RI TO BECOME GLOBAL HALAL CENTER, IS IT POSSIBLE?

        Azizah (45), owner of a low-budget food stall, starts her day as usual. Together with her seven helpers, she gets into the routine work of preparing her merchandise: chopping vegetables or meat that go into various dishes, frying noodles or fish, pouring carrot and potato soup into bowls and putting them all on display on the shelves of a shop window of sorts.

        As the day wears on, people come to the stall locally known as 'warung tegal', choose from the food on offer, sit down to have breakfast on lunch and go again. Everything proceeds normally and, in fact, Azisah rarely hears a complaint from her customers, but supposing one of her customers all of sudden wants to know whether all her food was halal, Azizah would most probably have answered: "honestly, I don't know or am not sure."

What is halal?

   In predominantly Muslim Indonesia, the religious obligation of Muslims to only consume halal food  is an  issue of vital importance. Indonesian Muslims must constantly make sure the food and drinks they consume is halal.

        What is halal? For those who do not yet know, the Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America (IFANCA) says halal is an Arabic word  meaning lawful or permitted.

        The opposite of halal is haram meaning unlawful or prohibited. Halal and haram are universal terms that apply to all aspects of life.

        However, in this article, these terms are only used in relation to food products, meat products, cosmetics, personal care products, pharmaceuticals, food ingredients, and food content materials.

        All food is considered halal except: swine or pork and its by-products, animals that are improperly slaughtered or dead before slaughtering, alcoholic drinks, carnivorous animals, birds of prey and certain other animals, and foods contaminated with any of the above products.

     
Global halal standards

   The Indonesian Ulema Council's Food, Drug and Cosmetics Research Institute (LPPOM MUI) recently held an international workshop on halal products.

        The workshop themed "Indonesia's Role in Strengthening Global Halal" was attended by delegates from many countries around the globe including the United States, Belgium, New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Poland, Italy, Spain, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Turkey, and Taiwan.

        The countries were all  members of the World Halal Food Council which consists of 24 halal certification bodies.

        At  the meeting it  was agreed that Indonesia had the potential of becoming the world's halal center as the country met the needed criteria such as a large Muslim population and a government  supportive of the idea.

        The workshop's participants also approved a proposal to recognize the contents of a book titled "Requirements of Halal Certification"  published by LPPOM MUI as global halal certification standards.

        But Indonesian Deputy Agriculture Minister  Bayu Krishnamukti said on the occasion that in Indonesia consuming only halal food was not solely linked to a religious rule but also to economic considerations.

        "When we talk about halal in Indonesia, we talk about balance. Indonesian people want their food and drinks to be safe to be consumed but at the same time, we also need  to encourage the growth of business and industry in  support of the national economy,"  Krisnamukti said at the international workshop which took place in in Jakarta last January 16.

        The Indonesian economy  has long been running on the strength of  small businesses the majority of which is not aware of the definitions of halal and haram as outlined in the LPPOM MUI book.

        But the government and LPPOM MUI are expected to  be tactful enough and not ban small  businesses merely because of their ignorance of official  halal and haram rules.

 
Small business people's ignorance

   Efforts to secure the health and faith of Muslims are doubtlessly something positive. But it seems LPPOM MUI has overlooked  small businesses in its efforts to disseminate  information on how to process halal food and also on the official list of  halal ingredients.

        People running small businesses such as Azizah barely know about the definition of halal food although  LPPOM MUI already published an Indonesian Halal Directory in 2011.

        "To my knowledge, halal is all food that does not  contain pork. And that is all, I am not aware that certain ways of processing  food can also  make food not halal," said Azizah.

        Azizah hopes the government can give her and small business people like her and those working for her  more knowledge about  halal certification matters.