The History
Halal Certification started for two reasons:
- Because the Muslims are of the minorities. To this situation, the Muslims need their food to be certified. We can see these phenomena in South African (Cape Town), Fiji, New Zealand and other parts in the world. The halal food can be seen in Muslim Restaurants and the halal meat can be subscribed from their own butcher.
- Because the Muslims are of simple majority like Malaysia or of a so-called majority like Indonesia, but food are scattered every where which need to be determined whether it is halal or non-halal.
Note: For countries where muslim are absolute majority like Arab countries in the Middle East or North Africa, halal certification is required only for meat or meat products. However, Products of meat free need not to certify or to be recognized as halal. For them the general foods in the market are already halal without duly halal tagging.
For these two categories of Muslim countries, the minority and the simple majority, halal certification had started in late70s or early 80s. Why? Because in those days, food as started coming from various countries such as USA, Europe, China and any where in the world. These food or fast food contained meat or animal derivatives that need to be certified. Before 70s or 80s, no such food had come to Muslim countries like Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia. Therefore, certification was not seen as very important.
Late 70s or early 80s
As the result of such a demand for halal certification, there exist a few certification bodies in USA, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, China, Taiwan and so on. They are: Islamic Foods and Nutrition Council of America (IFANCA), Islamic Services of America (ISA) and Halal Food Council International (HFCI) in USA. We see Australian Federation Of Islamic Council (AFIC), Federation Of Islamic Association Of New Zealand (FIANZ), Islamic Development Department Of Malaysia (JAKIM), Islamic Religious Council Of Singapore (MUIS), Ulama Council Of Indonesia (MUI), Central Islamic Committee Of Thailand (CICT) and many others in the region. Other bodies exist in France, Germany, United Kingdom, Netherlands and everywhere in the world.
Early 90s and early millennium
In the early 90s and early millennium, the number of halal certification bodies has increased double. This is due to the demand for halal certification especially in countries that need to export products to Muslim countries such as China, USA, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. It is no surprise if halal certifications bodies increase from time to time in countries like China, because China is a very big country. Therefore, other international certification bodies are interested to operate in China such as Halal Food Council International (HFCI). There is no law in any country to restrict certification body to the locals only, as the discretion to choose is in the hand of customers.
As more certification bodies all over the world come into existent from time to time, they are subject to recognition or rejection. Certificate issued by some minor certification bodies may be rejected by other countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.
