Raise halal awareness among non-Muslims

HALAL food manufacturers can capture the non-Muslim market by increasing awareness on halal certification and helping consumers get to know the authorities which vest these certifications, a speaker at the 11th Asean Food Conference yesterday said.

Citing a recent study conducted to determine the demographics of Muslim and non-Muslim consumers who purchase halal-certified products in shopping complexes in Kota Kinabalu, Adilah Mohd Ramli, a lecturer at Universiti Malaysia Sabah, said that although more Muslim consumers are purchasing more halal-certified products due to religious requirements, there are still opportunities for food manufacturers to further capture the non-Muslim market by increasing the information available on halal certification in the public domain.

Adilah, who conducted the study with her students across four major shopping complexes in the city, polled about 400 people to compare their knowledge about halal foods and get an overview of awareness levels on the recognition of authorities responsible for overseeing halal certification.

Her team found a significant relationship between Muslim respondents, their perception of halal and buying tendencies, but these were not apparent with non-Muslim respondents. The study stated that about 72 per cent of Muslim respondents have a strong tendency towards buying food products bearing halal logos, where about 40 per cent of this group would spend over RM$400 ($164.4) monthly on halal-certified products.

Non-Muslims on average spend less that RM$100 on halal products.

Asked on the significance of the halal logo to non-Muslims, Adilah said, "(halal-certified food) can be consumed by non-Muslims too because the procedures and processes that halal foods go through to ensure quality and safety are on the same level as other international standards such as HACCP" or the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point, food safety standards.

"We're not saying that whatever is halal-certified is equivalent to HACCP-certified products, but ideally speaking, that is what halal is supposed to be, on the same level as HACCP standards," she said.

"Halal is going global, and many manufacturers are not only targeting the Muslims, but also the non-Muslims. I think we're getting there. More and more countries are accepting halal stamps as a token of quality standards equivalent to internationally accepted ones such as HACCP," she added.

Malaysia's Department of Islamic Development, established the country's national halal certification and halal logo in line with a standard formulated as "MS 1500:2004", where if a company or an establishment wants to be certified with Malaysian Halal Certification, they would need to fulfil the MS 1500:2004 as well as the MS 1480 (Food Safety According to the HACCP System) and the MS 1514 (General Principles on Food Hygiene).

"The halal certification and halal logo can be suggested as a recognisable logo equivalent to HACCP and ISO 9000. However results showed that more effort has to be carried out by the relevant authorities to increase consumer awareness, particularly with the non-Muslims," Adilah said.

The Brunei Times