ABSTRACT
As discussed earlier, there are ca. 1.3 billion Muslims in the world (Chaudry, 2002). Southeast Asia has 250 million Muslim halal consumers. Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and many other countries have government mandates to import halal-certified products only. Recently, other countries in the region, such as Thailand and the Philippines, have initiated regulations to encourage both the export and import of halal products. In these countries, halal is considered as a symbol of quality and wholesomeness not only by Muslims but also by non-Muslims. The halal program was started in Malaysia during the early 1980s with the passage of the Halal/Haram Act and formulation of a high government level halal/haram committee. Under Malaysian regulations, meat and nonmeat food products have to be certified halal by a recognized halal authority. The Malaysian Department of Islamic Affairs has created two lists of approved entities for dealing with meat and poultry products exported to Malaysian from each country that wishes to export to Malaysia: (1) approved Islamic organizations, and (2) approved meat and poultry slaughterhouses or abattoirs.
