Halal Meat

By: Carol Sanders - Yusuf Abdulrehman displays a selection of halal meat at his store on Maryland Street.

Chickens from a local Hutterite colony. Beef burgers from Carman. Quails from Quebec. Jell-O from Egypt.

It’s all halal and for sale at Manitoba’s first grocery store catering to Muslims.

When Yusuf Abdulrehman rented a Maryland Street corner store 22 years ago, he discovered a growing, untapped market.

“I realized a need for halal,” said the owner of Halal Meat Centre and Specialty Foods.

Earlier this week, the Manitoba government released a market study urging producers in the province to take the bull by the horns and go after the halal and kosher meat market.

The word “halal” means lawful or permitted. In the Islamic faith, pork products, processed foods containing pork-based pepsin and rennet, Jell-O containing animal-derived gelatin, and goods baked with lard are all forbidden.

At first, Abdulrehman’s halal section was limited. “We had some chicken, a bit of hotdogs and bologna. Today, everything is halal.”

On Wednesday, the shop was packed floor to ceiling with halal groceries and front to back with shoppers preparing to break their fast on the first day of Ramadan.

In Canada, the total halal meat market is estimated at $214 million a year and the kosher market at $130 million, according to the market study. But fresh meat for the observant Jew or Muslim isn’t readily available, said Jeff Fidyk, business development specialist with Manitoba Agriculture Food and Rural Initiatives.

Selling fresh halal meat requires a hands-on approach for the Winnipeg store owner.

“You make sure your knife is sharp,” Abdulrehman said. The idea is to quickly sever the animal’s arteries so it loses consciousness right away and its suffering is limited. “The longer you take, the more painful it is.”

The Muslim performing the slaughter is required to say a prayer to Allah.

Abdulrehman gets his meat from an abattoir in Carman and a Hutterite colony, where he has taken part in the slaughter of 1,500 chickens in three hours at Waldner meats.

“At first, it was kind of hard.”

For years, Muslim families in Winnipeg have travelled to farms and abattoirs outside the city to slaughter their own halal lamb or a goat, the store owner said.

Others can’t afford that and will buy inexpensive cans of halal corned beef or lamb imported from Australia.

Frozen and canned kosher meats are shipped here from Central Canada and as far away as Uruguay and New Zealand, Fidyk said.

Manitoba should be shipping rather than receiving kosher and halal meat, he said.

“We have the potential to do that here,” Fidyk said. “There is an opportunity for import replacements.”

It’s not that simple to export meat, said the founder of Keystone Processors. An abattoir needs federal certification to export meat out of province, said Kelly Penner, president of the Marion Street company. The budding Manitoba processor initially sold halal beef. It had a representative of a halal organization take part in the slaughter at a plant in Carman, but the Manitoba market alone isn’t big enough to make it worthwhile, Penner said.

“We do believe it’s a great market here in Winnipeg and throughout North America, but we need a federally-inspected plant to make it viable,” Penner said.

Abdulrehman has seen, first-hand, a large-scale halal meat operation in southern Ontario. At the Maple Lodge processing plant, a machine does the cutting, but there are two Muslim representatives on either side of the line praying as the chickens are killed, said Abdulrehman, who sells Maple Lodge cold cuts.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

By Odette Yousef - Hassan started selling naturally-raised halal meats through his website less than a year ago. (WBEZ/Odette Yousef)

Muslims in the Chicago area are finding it tough to be both observant and health-conscious when it comes to meat. They need to find meat that is “halal,” which means it was slaughtered according to Islamic ritual, but they also want it to have been raised naturally. As a growing number of concerned Muslims try to find some options, one entrepreneur has stepped in to fill the void.

It is a wide, and untapped market for Qaid Hassan and his young business, Whole Earth Meats. Early one July morning, Hassan was leaving his southside apartment before dawn to head to a slaughterhouse. He needed to stock up his butcher shop, which sells naturally-raised halal meats online.

All the animals that Hassan kills come from local farmers that he knows personally. That’s how he’s certain the beef has been grass-fed, the chickens are cage-free, and the animals have not been given hormones. But it’s his job to make sure the slaughter is according to Islamic law.

In a brick warehouse in Eureka, IL, Hassan’s animals are waiting for him. He’s planning to kill several lamb and goat. He’s the first to use the kill floor this day.

