According to the State of the Global Islamic Economy Report 2018/2019, the global Muslim spent US$2.1 trillion across the lifestyle sectors in 2017. In particularly, the food and beverage sector leads this category at US$1.3 trillion. With an average increase in food & beverage expenditure of 6.1%, the figure is forecasted to reach US$1.9 trillion by 2023.[1]
The potential of halal food businesses in Singapore is also clearly visible by the surge in the number of halal-certified establishments, from 533 establishments in 2000 to approximately 3,103 establishments in 2018.
With the hype about the industry, we often get questions like “should we turn halal?” or “halal sounds so complicated, is it hard for us to turn halal.” Let us discuss what are some of the common questions on halal matters.
[1]https://www.salaamgateway.com/en/story/Report_State_of_the_Global_Islamic_Economy_201819-SALAAM06092018061914/
here.
What exactly is Halal?
Halal means permitted, allowed, lawful or legal in Arabic.
In relation to food or drink it means that the food or drink is lawful, permitted or allowed for Muslims.
The opposite of Halal is Haram. It means prohibited, not allowed, unlawful, illegal.
Mashbooh/ Syubhah is an Arabic word which means suspicious or doubtful, if you can not decide if a food item is halal or haram then it is mashbooh.
By removing pork and alcohol from my menu, does that mean that I can turn Halal now?
Removing pork and alcohol from the menu is the first step towards turning Halal. Beyond that, you as the restaurant operator have to ensure there is no further traces of other impurities or by-products of pork and alcohol before getting the authorised Halal body (MUIS) to assess and certify. There are also other key criteria to be fulfilled before an establishment can be Halal certified.
Other points to take note while preparing your establishment for halal certification:
- Credible source of supplies; Delivery; Storage etc.
- It’s important to work with reputable Halal suppliers. For other imported products, it is ideal to get products that are certified respectively by their local authorities and be recognised by your local authorities.
- You may want to have a back-up supplier in the case of niche product. For example, we have recently encountered a newly opened café who was not able to sell their “hero product” just because SFA has prohibited the sale of the supplier’s Halal Duck meat.
- In Singapore context: You need to have Muslim employees to be part of your Halal team before your application.
- In Singapore context: You need to attend the Halal Training (and you might want to plan ahead as the slots are often taken up fast).
I have plans to expand my halal restaurant overseas. Is the halal certification process similar in other countries?
In many occasions when we travel for business, we have heard from overseas restaurant operators sharing how tough and expensive it is to engage professional service for halal conversion. Their consultant described the process as tedious and it is just not worth it to turn halal despite of the lucrative tourism market receipts.
However, if you have plans to develop a halal restaurant in Muslim minority countries such as Korea, Japan and China, the internal process is very much similar but it is less stringent as compared to Singapore context. Many of these restaurants term themselves as Muslim-friendly restaurant by serving halal food, but some of them continue to serve alcohol in their premises. Therefore, it is definitely not as tough and strict as compared to Singapore’s regulation and requirement.
Let us know what you think about the Halal industry, and if you have any other questions that you would like us to answer, drop us a note and we will share in our future posts!