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Last Updated: Sep 25th, 2006 - 11:36:04 |
Halal Animal Feed: The Beginning of the Halal Process
The concept of halal is the only control methodology which takes into account the origin and composition of the animal feed to ensure the safety, quality and halal aspects of meat products. While this may be yet be the practice, a company in France has developed halal feed to ensure the entire supply chain, from farm to plate, is indeed halal and good for human consumption. Hayati Hayatudin tells how France is leading the way.
When it comes to food, Muslims must consume food that is slaughtered according to the Islamic law and it must be done in a clean and righteous manner. If you eat meat, you must also be concerned about what the animal was feeding on.
Today, based mostly on economic considerations, animals are fed all sorts of things that the average consumer would never imagine. This includes other animals, road-kills, blood, and other unsavoury substances. Then there are hormones and drugs which are used to help with the animal growth which comes with potential adverse effects on the health and the long term well-being of the consumers.
The concern for eating halal food must also extend to he concern for eating healthy food. This can only be achieved through raising consumer awareness on this subject. Many Muslims are not aware that the halal classification goes beyond merely monitoring the proper method of animal slaughter. In accordance with strict Islamic law and guidelines, a slaughtered animal is considered halal when its feed is also halal.
A feed ingredient is a component or any combination or mixture added to the animal feed. Feed ingredients might include grains, milling by products, added vitamins, minerals, fats or oils, and other nutritional and energy sources. Animal feeds provide a practical outlet for plant and animal by-products not suitable for human consumption.
The first step in providing halal animal feed is to ensure that the cattle, goats, sheep and poultry were not treated with growth hormones. The animals and poultry must be fed only with vegetarian feed, organic feed or Amish feed.
Although certified organic feeds consist of no animal derived ingredients, some organic feeds are made of fish meal and crab meal. Amish feed is made with vegetable-based ingredients but the problem with it is that there is no regulation and supervision.
Realising the importance for animal feed to be halal, the Idena Company in France has begun producing halal feed some two years ago. The concept is being developed in France but the company is working in more than 20 countries in hopes to develop the product to cover a wider market.
Idena Company Export and Halal Director Bahri Ouzariah said feed plays an important role in halal classification which many Muslims overlook.
“The feed must be from a vegetable source and must not have any meat content or any additives with animal gelatine such as pork-based material in it,” he said.
The halal premixes and halal feed formula developed by Idena are claimed to be economical and of the best quality as Idena targets to penetrate the global market allowing consumers to buy halal meat without doubts.
Bahri explained that the difference between halal and non-halal animal nutrition or feed is the knowledge of all the raw material and feed additives that goes into it.
“Years of analysis, selecting and qualifying materials that conform to Islam has been done in order to ensure Muslims get animals fed with halal feed,” he said, adding that the premixes produced by Idena are for poultry and ruminants.
France has not imposed any official requirement on manufacturers to produce halal feed and neither have other countries in the world.
“This is Idena’s requirement and as far as I know, we are the only company working on halal premixes and the only factory with a non-contamination guarantee which has been patented by the government of France.
“Our principles are simple – ingredients selected are according to our halal quality system which includes isolated storage and the non-contamination process,” Bahri said.
To ensure the halal feed gets recognition worldwide, Idena is working on a halal certification logo. It had recently visited the Islamic Development Department of Malaysia (JAKIM) to understand how Malaysia has implemented the halal certification and developed the logo used on products.
Idena partnerships with stakeholders in 20 countries in several forms: subsidiaries, jointly-owned companies, alliances, know-how transfer, collaboration contracts, etc.
”In this ever-changing world, our company aim is to innovate, develop new types of animal feed, improve technical and economic performances whilst caring for the environment, and generate quality feed products for each industry sector (feed manufacturers, the food industry, etc.),” Bahri said, adding that the current world animal feed tonnage is estimated at 500 million tonnes a year.
On the cost for halal feed, he explained that it would depend on the individual country’s raw material available but generally animal feed constitutes of corn and soya.
“Looking at the global world economy now, animal feed producers should be able to offer the halal feed at about the same cost as non-halal feed,” Bahri said.
Many countries do not think about halal nutrition for animal feed therefore their only preoccupation would be to give the best feed at low cost.
“Idena took on this project to give solutions and to make people aware about the requirements and definitions of “halal”,” Bahri said.
“As an animal nutritionist and as a Muslim, my duty is to make the best economical and technical results which meet the Islamic requirements,” he added.
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