MALAYSIA: Fatimah - Assurance of Halal status for all Sarawak Best products
By The Star Online published 10 months ago
Original Article Source: The Star Online
Consumers can rest assured that products with the Sarawak Best certificate, including layered-cakes, are Halal.
Minister in the Chief Minister’s Department Datin Fatimah Ab-dullah said that one of the criteria for Sarawak Best certification is the use of Halal ingredients.
“In fact, our criteria are quite similar to the Islamic Development Department’s (Jakim) requirements for Halal certification.
“It’s a very stringent process to be certified as Sarawak Best and we make sure that Halal ingredients are used,” she told a press conference at her office yesterday.
Fatimah was quelling concerns about the status of Sarawak layered-cakes following the declaration of Golden Churn Creamery butter as non-Halal.
She said that eight layered-cake entrepreneurs had been given the Sarawak Best certificate — Rabiah Amit Cake House, Afifi Kek Lapis, SA Enterprise, Mira Cake House, Di Wannie Cake, Mariam Cake House, D’rieza Enterprise and Siti Payung.
She added that it was important to restore public confidence in the layered-cake, which is one of the state’s signature products with annual sales of over RM6.5mil.
“If there are any doubts about the Halal status of layered-cakes, it will affect their business. We need to convince consumers that the butter used by our layered-cake manufacturers is not Golden Churn but other brands,” she said.
As such, Fatimah advised the layered-cake manufacturers to list their ingredients, including the type of butter used, for customers to see.
“They can also put up notices or explain through social media like Facebook and blogs that they don’t use Golden Churn,” she said.
At the same time, she urged the public to be fair to the layered-cake entrepreneurs.
“These are people who are trying to make an honest living and they are law-abiding. When the State Islamic Department (Jais) said Golden Churn was not Halal, those who were using it stopped immediately and carried out the samak (purification) process.
“But not many of them used it. They are doing their business with integrity,” she said.