Is It Halal In Australia?

Does halal certification fund terrorism?

2016-04-15T11:04:00.001+10:00

I have received lot of comments on my last post "Where does the money from Halal certification go?". There are lot of people out there who still believe that the money is used to fund terrorism.

I was really surprised to know that the Halal certification of products exported from Australia results in reducing the manufacturing cost and the consumer in Australia pay less for these products. Since the market is huge the products are manufactured in bulk which results in less manufacturing cost.

Please have a read to the following by abc news, to find out what exactly is happening.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-14/fact-check-does-halal-certification-fund-terrorism/6383238

The claim: One Nation founder Pauline Hanson says that halal certification is a $3 trillion industry that funds Islamic organisations and terrorism.

The verdict: Ms Hanson's estimate of a $3 trillion industry conflates the value of the global food market with the value of the halal certification market. While the proceeds of halal certification do fund Islamic organisations, Fact Check could find no evidence money has ever flowed to terrorist groups. Ms Hanson's claim doesn't check out.

Where does the money from Halal certification go?

2015-07-02T10:00:00.002+10:00

Every now and then someone posts a comment on the blog that they'll not use the halal certified product because the funds are used to support terrorist activities. Please have a read to the following, maybe this will help people to find the answer.

How are the funds from halal certification used?

The service fees paid to Halal Australia for halal certification and accreditation are used to maintain the normal costs of running a registered business in Australia. These include overhead costs such as utilities, rent, inventory and supplies, and employee salaries, as well as income taxes paid to the Australian government. Inspection fees also include auditing services, which are undertaken to maintain quality control of the premises and products and which cover standard expenses such as service, transportation and travel time.

Halal Australia is proud to be an Australian business and in accordance with the Australian Government’s values statement has always undertaken to respect the values of Australian society and obey its laws. Halal certification profits DO NOT go towards supporting any terrorist activities or violent politically motivated religious organisations. Nor do we have anything to do with any organisation or group anywhere in the world that incites violence and are not aligned with our values of freedom, egalitarianism, equality of opportunity, and mutual respect and tolerance.

The pure and unaltered teachings of Islam as well as the tradition of our Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) encourage a harmonious and peaceful way of life and forbid injustice or aggression against any living creature, whether animal or human being. Instead, we are taught to have respect for all - regardless of religious beliefs, race, or ethnicity.

Answering Anti-Halal Rumours

The Ostelin Supplement

2015-06-30T12:31:00.001+10:00

The list is available on the following website

http://ostelin.com.au/?s=halal&submit=Search

Cadbury Chocolate

2015-06-30T12:15:00.002+10:00

Cadbury Australia has published a list of their Halal products on their website. Use the following link to access the list

https://www.cadbury.com.au/Products/Halal-Products.aspx

Borg's Pastries

2013-12-12T12:36:00.000+11:00

Since the reply I received from Borg's has a copyright statement, I will not publish the reply and the Halal Certificate received with it. However, I'll list down the products plus their contact information.

Borg’s Pastizzis

Cocktail Spinach & Ricotta

Feta

Greek Spinach & Feta

Mediterranean Oven Roasted

Vegetables

Ricotta

Spinach & Ricotta

Borg’s Rolls and Twisters

Mini Filo Cheese Twisters

Mini Filo Spinach Rolls

Spinach & Ricotta Gourmet Rolls

Borg’s Puff Pastry

Butter Sheets

Canola Sheets

Country Style

Country Style Shortcrust Sheets

Extra Flaky Sheets

Fillo Pastry

Organic Sheets

Plain Block

Plain Sheets

Reduced Fat Sheets

Shortcrust Sheets

Borg’s Triangles

Feta

Ricotta

Spinach & Ricotta

Trio Cheese

Vegetarian

The Halal certificate was issues by "Halal Certification Authority Australia" and is valid till 31st of December 2013. I'll contact them in January to get the latest one.

Following is their contact details, in case people want to contact them for further queries.

Borgcraft Pty. Ltd. 31-33 Slough Road Altona Vic 3018

* P.O. Box 263, Altona Victoria 3018, Australia

( Tel:+61(03) 9398-6241 Fax:+61(03) 9315-9647

e* :sales@borgcraft.com.au

MasterFoods

2013-04-22T13:34:00.000+10:00

Thank you for contacting Mars Food.

Please find a list of our Halal Certified products attached as per your
request.

We hope this information is useful to you and thank you for your interest
in our products.

Yours faithfully

GLENN CARRUTHERS
Consumer Services

(See attached file: HALAL ACCREDITATION Issue 1, 2012.pdf)

Sara Lee

2013-04-22T13:03:00.000+10:00

There are number of Certified Halal products from Sara Lee. The list is available on here

Nestle (Vegetarian)

2012-07-25T09:05:00.000+10:00

Bear in mind that a product classified as Veggie but having alcohol in it violates the Halal regulations.

