11 May IS HALAL MEAT SERVED AT RESTAURANTS REALLY HALAL?
By: Khaola Cherrak
Major British restaurants and fast-food chains are selling meat they label as Halal which leading Muslim scholars say it does not meet strict religious rules.
According to the Muslim Council of Britain, meat that has not been slaughtered in the Islamic way should not be sold as Halal. Nando’s, KFC and Subway are only a few from many shops and restaurants in London that claim to serve Halal meat, but upon research on their websites you will find that in their ingredient’s page it states that the meat served are stunned prior to slaughter.
As any other religious group, there are set of rules and laws that Muslims need to follow in their everyday life. Muslims need to keep their diet “Halal”. Halal means permitted or lawful, they need to make sure that the meat and chicken they consume is Halal. There is an estimate of 2.71 million Muslims across England and Wales alone and the majority follow the strict Sharia diet. The EU has a set of rules for slaughter and stunning and this is to ensure that the animals are treated with minimal pain. “EU legislation on the killing of animals aims to minimise the pain and suffering of animals through the use of properly approved stunning methods, based on scientific knowledge and practical experience. It applies for farmed animals.”
There are various practices of stunning meat used here in the UK, some common examples are – The Captive Bolt Pistol, Electric head-only stunning, Water bath stunning and Gas stunning. According to Mufti Muhammad ibn Adam- Leicester, UK “Stunning the animal before it is actually slaughtered is a common practice in many western countries. It is claimed to be more comforting and causing less pain to the animal. Pre-slaughter stunning was originally introduced to protect abattoir personnel, rather than the animals themselves. The idea was to immobilize the animal to facilitate killing procedures. However, the principle of stunning has now evolved to encompass the idea that animals should be rendered unconscious before they are slaughtered.”
In order to legally carry out slaughter in the UK, a person would have to be a Muslim or follow the Jewish religion and meet other requirements. “You must stun all animals before you slaughter them unless an animal is being religiously slaughtered for Halal or Kosher meat. You must meet all of the following requirements for Halal and Kosher religious slaughter: It must take place in a slaughterhouse (abattoir) approved by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) it must be done by someone who has a certificate of competence (CoC). The slaughter must be done in a way that follows Jewish or Islamic religious practice. The meat must be intended for consumption by Jews or Muslims.”
Mufti Muhammad ibn Adam- Leicester, UK- outlines the Islamic Ruling on stunned meat. “Animal experts claim that it does not cause the animal to die; rather it only causes it to lose its consciousness, thus not feel the pain of the slaughter. This, however, cannot be said for certain, as many a time the animal does perish as a direct result of the stun. Especially with chicken, it is very likely that the animal dies as a result of the electric shock. Some experts are of the view that the stunned animal remains alive only for a few minutes, after which it dies. As a result, no such ruling can be given for certain.”
The Muslim population is expanding in the UK and the EU legislation makes it clear that slaughtering for religious reasons is acceptable to perform, yet there are many restaurants and shop in the UK that don’t give enough information about the Halal meat they serve for the customers to choose whether they want to consume the meat. It is only if you explore their website you will notice that the meat and chicken they serve is stunned prior to slaughter and this clearly goes against the teachings of Islam.
There are three well-known restaurants that have the Halal signs and don’t follow the strict Halal regulations. Recently there have been many posts going around social media warning people to avoid KFC, Nando’s and Subway because they don’t serve Halal meat. Yet nothing has been done about this problem to solve it and make a clear cut as to what they provide and whether the slaughtering of their meat and chicken comply with the rules and regulations the Islamic teaching – Sharia law.
On KFC’s website they say that all their chicken is Halal and it is stunned before slaughter. “Are your Halal chickens stunned before slaughter? – Yes, all of our Halal chicken is stunned before slaughter. As with all of our chicken, slaughter is humane.” “At KFC we listen to our customers to help us to evolve our menu and the choices we offer. For some time, we have received requests to provide Halal food in parts of the UK and as a result of this, we are running a Halal trial within communities where we anticipate a strong demand for Halal products.”
Nandos also have a section on their website that clearly states how Halal they believe the meat is. “Our Halal chicken are supplied to us by the Islamic institute of Jurisprudence and are one of the UK’s leading suppliers of Halal chicken. We are committed to the highest standards and therefore the quality, welfare and health of our chicken is a priority. We ensure that Cargill Freemans of Newent follow the strict Red Tractor Farm Assurance Standards. All our chickens are indoor-reared. They are pre-stunned which minimises suffering and fear. The method used is a high frequency stun- this means the chickens is still alive, but unconscious when it is hand slaughtered and blessed by licensed Muslim slaughter men. Their slaughter process is overseen by Mr. Ali Bham who has been a practicing Muslim Slaughter man for over 20 years.”
Subway is third well – known restaurant that many posts have been going around social media warning people to avoid eating their meat and chicken. Unlike the other two restaurants, Subway doesn’t have a clear page that states their meat is halal or if it is stunned prior to slaughter. But there are many websites and articles that have quotes on the way Subway slaughter their meat. A petition on Change.Org had a quote from Subway saying that they do produce Halal meat. “All our suppliers comply with EU animal welfare legislation as a minimum and we require suppliers of Halal products to adopt the stunning of animals prior to their slaughter. All Halal meats are certified by the appropriate Halal authorities.”
These three well known restaurants are only a few from many more that don’t follow the Islamic teachings when slaughtering their animals. I recently contacted the companies questioning the halal meat they serve and I haven’t received any replies yet.
In the UK, there are regulators and organisations that help ensure all Muslims are confident when they consume Halal meat. Halal Monitoring Committee is one example of an organisation that provides restaurants and shops with certificates that confirms to the public that the meat that is served is 100% Halal and that it follows the rules and regulations of the Islamic law. “HMC was established to help ensure that all Muslims could be confident that the meat and products they consume are ‘genuinely Halal’. The HMC organisation is an independent, not for profit, registered charity, which monitors, inspects and certifies Halal products for the benefit of the Muslim community. Today, HMC is the most trusted organisation in the UK with the support of over 600 Mosques due to the rigid processes in place to ensure transparency of Halal products. Our high standards of Halal can be reflected by the repeated number of checks in place from the slaughterhouse to the outlets. Nadeem Adam of HMC says, HMC has one main aim, we want all Muslims to be confident and be assured, that the meat they eating is genuinely Halal. It is one of the most important tenants of our Faith without which our actions and our prayers are at risk and said to remain unanswered”
Halal Monitoring Committee, Halal Food Authority and Halal are only three from many organisations in the UK that monitor Halal meat and chicken. Under the Sharia law certain steps must take place to ensure that the meat is Halal. As shown in the table HMC is very strict with following the Islamic law unlike Halal where they don’t do any regular checks that means that the meat they serve is not 100% halal.
Sadiya is only one from many people that have been affected by this problem. She is a young Muslim female living in London, she says that she was a regular customer to those restaurants. She only found about the stunning meat through a post that was circulating social media, “This wasn’t expected at all- I only found about this when other Muslims kept advising me not to eat at a few restaurants because of what they provide. I still am a regular customer but I only choose the vegetarian option and totally avoid meat and anything similar” Sadiya then added that it’s not nice what these restaurants are doing, misleading its customers. They should make it clear and leave it up to their customers to decide whether they would like to consume something that is stunned prior to slaughter.
