The Daily Mail has cited new figures from the Foods Standards Agency which show the number of sheep slaughtered in Britain without being stunned had doubled in six years, to more than three million. Perhaps surprisingly, according to Al Jazeera eight of the 10 largest suppliers of global halal meat are non-Muslim majority countries, with Brazil, Australia and India leading the way. Skip to header Skip to main content Skip to footer. Home News UK News. In Depth. Getty Images.
Best Halal restaurants in London Chinese authorities launch anti-halal campaign. Do the animals feel pain? How does it differ from Kosher practice? So how is halal meat regulated? How does this work in practice? Is halal meat more widespread than we think?
Getting to grips with. From engine-maker to electricity provider: Rolls-Royce as mini-nuke pioneer. In Focus. Like kosher food, Halal food is guided by religious criteria that govern everything from how the animals destined to be eaten are fed and raised, to how they are slaughtered and prepared for consumption.
According to the Muslims in Dietetics and Nutrition, a member group of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Halal food can never contain pork or pork products that includes gelatin and shortenings , or any alcohol. Animals must be fed vegetarian diets, which means that many chickens and cows raised on U. Halal animals must be slaughtered by a Muslim, who says a blessing, and by hand, not by machine which is the way many chickens in the U.
Only wild-caught fish are Halal certified by MCG standards. The U. Department of Agriculture, which serves as the reference for nutritional content of food, does not separate out Halal meat or kosher meat, for that matter from other meats for its nutritional information. During the process, a Muslim will recite a dedication, know as tasmiya or shahada. There is debate about elements of halal, such as whether stunning is allowed. Stunning cannot be used to kill an animal, according to the Halal Food Authority HFA , a non-profit organisation that monitors adherence to halal principles.
But it can be used if the animal survives and is then killed by halal methods, the HFA adds. Supermarkets selling halal products say they stun all animals before they are slaughtered.
Tesco says the only difference between the halal meat it sells and other meat is that it was blessed as it was killed. Stunning of livestock has been mandatory in the the EU since , although member states can grant exemptions for religious slaughter. Some countries, including Denmark, have opted to ban non-stunning slaughter altogether.
The UK government says it has no intention of banning religious slaughter. Kosher food complies with Jewish dietary law kashrut , again governing what can and cannot be eaten by those practising the faith. There are similarities in the method of slaughter in that both require use of a surgically sharp knife and specially-trained slaughtermen. Jewish law strictly forbids the use of stunning and meats are not blessed in the same way. Unlike for halal, kashrut does not require God's name to be said before every slaughter after an initial blessing.
Kashrut forbids the consumption of certain parts of the carcass, including the sciatic nerve and particular fats. Halal also forbids consumption of some carcass parts including the testicles and bladder. Currently, there is no requirement for halal or kosher meat to be specifically labelled. By ensuring food meets halal criteria, retailers and restaurants are making their products suitable for the UK's Muslim population.
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