Halal Guidelines
Rule of Thumb
In Islam, everything is permitted (Halal) to consume except "ABCD IS" which are prohibited (Haram). These are:
- A: Alcohol and drugs
- B: Blood (Flowing or congealed)
- C: Carnivorous animals and birds of prey
- D: Dead animals / birds (that died itself or died before slaughter.)
- I: Immolated food (sacrificed in the name other than that of Allah.)
- S: Swine and its by-products.
Quick Guide: Haram/Avoid Bacon Beer Pork Gin Gammon Steaks Rum Rashers Scotch Lard Vodka Animal Fat Whiskey Animal Shortening Wine Mashbooh / Doubtful (Source unknown) Hydrolyzed Animal Proteins Sausages Shortening Margarine Fat
Critical Materials
Critical materials are food substances and ingredients that are likely to be Haram unless checked and proven otherwise. Critical materials include:
- Meat: Meat of Halal animals (permitted for Muslims to eat their meat) could become Haram if the animal is not slaughtered according to Islamic law.
- Animal Derivatives: Animal derivatives are Halal if they are derived from Halal animals slaughtered according to Islamic law, not derived from blood and not contaminated with Haram and impure materials. The following are examples of animal derivatives (that are critical):
- Fat
- Protein
- Gelatine
- Collagen
- Fatty Acid and its derivatives (E430 - E436)
- Salts or esters of fatty acid (E470-E495)
- Glycerol/glycerin (422)
- Amino acid (e.g. cysteine, phenylalanine, etc.)
- Edible bone phosphate (E521)
- Blood plasma
- Globulin concentrate
- Fibrinogen
- Microbe growth media (example : blood agar)
- Hormone (example : insulin)
- Enzyme from pig/cow pancreas (amylase, lipase, pepsin, tripsin)
- Taurine
- Placenta
- Milk products and their derivatives and their by products which are processed by enzyme (e.g. cheese, whey, lactose, caseine/caseinate)
- Several vitamins (e.g. A, B6, D, E)
- Activated Carbon
- Vegetable Products:
Materials derived from vegetable are basically Halal but if processed with additives and/or processing aids that are non-Halal, they become non-Halal. Therefore it is necessary to know the production process, the additives and the processing aids used in the making of vegetable products. Following are examples of vegetable materials that might have critical points:
- Wheat flour could be enriched by vitamins, among them B1, B2 and pholate acid.
- Oleoresin (Chili, spices, etc) may contain emulsifiers (e.g. polysorbate & glycerol monoleat that might be derived from animals.)
- Soybean lecithin could be produced by using phospholipase in the production process to improve its function.
- Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein (HVP) could be produced by using enzyme in hydrolysis process.
- By products of alcoholic drink industry and their derivatives:
By products of alcoholic drink industry and their derivatives are Haram if they are only physically separated from the product but if they are chemically reacted to be a new compound they become Halal. Example of by products of alcoholic drink industry and their derivatives are:
- Cognac oil (by product of cognac/brandy distillation.)
- Fusel oil (by product of distilled beverages and their derivatives, such as isoamyl alcohol, isobutyl alcohol and propyl alcohol, acetaldehyde,
- Brewer yeast (by-product of beer industry.)
- Tartaric acid (by product of wine industry.)
- Microbial Product:
Status of microbial product could be Haram if it belongs to the following categories:
- Alcoholic drinks and their by products.
- Microbial products grown on media containing Haram materials such as blood, peptone from Haram source or produced by using enzyme from Haram source.
- Microbial products produced by using Haram additives or processing aids in their production such as antifoams derived from lard, glycerol or other similar substances.
- Microbial recombinants genes derived from Haram materials. Examples areas follows:
- a-amilase enzymes and protease resulting from Saccharomyces cereviceae recombinants with genes from animal tissues.
- ii. Insulin hormones resulting from E-coli recombinants and genes from pig pancreas tissues.
- iii. Human growth hormones resulting from E-coli recombinants.
- Other Derivatives
- Aspartame (made of amino acid fenilalanin and aspartic acid)
- Natural colourings
- Flavours
- Seasonings
- Vitamin coatings
- Emulsifiers and stabilizers
- Antifoams
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Why Get a Halal Cert?