Hi Adeel,

Thank you for your contact requesting information on our range of products.

Click here to view our list of products (as at the date listed at the top of the list) that have been granted Halal status by the Islamic Co-ordinating Council of Victoria Inc or the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils Inc. Please note that the information is correct at the date of issue however, due to constant changes and upgrades we make to our products, the information is subject to change at any time. Our ALLEN'S Lollies are not Halal certified due to the environment in which they are manufactured. However, depending on your individual requirements some products may be suitable for you:

The gelatine used in most our ALLEN'S products is halal (with the exception of WONKA Nerds Rope - pork is used).
There are flavours in many of our products and as you may know, some contain alcohol as part of their carrier system - many of our ALLEN'S soft jelly lollies such as ALLEN'S Snakes Alive and ALLEN'S Frogs Alive may contain trace amounts of alcohol in the final product as this is not totally lost during the manufacturing process.
Our harder ALLEN'S lollies such as Minties, Kool Mints, Lifesavers and Lollipops do not contain alcohol. The exception to this is Kool Fruits, which may contain some alcohol in the flavour used in the coating.
Our medicated products such as Soothers, Anticol and Butter-Menthol do not contain alcohol.

If you're interested, click here to view a list of our vegetarian suitable products. The products listed here are suitable for a Lacto-Ovo Vegetarian (some products may contain egg, dairy or honey). Products on this list that are manufactured on equipment processing products containing animal derived ingredients will be specified.

Please note that this information is correct at the date of issue and may be subject to change. Please always check the product ingredient list on labels before consuming a product to ensure this product is suitable for you.

If we can be of further assistance to you please call us on 1800 025 361during business hours or email us at Service.Consumer@au.nestle.com

Vaseline

2012-07-17T16:10:00.000+10:00

According to their website:

Customer Service Response:

Dear Adeel,

Thank you for contacting Veseline.

I can confirm that our Vaseline range doesn't contain any animal-derived ingredient (except the hand and nail conditioning cream which contains keratin derived from sheeps wool).

The glycerin, stearic acid and other ingredients (apart from Keratin in the hand & nail cream) we use in our Vaseline products are from non animal-derived sources.

There is a mistake in the website that will be corrected, we apologise for any confusion.

We appreciate you taking the time to contact us.

Yours sincerely

Amy Birrell
Consumer Relations Consultant
http://www.unilever.com.au/

Nestle

2012-07-13T11:14:00.001+10:00

Bear in mind that a product classified as Veggie but having alcohol in it violates the Halal regulations.

Hi Adeel,

Thank you for your contact requesting information on our range of products.

The gelatine used in most our ALLEN'S products is halal (with the exception of WONKA Nerds Rope - pork is used).
There are flavours in many of our products and as you may know, some contain alcohol as part of their carrier system - many of our ALLEN'S soft jelly lollies such as ALLEN'S Snakes Alive and ALLEN'S Frogs Alive may contain trace amounts of alcohol in the final product as this is not totally lost during the manufacturing process.
Our harder ALLEN'S lollies such as Minties, Kool Mints, Lifesavers and Lollipops do not contain alcohol. The exception to this is Kool Fruits, which may contain some alcohol in the flavour used in the coating.
Our medicated products such as Soothers, Anticol and Butter-Menthol do not contain alcohol.

If we can be of further assistance to you please call us on 1800 025 361during business hours or email us at Service.Consumer@au.nestle.com

Arnott's

2012-07-11T15:43:00.000+10:00

According to their website:

Consumer Service Response:

Dear Adeel,

Thank you for your email to Arnott's Biscuits.

Unfortunately we are unable to provide listings of our biscuits for a special diet, all ingredients are listed on packaging, including "may contain traces".

To answer your query about alcohol, small amounts of alcohol based flavours (like vanilla essence) are added to some sweet biscuits. We know alcohol is sensitive to heat and we believe the alcohol is evaporated during baking, but there is a slight possibility that trace amounts could still be present in the finished product. Also, the gelatine we use in our biscuits is derived from beef.

We trust you will find this information helpful.

Kind Regards,

Dragica Nikolic
Consumer Contact Centre
24 George Street | North Strathfield | NSW | 2137 | Australia

Kraft Foods

2012-07-10T11:09:00.000+10:00

Dear Mr Bin Khalid,

Thank you for your prompt response.

The following cheese products manufactured by Kraft have been certified Halal.

