‘Halal’ with guarantee seal

From butcher shops to pharmaceutical companies, hotels and fish farms or restaurants. Companies that want to attract the Muslim public have increased in Spain and in Canary Islands. No wonder, it is estimated that this religious community will exceed 2,000 million parishioners in 2030 and will already represent 26% of the world’s population. A business opportunity in which Sharia comes into play, the Islamic rule that dictates what is allowed and healthy to consume in terms of food, hygiene, cosmetics and even leisure. For companies, it is key to obtain a certification that guarantees that the products and services they offer are in line with this lifestyle, especially when the objective is to export to countries where their monitoring is the majority.

This seal is called ‘halal guarantee’, and across the country right now there are 465 companies registered with it, 47% more than in 2016, when there were c 244. A large part, 104, are in Catalonia, which is the community with largest number of Muslim population. In the Islands, the firms that own it have gone from three to five in the last seven years, according to the Halal Institute, which is one of the main certification entities. These five give work straight to 168 canaries and the majority are related to the food sector, producing emulsified fats, dairy products, gelatins or fish, although one that escapes the rule.

Nektium Pharma, based on Gran Canaria, is specialized in the manufacturing, design and development of plant extracts, ingredients that pharmaceutical companies use in the production of nutraceutical supplements, such as vitamin C, collagen or omega-3. “We have had the certificate for 15 years,” emphasizes the director of the Quality and Regulatory department, Beatriz Ercilla. She assures that, although it began as a religious protection, it has now become a technical component that guarantees product quality and compliance with legal regulations. An auditor from the Islamic Board is in charge of supervising and controlling that everything is in order for the renewal of the title. Furthermore, she emphasizes that it is required by the multinationals they supply to, since many market in Indonesia or the United Arab Emirates.

But what does halal mean? It is lawful in Arabic, the word used to designate what is permitted by Islamic law. On the other hand, to talk about what is prohibited or harmful, haram is used, which is the term coined for alcoholic beverages, pork or wild boar meat and their derivatives, as well as speculation, usury or betting on gambling. the game.

The director of Certification of the Halal Institute, Muhammad Escudero, indicates that there are different requirements to obtain the halal seal depending on the issue to be addressed. Regarding cosmetic or food products, they must comply with Islamic law, but also with the conditions of optimal health and integrity for consumption and with the workers who produce them having adequate training. Therefore, apart from being religious, it is an ethical and technical seal, emphasizes Muhammad, who gives the island company Aquanaria as an example. Through aquaculture, this firm raises sea bass, and is certified that the feed it feeds them does not contain traces of other animals, nor does it go against the lifestyle promoted by Sharia.

Thus, these foods have access to the market of 57 emerging Muslim-majority countries in North Africa and the Persian Gulf; as well as the four million consumers, among citizens and tourists, who follow the Koran in Spain, in addition to the 50 million who live in the rest of Europe, especially in France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Germany, according to the Halal in Figures report. The challenge now is to conquer the market of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which is made up of Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines, where products with ‘halal guarantee’ are booming.

‘Muslim friendly’ hotels

Another aspect is services, specifically those related to the tourism sector. And visitors who profess this religion, says the Certification Director, are concerned that they can enjoy the destination in accordance with their faith. To remedy this, the Halal Institute came up with the title Muslim friendly, with which hotels assure Muslim tourists that they have a prayer room, an arrow in the rooms pointing to Mecca, that they do not offer alcoholic beverages in the minibar, or that there is food halal in the buffet for each meal, in order to make the guest’s stay more comfortable.

Finally, the most important leg: the sacrifice of animals. Compared to the European method, where the future steak is killed with an electric shock after having been stunned to avoid agony, the halal technique is based on a cut in the throat without touching the spine. That, followed by exsanguination, due to the incision in the jugular vein and the carotid artery, without prior stunning, produces the perfect beef, bovine, lamb, ox, turkey or chicken product for Muslim consumption. “There are Spanish companies in which 30% of their turnover depends on halal exports, especially with the general decline in meat consumption that is being experienced here,” Escudero remarks.

This entire process that takes place in the slaughterhouses is protected by law, specifically, by the State’s cooperation agreement with the Islamic Commission of Spain, which reaffirms the right of believers in this religion to purchase halal products.

Fresh meat without prior shooting

«Of the 120 animals that are slaughtered per week at the Insular Slaughterhouse of Tenerife, 90 receive the halal treatment, it is a sample of what they like,” says José Hernández, an employee at the Halal Tenerife butcher shop, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. In the store they offer cookies and sweets imported from Morocco, mortadella and English sausages or Belgian sausages and turkeys, all with an Islamic seal. However, what is most successful is the local meat treated in the Muslim way, and not only among those who profess this religion, Hernández notes, since products free of pork – in all its forms – and alcohol attract consumers of all ages. dogmas.

In the Archipelago there are 80,171 Muslim people, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), 49,618 nationals and 30,553 foreigners – 18,345 of Moroccan origin – with a residence permit. It is the seventh autonomy with the highest number of residents after Catalonia, Andalusia, Madrid, Valencia or Murcia.

A large community in the Canary Islands lives in the town of Neighborhoodin the municipality of Santa Lucía de Tirajana. There, Moussa Ranei owns the Moussa butcher shop and delicatessen. “Halal slaughter is demanded by many secular and Christian people, not just Muslims,” ​​explains the administrator, who also has another store in The Gran Canarian palms, the Al-Ándalus butcher shop and delicatessen. It only sells “fresh” and “clean” local meat of blood and liquids, which attracts a large audience, says Ranei, who warns: “Whoever tries halal meat does not go back to the supermarket meat, its quality is superior.”