KUALA LUMPUR: There should be a dedicated syariah-governing department within all companies producing halal products and services.
This is to ensure a continuous enforcement and avoid losses suffered by the companies when there are irregularities found in halal standards of their products, an Islamic scholar said.
“This will also ensure that there is a common mechanism practised by these producers to ensure that the processes and ingredients are halal, instead of just being on their toes when the authorities check on them,” International Islamic University Malaysia’s department of Fiqh and Usual al-Fiqh associate professor Dr Azman Mohd Noor said.
He also called for more transparent procedures before the authority declares irregularities in halal status of products and services.
A test on the irregularities must be carried out in more than one lab and handled by more than one team.
This will help avoid discrepancies in fatwa issued by religious authorities, both locally and overseas.
“This will also help ensure there are no irregularities when an announcement is made. The question of inspection process flow when handled with doubt will affect industry players and the halal industry,” he said when met on the sidelines of the World Halal Forum 2012 here yesterday.
Azman was one of the panelists at a session on “Halal and Tayyib – Interacting with leading Islamic Scholars” at the forum.
There have been a few products that were declared non-halal due to the finding of swine DNA by the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (Jakim) lately.
As of June 2010, there were six Halal Malaysian Standards published by Standards Malaysia.