HASSAN: You have to be the first on the kill floor before it gets too dirty and before any hogs are brought in. It kind of ensures that the knives and things like that are sanitized and halal.

Islam forbids the consumption of pork, so it’s important to avoid any potential contamination of the meat that Hassan has come to kill.

First, he checks his knife to see if it needs sharpening. Hassan pulls out a 12-inch-long machete with a white plastic handle.

HASSAN: It’s ideal for slaughtering a lamb, adult sheep, goat. Even a steer would be fine with this one. So you’re able to pull right across the animal’s throat.

Hassan’s method of slaughter is different from the norm because he kills the animals while they’re still fully conscious, as required by Islam. But he had to get a special exemption to do it that way. State and federal law normally require that animals be unconscious when they’re killed.

The first animal Hassan slaughters is a black lamb. He lays it flat on its side, singing a prayer as he calms it.

HASSAN: I want to be just below the jaw here and to go right through.
 
He holds the animal down, knife in his right hand.

HASSAN: Pull it across just like that. So… Bismilla… Allahu akhbar.

With that prayer, Hassan makes one even pull of the knife across the lamb’s throat.

A few feet away half a dozen workers at the slaughterhouse skin the animals. Then they’re hung from the ceiling and rolled into a giant cooler adjoining this room.

Hassan is essentially a one-man operation. He kills the meat himself, drops it off to processing plants to get it cut and cured, then delivers it to the doors of people who’ve ordered through his website.

Hassan believes Muslims have been too focused on how the animals are killed. He wants to remind them that how the animals lived is just as important in Islam. He uses a word called “tayyib,” which means “wholesome.”

HASSAN: Tayyib is really what Muslims should be eating. You’re putting something inside of you that benefits your soul and your body. Tayyib also means that we might have to pay a little bit more for our food.

The price differential is significant. One pound of beef sirloin roast and two pounds of ground chicken from Hassan will put you out $34.75. That’s compared to roughly $10 for the same order at an average halal meat market on Devon Avenue.

The expense is why most halal butchers don’t carry many naturally-raised meats. Faris Shadid and his family own a butcher shop in north suburban Niles.

SHADID: I know grass-fed is a healthier beef and the natural way that a cow’s supposed to live and that whole deal. But as far as being able to just walk in and find some, instead of having to buy thousands of pounds of it, it’s just a little tough for me right now.

Shadid says that once the demand for naturally-raised halal meats is higher, he will be able to justify keeping more in stock. But he says it will take some time before demand reaches that point.

That presents a sort of catch-22 for consumers like Yvonne Maffei. Maffei buys her meats from Shadid about three times a week. She says ordering that frequently from Hassan would be too expensive. Also, she’d rather see it first in her local butcher shop.

MAFFEI: If it was a large-scale effort where these companies could source out to our local meat stores, then the shipping would be more energy-saving. It would be more cost-effective.

Hassan says he knows his prices, and the idea of ordering through a website, might deter people. But he’s already won around 40 regular customers; more than he expected only 8 months into his operation. Eventually, he wants to open a bricks-and-mortar butcher shop. But first, he says there’s a lot of education and outreach to do, to remind Muslims that “halal” should not only focus on how the animal died, but on how it lived.

The purchasing power of American Muslims is valued at $170 billion US dollars with $20 billion US dollars of that estimated to be spent on food alone. Still Halal consumers in the USA, remain shockingly under-served. Rising to meet their needs, Med-Diet, Inc. of Minnesota, has launched HalalHealthy.com, a week from the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. It is the first ever national, mainstream company to create a division catering solely to Halal consumers’ needs. Infact, Med Diet and HalalHealthy.com are one of the first mainstream US companies meeting the needs of Muslims in America.

“Globally, the halal market is worth US $2.1 trillion and growing at US $500 billion annually. At Med-Diet, we’ve consistently sought to fulfill niche needs in under-served markets, whether it’s by providing high quality, good tasting and convenient foods to people with medical needs or those with religious requirements,” said Don Tymchuck, President of Med-Diet and HalalHealthy.com.

HalalHealthy.com is a ground-breaking concept: it offers halal certified products that can be purchased with a single click. HalalHealthy.com’s range extends from naturally halal products such as dates to 100 % halal certified high protein instant beverages, granola bars and ready-to-eat halal dinners.

