MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

New worldwide Halal certification scheme for the food industry

“Essential to create a worldwide Halal standard to gain the confidence of the Muslim communities”

Cert ID Europe, the leading certification business has joined forces with the Hijaz Group to form the Halal Authority Board (HAB) www.haboard.com, which will offer a new worldwide benchmark for Halal certification for the food industry.

The new HAB certification scheme is a realistic and practical program designed to combine the requirements of the 1500 year old Halal belief with modern food processing requirements. To date there have been a number of different standards available causing confusion among Muslim consumers about the food they purchase. It is hoped that a worldwide uniform standard will make the process more streamlined for food businesses and clearer for consumers.

HAB’s product certification has the backing of 950 of the UK’s 1400 Mosques making it the most representative and influential Halal Certification Body with Muslim consumers in the UK and overseas. Halal Authority Board has a Shariah Board comprising 13 of the UK’s best known and respected Islamic Scholars who represent a wide cross section of the Muslim Community.

Jerry Houseago, Business Development Director at Cert ID Europe, which has many years’ experience of auditing to Halal Standards said:

“Finding a Halal certification scheme that is a realistic and practical benchmark has proved challenging to auditors, standard owners and food manufacturers alike. We believe that the new HAB Worldwide Halal Standard is a workable Shariah compliant standard which will make it significantly easier for the global food industry to reach Halal certification. Halal Authority Board’s connection with Muslim consumers adds value to the certification scheme too and provides the element that has been missing from other certification programmes”.

Shaykh Siddiqi, Founder of the Hijaz Group said: “It was essential to create a worldwide Halal standard to gain the confidence of the Muslim communities both in the UK and worldwide.

“This new proposition offers businesses the opportunity to capitalise on the Halal market via a consistent quality standard which will allow the highest quality Halal products, which are also competitively priced, to Muslim consumers.” (Meat Trade News, Daily)