The controversy over appropriate Halal slaughtering method surfaced again with a recent decision by Al-Safa Halal, a Canadian-based food producer, which recently changed its slaughter process for chickens without informing its consumers.
For many years, the company has been using the term “zabihah” on its packaging to describe the process it uses to slaughter meat. This term is understood by many Muslims to refer to a method, which employs hand slaughter by a Muslim.
The reference ”zabihah” has been finally removed from the packages of chicken products (Ed: since it uses machine slaughter as opposed to hand slaughter). However, some consumers, who had continued to buy the Al-Safa’s products, regret not being informed as soon as the slaughter process changed.
A petition has been circulating on the Internet to decry the lack of transparency on the part of the Al-Safa company and urge the supplier to switch back to hand-slaughter zabihah.
”Al-Safa should go back to the hand slaughter halal method out of courtesy for their customers who believe in hand slaughter as halal. They should be more transparent and honest with their halal customers regarding their slaughter policy,” said Abdullah Nana of Halal Advocates of America.
Indeed, mechanical slaughter is a controversial method, which is not accepted by all Muslims of all schools of thought. There are many prominent scholars who hold the view that machine slaughter does not meet many of the halal requirements, while hand slaughter is universally accepted by Muslims of all schools of thought.
”The requirements for a halal slaughter include intent to slaughter, use of a sharp object, severing a combination of the four vessels of the throat – esophagus, trachea, and two jugular veins – recitation of the name of God, and that the slaughterer be a Muslim or believing Jew or Christian.” explained Abdullah Nana.
Besides Al-Safa, Midamar, one of major suppliers of halal processed chicken products in America, also uses mechanical slaughter process for chickens. Crescent Chickens, Nema Halal and Carribean Crescent still proceed by hand slaughter.
U.K’s Muslims had recently faced a similar controversy over meat Kentucky Fried Chicken used that the company claimed to be halal. But an Islamic scholar said it did not meet the halal requirement. KFC insisted its methods met the approval of the Halal Food Authority, a private business.
By HAJER NAILI, ILLUME mag
Ed’s Note:
For the record, Al Safa Halal is certified by the Chicago-based Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America (IFANCA). A message was posted by IFANCA’s President Dr. Muhammad Chaudry on Al Safa Halal’s website which stated that “the company has met with IFANCA’s strict standards for Halal food processing and marketing” and that they “continuously monitor all of Al Safa Halal’s production facilities, procedures, product ingredients, storage facilities and shipping.”
The message went on to state that IFANCA is recognized as a certifying agency for Halal slaughter and Halal products by various government agencies and Halal certification authorities from around the world, including the USDA, Food Safety Inspection Service, World Muslim League, MUIS Singapore, MUI Indonesia as well as Malaysia’s JAKIM.
Watch HalalMedia TV’s Issues within Halal Slaughter playlist on YouTube.
Other External Resource: HMC UK’s List of Fatwa on Mechanical Slaughter
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