Asia
Premium Halal Standards Will Help Meet Stringent Food Safety Rules
By BERNAMA
Apr 30, 2007, 10:48

KUALA LUMPUR, April 26 (Bernama) -- Malaysia must produce premium quality halal products so as to be well-positioned to meet stringent food safety standards when negotiating free trade agreements.

Khairy Jamaluddin, the chairman of the World Halal Forum 2007, said when the Malaysia-United States FTA is in place, "they will rule out a lot of food products coming from this area that don't meet their standards."

As such, "we have to raise the quality of what is being produced as halal," he said during the Bernama Roundtable Discussion on the Halal Industry hosted by the national news agency here today at which he was a panelist.

"We don't want halal to be synonymous with very low grade but religiously compliant products.

"They must also be known for quality as this will attract the non-Muslim market," said Khairy during the discussion whose other panelists comprised Datuk Jamil Bidin, managing director and chief executive officer of Halal Industry Development Corporation (HDC), Badlisyah Abdul Ghani, executive director and chief executive officer of CIMB Islamic Bank Bhd, and Othman Md Yusoff, Nestle Malaysia Halal Committee chairman.

The discussion was moderated by Bernama editor-in-chief Yong Soo Heong along with Economic Service executive editor Salbiah Said and editor Mikhail Raj Abdullah.

Khairy was responding to suggestions that in future it will be possible to order halal food on all international flights, as opposed to the situation now where it is difficult to order halal meals on most flights and having to contend with vegetarian or kosher food.

"Complications arise when you ask for a Muslim halal meal and they don't have it (and) then they serve you the most awful vegetarian dish. I don't want a vegetarian dish, I don't want cornflower, broccoli curry or whatever.

"That's the difficulty we face. And there is now a skin of your teeth situation, because to a non-Muslim it's still beef or chicken but to the Muslims, it makes a world of difference to us. So this is exactly the sort of lifestyle changes that halal needs to market itself," he said.

Khairy said halal is not just for Muslims as it is about quality premium food. "If you can market halal as a premium item, then this issue won't arise."

He said standards in the halal food industry shouldn't be viewed as a "kampung" industry where the halal products out there are confined to a small shop in a corner in the United Kingdom.

"It should have the most stringent standards of the highest level and be marketable everywhere."

HDC's Jamil said that if the quality and standard of halal products can be taken to levels where they are accepted as premium products, "I am very sure people are more than willing to pay for it."

"If you can ensure the product's safety, that this will be our selling point to non-Muslim countries," he said.

CIMB Islamic's Badlisyah said that for Malaysia, having superior or more advanced halal standards can be a global benchmark similar to the high standards for American cars which are used as a global benchmark.

Nestle's Othman said that with increasing trade barriers, regulatory impediments and food safety standards, the need for a premium global standard is crucial.

"Otherwise, our exports will be confined to the small stores in Europe and won't be going to the big chain supermarkets," he added.


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