World Halal Council:

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• World Halal Council
• Keeping up with Global Developments
• By Atty. Hj. Abdul Rahman R. T. Linzag
• Secretary-General, World Halal Council
• President/CEO, Islamic Dawah Council of the
  Philippines

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I. What is the World Halal Council

• The World Halal Council (WHC) is a World Body
  being a federation of halal certifying bodies
  worldwide after gaining international and global
  acceptance to their halal certification and
  accreditation processes.
• The World Halal Council was established in
  Jakarta in 1999 in order to standardize the halal
  certification and accreditation process among
  member organizations representing the different
  countries and nationalities worldwide.

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• Originally, this organization was organized by
  few countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, United
  States, South Africa, Australia and Belgium. The
  first president of the council was Prof. Dra.
  Aisjah Girindra of the LPPOMUI of Indonesia and
  the first Secretary-General was Br. Hj. Fahim
  Abdullah of Malaysia, then followed by Dr, Ali
  Chawk of Australia then followed by Dr. Mohd.,
  Sadek of IFANCA USA and finally, yours truly as
  President of the IDCP was formally elected last
  November 2007 after the ratification and adoption
  of the present Charter of the World Halal Council.

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• The WHC was first registered in Jakarta,
  Indonesia and again registered as a World Body in
  Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In fact, it took the
  WHC nine (9) years to be able to formulate,
  ratify and adopt the charter of the WHC. The
  By-Laws was finally approved in the year 2005 in
  Cape Town, South Africa. . As it is, the WHC is
  the only reliable source of information for a
  genuine world halal standard and that its members
  are expected not merely to observe the world
  standard approved by the General Assembly of the
  WHC but also to enforce the same within their
  jurisdiction.

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II. Brief Background of Halal Certification

• Halal Certification started in the West in the
  mid 60 in the United States by Muslim food and
  technical experts. It did not actually start in
  the Muslim countries but it came as a necessity
  for Muslims living in non-Muslim society such as
  the United States, Europe and in some parts of
  Asia and the Pacific. This practical safety
  measure of Muslims living in non-Muslim societies
  to preserve their Muslim identity and fulfill
  their religious obligation became a useful tool
  to guarantee that the products produced in
  non-Muslim countries are acceptable to the Muslim
  world.

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• When globalization became a direction of the
  world trading system which removed the barriers
  from one country and another, there was no more
  safety device that can prevent the importing
  country from accepting products from the other
  for quite some time.
• It was observed that the Jewish people which are
  fewer in numbers than the Muslims are enforcing
  their religious requirements on products to be
  acceptable to them through their certification
  and accreditation called the kosher. So
  Muslims in the United States started to follow
  the precedent established by the Jews in the U.S.
  so the establishment of the halal logo, although
  different from what we have now to those that are
  considered halal.

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III. Halal Logo as a Marketing Advantage

• The halal logo has therefore become a
  marketing advantage for the products marketed to
  the Muslim world and among Muslim communities,
  including the Jewish communities.
• Since Halal Certification is already in place in
  some advance Muslim societies living in the West
  importing countries like Saudi Arabia, Malaysia,
  Indonesia, Brunei and others can only rely on
  those certifications made by the accepted
  credible certifying bodies that were already in
  place during those times until the passage and
  inclusion of halal into the United Nations Codex
  Alimentarius in the year 1998 or thereabouts.
  But even during those times, most Muslim
  countries such as Saudi Arabia and the Gulf
  States and others were merely focused on meat
  products as an important product to be certified
  as halal for the reason that the meat halal
  slaughtering is made mandatory to all Muslims by
  the Holy Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet.

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IV. Halal Certification on Food Products

• As a matter of fact, even today, in some Muslim
  communities among the Arab countries, halal logo
  to them is important only on meat products. This
  of course, was due to their limited
  understanding of the modern technology in the
  manufacture of food products. But the use of
  internet, text messages and the Friday sermons in
  various mosques everywhere have given the Muslims
  consciousness of what they should observe. This
  misunderstanding was changed when some countries
  like Saudi Arabia, U.A.E., Turkey, etc., attended
  the WHC meetings.