• Philadelphia Cream Cheese Block (all varieties)
• Philadelphia Spreadable (60%,80% less fat & Extra Light)
• Philadelphia Light Spreadable Flavours (Chive & Onion, Garlic & Herb & Smoked Salmon)
• Philadelphia Swett Chilli Pourover
• Grated Parmesan
• Cheese Wedges
• Cheestik (Regular & Light)
• Fridgestiks
• Cheesy Pops
• Cheddar Block
• Easy Cheese Cream Cheese Spread (Regular & Light)
• Easy Cheese Cheddar Cheese Spread (Regular & Light)
• Singles (Regular, Light & Free, Light & Tasty)
• Kraft Sandwich Slices
• Cheddar Slices
• Toblerone Chocolate
• Oreo Cookies
• Chips Ahoy Cookies
• Peanut Butter Smooth and Crunchy
• Vegemite
• Easy Mac Cheese

Thank you for your contact and if we can be of any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact our Consumer Relations team on freecall 1800 033 275.

Yours sincerely,
KRAFT FOODS LIMITED

Daniel Hui
Consumer Relations Advisor

Palmolive Naturals Bar Soap

2012-07-09T16:37:00.000+10:00

In another email I asked her about the source of Glycerine used in their products, specially Palmolive Naturals Bar Soaps, and following is her response:

Dear Adeel

Thank you for your reply email.

As previously advised, Colgate-Palmolive Personal Care & Hair Care products will vary with regards to animal content. We therefore encourage our consumers to refer to the ingredient list which is displayed on all our Personal Care & Hair Care products as ingredients may vary from time to time. The glycerine currently used in Palmolive Naturals Bar Soap distributed by Colgate-Palmolive Australia is sourced from vegetable.

Yours Sincerely

Niki Lindsay

Senior Consumer Affairs Consultant
Colgate-Palmolive

Colgate Palmolive

2012-07-09T15:50:00.000+10:00

Dear Adeel

Thank you for contacting us with your question. We appreciate your interest in our company and its products.

Products distributed by Colgate-Palmolive in Australia & New Zealand will not be Halal or Kosher certified. There is one Colgate Toothpaste however which does display Halal certification. This is Colgate Fresh Confidence Gel Toothpaste.

All Colgate Toothpaste distributed by Colgate-Palmolive Australia is free from animal and alcohol content and many of the mouth rinses will also be free from animal and alcohol content. The exceptions regarding alcohol content in mouthwash are the Plax varieties which contain ethanol, Peroxyl Oral Cleanser, Neutrafluor 900 , Neutrafluor 220 (excepting Neutrafluor 220 Alcohol-Free) and Savacol Mint & Fresh Mint.

Colgate Toothbrushes and Floss do not contain ingredients derived from animal. The deleted product, Colgate Wisp Mini-Brush, was the only exception.

Colgate-Palmolive Personal Care & Hair Care products will vary with regards to animal content. There is usually no need for drinking alcohol/ethanol to be included as an ingredient in these products. We therefore encourage our consumers to refer to the ingredient list which is displayed on all our Personal Care & Hair Care products as ingredients may vary from time to time. Ingredients derived from animal will include; milk/lactose, honey, gelatin, silk & keratin.

Thank you for your contact. We hope this information has been helpful.

Yours Sincerely

Niki Lindsay

Senior Consumer Affairs Consultant
Colgate-Palmolive

Finally....

2012-07-09T15:24:00.000+10:00

Is it Halal? This is the first question comes to our mind whenever we come across a new product or a new restaurant. In case of a restaurant, it is easy to go in and ask but when it comes to a product, the search for the answer starts with the Halal symbol on the product labelling (which most of the cases is not there), second step is to go through all the ingredients and find out if it has some known non-halal (Haram) codes on it. And the worst part is when you go through 10s of codes and the last one doesn’t tell you the source of it.

I have been living in Australia for almost 3 years now and I came from the country, Pakistan, where there is no need to check the status because everything is Halal. It’s been a while since I have been searching for a website that has a list of Halal products but couldn’t find any. Last week I came across sister Lazeena’s blog (Is It Halal?) and decided that I have spent a lot of time in search for same kind of website and spent a lot of time thinking that should I bite the bullet and start gathering information on my own. Her blog gave me the final push I needed and now I have finally decided that I am going to contact different Australian companies and ask the same question which sister Lazeena asks, “YO, is this Halal or not?”

Have a read to her first post which pretty much explains the idea/concept behind this effort. One important thing to be noted is that I am not an Islamic scholar/Mufti and I am not going to declare any product Halal or Haram on this blog. I’ll post the response from the companies and I’ll let you be the judge of it.

If there is a product you want to know about, just send me an email and I’ll try to contact the company.

And Allah Ta’ala Knows Best.