By Andy Sambidge – ArabianBusiness.com
Global Food Industries (GFI), part of the Albatha Group, will become the first company to display the new Halal Mark on its products, it was announced on Monday.
The Halal Mark is part of plans to regulate and develop the halal food industry in the UAE and is to set new standards for food producers in the country.
The company was awarded the Halal trophy and Halal certification by Emirates Authority for Standardization and Metrology (ESMA) during the Gulfood exhibition currently being held in Dubai.
Dr Rashid Ahmed Bin Fahad, Minister of Environment and Water and chairman of the Emirates Authority for Standardization and Metrology, said: “The launch of the national brand for Halal comes within the UAE system requirements for the control of halal products. The national brand of Halal adopted by the Commission is awarded to products conforming to the requirements of Emirati control system of halal products.”
GFI, established in 1992, is a frozen food manufacturing company based in Sharjah and its products are sold under the Al Areesh and Arctic Gold brands.
Ishaque Noor, Albatha Group’s managing director, said: “We are delighted to be the first company in the UAE for meeting all the necessary requirements that was needed to be Halal certified by ESMA.
“We source the finest Halal raw materials from across the world, process them at our state-of-the-art facilities and ship the finished goods across Middle East and African region.”
The halal certificate certifies that the product, service or their respective schemes are Sharia-compliant. This includes Halal slaughtering certificates, certificates of establishments, farms, abattoirs and facilities classified as halal, certificates of raw food materials, food additives, ingredients with meat derivatives, extracts, as well as animal parts, gelatine, fats, oils and their derivatives.
Last year, Dubai’s Economic Zones World (EZW) revealed plans to develop two Halal Zones, specifically designed to cater to the regional and international Halal Product markets.
EZW said it has allocated infrastructure-ready plots of land for Halal Zones in Jafza and TechnoPark. Jafza Halal Zone will be built on an area of over 850,000 sq m while TechnoPark Halal Zone will be spread over a plot of over 700,000 sq m.
The freezone added that it will also engage in a global marketing campaign for the Halal Zones.
