The ingredient review process is always divided between two reviewers. So going through each and every ingredient and their source is not enough once. It is done twice. According to Mr. Khan, halal certification is a matter of religion and trust which is why any possible mistakes are minimized by a twice over ingredient review.
Another interesting fact is that companies, once certified, may not legally change ingredients in their formulas, nor sources of them, or the certification becomes null and void. If they anticipate a need for a change of ingredients or sources, they should notify IFANCA in advance in order to verify continued halal compliance and not jeopardize their halal certificate status.
On Site Audit
The second part of the IFANCA halal certification process is a physical, on-site audit of the production facility. Physical audits and inspections apply to all products; from dairy to processed food, as well as pharmaceuticals and personal care products. Take the case of chocolate production. From the first machine where the raw cacao powder is filled in, the IFANCA auditor follows the various stages of production and the machinery involved to check for potential cross-contamination issues. This auditor’s review will also include checking cleaning supplies, product storage facility, and packaging materials. The auditor’s role is detecting problems and providing practical solutions that have industrial applicability.
In cases of sensitive products like meat and poultry, an IFANCA inspector is assigned for every production day to supervise and check many details throughout the whole process. In case of doubt, or need for further investigation, random samples can be collected and sent to a third party laboratory for analysis. Since the IFANCA in-house ingredient team already breaks down food formulas down to the last enzyme and cell, third party laboratory analysis is reserved only when a clearer picture is needed in unknown breakdown elements.
A shipping specialist at the research center also sleuths for logistics and documentation about sources, contents, and weights to rule out fraud. Exports are particularly scrutinized so that seaports and other means of transportation logistics are sound, and that shipping seals are preserved.
Finally, all reports are compiled by an auditor for final review by the certification team. If everything is in compliance, the product receives certification for one year. Most companies who export show their halal certificates to governments, at seaports, and they display them on websites online to show potential buyers and consumers that their products have halal certification. For someone living a halal lifestyle, the halal certification on a chocolate bar can get them to consider buying that brand of chocolate a little more persuasively than a brand that doesn’t make any halal certification claims.
Each subsequent year, an on-site visit and laboratory analysis is required. If formulas or suppliers change during the certification year, the company is contractually obliged to inform IFANCA and have new ingredients reviewed for acceptability. In case they do not, they risk losing their halal certification.
My visit to IFANCA was a revelation in learning about the diligence used in their halal certification process, and a blessing to meet their friendly, professional, and knowledgeable staff. Many of the personnel that work with IFANCA have degrees in Food Science from institutions like University of Kansas, Texas A & M, and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and prospects are bright for anyone looking to work in the development of halal products and services. According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-2011, jobs classified as Agricultural and Food Science are expected to grow by 16% by 2018. The rationale is that food jobs are not adversely affected by poor economics, and there is a growing need for specialists as our food production becomes increasingly sophisticated. It would be comforting to know that Muslims are participating in developing food science, safety, and the integrity of halal for the world.

Zaid Mohammad Abdul-Rahman Duarte is a freelance writer and blogger based in the Brazil. He can be reached mmdroxo@hotmail.com .
The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Syndicate of Muslim Slaughterman.

زيد محمد عبد الرحمن دوارتي كاتبة مستقلة مقرها في والمدون في البرازيل. ويمكن وصل mmdroxo@hotmail.com.
الآراء التي أعرب عنها وهذا مدون في تعليقات القراء التالية لا تعكس بالضرورة وجهات نظر وسياسات نقابة الذابح مسلم.