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Muslims living in today's world often find themselves confused and
lost by the long list of ingredients printed on the back of food
packages. Where no Muslim have difficulty accepting the pork
meat as being Haraam, yet they may not often realize the food they
are eating may contain byproducts from pigs. Although these pages
are not "religious rulings" and are only intended as informational,
it might help those who try hard to stay within the guidelines of
Shariah.
There have been several positive developments in recent years
with respect to the marketing of the products that will help us
identifying a product as religiously suitable or not.
1. Ingredient Label Requirements: By far the most significant
development has been the laws and regulations regarding labeling the ingredients
of the products which will allow consumers know rather clearly a list of
ingredients a product contains. These laws and regulations have been drawn
mainly by safety concerns due to research and sometimes litigations and also
general trend toward living a healthier life.
2. Living Healthy (Better Informed Consumers): Recent development in
health and medicine, and countless research has indicated that the quality of
life depend to a large extent on the diet a person follows. what is known today
about the long term destructive effects of some food ingredients has direct
relationship to their marketing. For example, these days you need to look hard
to find animal fat oil (lard) on the shelves of a grocery store among tens of
vegetable oil products, a 180 degree reversal from 20-30 years ago.
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Related Pages:
List of 792 Consumer Food Products with their Halaal Status
Haraam Ingredients
Haraam Additives
Useful Links
Medicines
Health and Beauty
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3. Market Pressure: As consumers become better informed, they demand
the healthier products and shun away from the unhealthier ones. That by itself
has created many new alternatives to traditional food ingredients. Today, it is
easy to recognize the words "Vegetable Oil" among the list of ingredients of
many products. Furthermore, there seems to be a rush to substitute healthier
vegetable oils for the traditional ones. In fact most companies print their toll
free numbers on their packages and encourage their customers to ask questions
about their products.
4. Information Technology Advances (Internet/Satellite/TV/Radio/Print
Media etc.): Technological developments in the past couple of decades has
opened a huge opportunity for getting the right information about food and food
ingredients. Today there are countless health and food programs on TV and Radio
with programs dedicated to healthful living. World Wide Web had opened a
Pandora's box that any consumer can search billions of pieces of information all
around the world to find out most accurate information about food and food
ingredients.
5. Change in Demographics (Role of Immigrants and Religious Minorities):
In United States, the presence of new immigrants has brought about huge changes
in the market. Latinos now comprise a significant part of the population and in
some major metropolitan cities becoming the official majority in those cities.
These days, it is hard to not to find a Mexican type restaurant or food store
even in small towns. Islam has been the most rapid growing religion in the U.S.
While many groups do not have much restriction on the food, Jews and Muslims who
want to adhere to the guidelines of their religion find the market much more
restricted. Jews, for many years have had the Kosher food available to them at
many grocery stores as well as their own small shops that are dedicated to
selling Kosher food. Their long presence in this country has had a direct
impact on such availability. Muslims on the other hand had largely tried
to stay away from getting involved in the general market and have consistently
relied on small local shops. This is obviously working fine in large
metropolitan areas such as Detroit that presence of thousands of Muslims and
strong Muslim communities has led to hundred of shops and restaurants being
available throughout the area. But is is a different scenario in smaller towns
and communities. Obviously, the conditions have much improved and now we have
several nationally recognized Halaal product companies throughout the U.S. with
distribution capabilities across the land.
What Can We Do to Improve the Situation
Most traditional Muslim families try to find the solutions by going to a shop
that claims to sell the Halaal food, often run by immigrant Muslims themselves.
They often buy products, that may not even pass a simple health and safety
inspection, for the fact that they are claimed to be Halaal. There has
been several new companies that have recently opened to act as certifiers of
Halaal products. Yet there remains a major need to get large companies involved
in marketing the Halaal products and bringing a market pressure to the food
companies to avoid the ingredients which are Haraam in their products.
Here is some suggestions, some do not even take 5 minutes of your time:
1. Talk to Store Managers: ask whether they have Halaal food.
The more people who ask, the more chances that the store acts upon the requests.
many store managers report market feedback to the companies where in most cases
it is acted upon. Some store managers can also order the products themselves.
2. Call Companies: Most companies have toll free numbers printed on
their product boxes. Call them and ask whether the ingredients in their products
is animal based or not or whether they have products that can be certified
Halaal. Do not worry if they do not know what Halaal is, just explain in simple
terms. You do not need to bring the issue of Zabeeha when you are asking
whether the MONO Di GLYCERIDE they are using in their breads is animal or
vegetable based. Remember, companies act upon the consumer feedback more often
that what you think.
3. Educate Yourself and Share the Information: Learn what ingredients
have animal base and try to find products that don't contain them or have their
vegetable type in them. Share your finding with others and let create an
informed and active consumer base. Search Internet, and if you find
appropriate information, let us know to share with others on our Web site.
Disclaimer: The information found on these pages are not religious rulings and
are intended only as educational material.