HalalHealthy.com will only carry products that are halal certified or halal. The States of Illinois, New Jersey, Minnesota, California, Michigan and Texas have passed Halal Food Bills to protect halal consumers from the fraudulent usage of the term halal. Enforcement is another story. “There is an undeniable need for certifications from independent halal certifying agencies such as IFANCA,” says Mr. Tymchuck. “Consumers can view the certificates at anytime on our website.”

HalalHealthy.com caters to both consumers and the food service sector. Its products are available in bulk for universities, hospitals and organizations interested in serving halal, shelf-stable foods, and as individual purchases for the average Hussain, Syed or Mahmoud family.  “We are very interested in learning of halal products in need of a distribution channel.”

Med-Diet has surveyed 800 plus students from over 80 colleges. Don Tymchuck has also surveyed college administrators to examine the challenges to having halal meals served at campus cafeteria’s. He has personally met with them to discuss ways towards making this a reality.

Med-Diet’s current clients, for its other lines of products, include the likes of the mega corporation Sysco, the global leader in selling, marketing and distributing food products to restaurants, healthcare and educational facilities, Northwestern University, the Maggiano restaurant chain, Hilton Hotels, Omni Hotels and more.  Halal Healthy and IFANCA were the first ever panelists at the 2010 National Restaurant Association Show to speak on Halal.

“Muslim students on campus, or halal consumers who live away from metro’s such as New York, LA or Chicago, don’t always have access to halal meals or halal stores,” says Mr. Tymchuck. “HalalHealthy.com wants to make sure keeping halal is only a click away. And we know parents, with kids living on campus, are concerned. Especially during Ramadan. Now anyone can have a nourishing Ramadan Care Pack delivered to their door,” he added. A seven day supply of halal goodies is available in three cuisines: South Asian, Middle Eastern and Mediterranean/African.

KIM WILLSHER

PARIS: Few things define the traditional good life in France better than champagne and foie gras but few would have thought them symbols of social integration – until now.

A boom in sales of halal goods, including alcohol-free bubbly and goose liver pate approved by Islamic law, is being driven by the emergence of an affluent middle class of young Muslims.

Known as the beurgeois – a play on bourgeois and the word beur, slang for a French person of North African descent – these new consumers are behind a rapidly expanding and highly profitable market in halal food and drinks.

With spending power worth an estimated €5.5 billion ($7.9 billion) a year, according to the pollster Solis, these under-40s are forcing international food suppliers to cater for their demands.

Yanis Bouarbi, 33, an information technology specialist who set up the website paris-hallal.com, which lists restaurants in France that serve halal food, says young Muslims are at the heart of a mini-social revolution. ”When our parents and grandparents came to France they did mostly manual work and the priority was having enough to feed the family,” said Mr Bouarbi, who arrived from Algeria at the age of three.

”But second- or third-generation people like me have studied, have good jobs and money and want to go out and profit from French culture without compromising our religious beliefs.

”We don’t just want cheap kebabs, we want Japanese, Thai, French food. We want to be like the rest of you.”

The demand for halal products, increasing by an estimated 15 per cent a year, has captured the attention of food giants such as the supermarket group Casino, which has stocked a growing variety of halal foods – mostly meat products – for three years.

The fast-food chain Quick has a number of halal-only burger bars. Muslim corner shops selling exclusively halal foods and drinks, including eggs, turkey-bacon, pork-free sausages and alcohol-free ”champagne”, labelled as Cham’Alal, are also flourishing.

Halal foie gras, introduced to supermarket chains two years ago at the end of the Muslim feast of Ramadan, has proved an unexpected success. ”It’s one of our best sellers. We have around 30 foie gras bought a day,” Cyril Malinet, manager of a Carrefour supermarket, told Liberation, the French daily.

Annick Fettani, head of Bienfaits de France, which specialises in halal duck, said: ”Until now we’ve had to fight to sell our foie gras but today everyone wants it.”

In Paris’s trendy 11th arrondissement, Les Enfants Terribles, run by brothers Kamel and Sosiane Saidi, serves halal French haute cuisine. ”Before, Muslims wishing to eat halal would go to a restaurant and it was fish or nothing. Now we have a choice,” said Sosiane, 28, who set up the restaurant three years ago.

”Young Muslims have money and want to eat out like everyone else but according to their religion. The food doesn’t taste any different. We have many French customers who don’t even know we’re totally halal. To us, that is what integration is about.”

Guardian News & Media