ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on female consumers' consumption practices in the open-air market places that make up Marrakech's food spaces in the medina. It explores in particular how, in the absence of halal labelling, domestic cooks as consumers negotiate what they consider licit, good or simply 'proper' food, and how their daily practices of selecting and processing food products speak to broader issues of standards in food production and consumption. While the halalness of food products was taken for granted in this Muslim majority context, the religious dimensions of food consumption were engaged with in much broader ethical terms in the everyday, ordinary context. The chapter explores how the resulting standards are indexed by defining the terms beldi and rumi, and explain how these are used in practice. Most urban consumers preferred to use the rumi version, which is industrially produced, often by transnational firms.