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• With the enforcement of globalization as a method
  now acceptable among all countries in the world
  for trade and business practices, Muslim
  countries have started to be concerned on
  processed foods, cosmetics and other personal
  care products hence, the necessity of halal
  certification of all processed foods. As a
  matter of fact, in some countries in Asia like
  Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei, halal
  certification on drinking water is already a
  requirement because there are always critical
  issues on every product which have to be
  addressed by a credible body

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V. Halal Certification on Non-Food Products,
animal feeds, Personal care, cosmetics,
Packaging materials, Logistic and the like

• Halal Certification did not stop on the food
  products. It is also important in non-food
  products including personal care, utensils,
  fashion and clothings, shoes and the like and
  lately halal certification is now made mandatory
  to animal and poultry feeds, packaging materials
  such as tin cans, drums, plastic bottles and the
  like which are in contact with the halal quality
  products. This is because the halal quality
  products has to be safeguarded from contamination
  and the principal contaminant of the product
  other than the raw materials and ingredients, if
  any, would be the packaging materials which come
  in contact with it even the storage facilities,
  delivery vans and the like.

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VI. Halal Certification is now considered a
Certification for quality

• These are actually the reasons why halal
  certified products have now become a product of
  high quality. There is no doubt that it would
  entail additional cost. Certainly, because
  quality has its own premium and every one,
  especially Muslims deserve the premium processing
  of all that we take as food or use for our
  existence which means quality system being
  enforced by qualified halal certifying body. And
  this is the reason why the general consumers in
  the West, Europe and America and now in many
  countries in Asia and Africa are patronizing
  halal certified products regardless of their
  religious beliefs, cultures or traditions,
  thereby making halal certified products as a
  product of quality, not limited only to Muslims
  but to all consumers worldwide

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IDCP as a Halal Certifying Authority in the
Philippines

• Our very own IDCP became a member of the WHC in
  the year 2000, after its processes, procedure and
  qualification gained in a global stand.
• Although IDCP started as a Dawah national
  Islamic Body being registered in 1982 as a
  religious organization, with its welfare,
  scholarship, Radio and publication programs
  nationwide, it started its Halal Certification
  function in 1987. On July 9, 2003, the Supreme
  Court issued a judicial Ruling (decree) that IDCP
  is the official Halal Certifying body to
  determine products that are acceptable to Muslims
  everywhere.

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• It is also the only certifying body in the
  Philippines which is accepted to authenticate
  products for the Arab world, U.A.E., K.S.A.,
  Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and the only member
  of the World Halal Council (WHC).
• For this reason, our country is now accepted as
  one of the Halal Producing countries in the world

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VII. Market Updates

• The halal requirement was originally thought to
  be only for Muslims but in reality the Jews are
  also patronizing halal products because they are
  also prohibited to consume products which
  Muslims are also prohibited. Therefore, the
  general population of the world regardless of
  their religious belief especially by people who
  are conscious of their health, or are therefore
  having dietary programs to maintain good health
  would prefer halal certified products to those
  which are not.,
• The Dubai exhibits estimates halal market to be
  US3.2. Trillion dollars annually whereas,
  Malaysian experience also estimates on the
  Malaysia target to be between 500 600 million
  of U.S. dollars annually.

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• This is because, in reality, halal certification
  did not stop only on food and non-food products,
  but it also includes services such as logistics,
  hotels, restaurants and many others.
  Unfortunately, despite this abundance of
  opportunities for halal products, most of us in
  this country, think of halal business in terms of
  halal certification, instead of the production of
  halal raw material and ingredients which could
  be accepted globally. As a result, we may have
  many Halal certifiers than the Halal certifiable
  products.
• It is hoped that various departments of our
  government could really look into the production
  of halal products and raw materials such as halal
  certifiable animals like goats, sheeps, cow,
  buffalo and others rather than piggery and other
  non-certifiable products because members of the
  WHC are always consulted as to where to get
  abundant supply of halal raw materials such as
  halal gelatin, medicine, feeds and the like. In
  fact, we are the one importing these products and
  raw materials for the processing of our products
  instead of us producing them.

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• For your information, there are Halal Food
  Exhibits in many countries held almost every
  month. For instance, in Indonesia, it is
  scheduled on July 2 4, 2008, in Brunei August
  16 17, China it is scheduled on August 21 24,
  in Malaysia for Halal Science in October 28
  29, followed by another Indonesia Halal Summit in
  October 29 31, in Bangkok, Thailand on November
  19 23, in Abu Dhabi on November 11 13, in
  Dubai on November 25 26, 2008 and many others.

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• Thank you for giving the WHC this opportunity
  to join you in this forum and in behalf of the
  officers and members of the WHC and patrons, we
  congratulate the organizers and participants of
  this forum which somehow contribute to the
  further development and acceptability of halal
  certified products.