Halal certification in Europe

The Muslim population in the UK is very diverse, thought the vast majority have roots in South Asia, particularly Pakistan, Bangladesh and India. The population has increased rapidly over the last decade; between 2004 and 2008 it was reported to have grown by more than 500,000 to around 2.4 million, a growth rate ten times faster than the rest of society.[10] The market for halal meat is also growing at a significant rate, with the Halal Food Authority (HFA), the major halal certifying body in the UK, estimating a 30% growth in 2006 alone. However, there is still a great deal of resistance to buying fresh halal meat at supermarkets and it has been estimated that around 70-80% of all halal meat in the UK is fake.[11] Although things are starting to change as supermarket sales increase, many Muslims still prefer to buy fresh meat from independent retailers, who are seen to offer trust in the face of growing concerns about the authenticity of the commercial forms of halal meat that have emerged alongside market growth.[12][13]

As the UK's oldest and largest certification body, the HFA has been at the centre of much of the recent debate and controversy created by market expansion. Set up in 1994 to regulate halal meat through the licensing of slaughterhouses, the HFA emerged just as halal was becoming an important aspect of Muslim identity in the UK.[14] Prior to this, many Muslims considered meat sold in mainstream retail outlets to be produced by people of the Book and therefore suitable for consumption.

France has the largest Muslim population in Europe. In 2000 official sources suggested that there were four million French Muslims, but more recently a figure of seven million has been put forward.[15] Most French Muslim's have links with the Maghreb in North Africa, though there are also large numbers from West Africa and Turkey.[16] The French market for halal meat has been growing steadily since the 1970s, but much like the UK market it has grown rapidly over the last decade as halal has become central to the religious and cultural identity of many young Muslims. Unlike the UK, however, where the vast majority of halal slaughter is performed with pre-stunning, in France most halal slaughter is performed with no stunning. Notwithstanding these differences, the problems that have emerged as the halal market has expanded are very similar; market growth is currently estimated to stand at around 15% annually, with the market valued at between 3 and 5 billion euros.[17] Research participants suggested that calls for better certification have also intensified during this period, and much like the UK this trend is reflected in the marketing strategies of French supermarket and fast food chains.

French market is huge and hard to define and there is a widespread feeling that it is in a mess. Consumers are increasingly warned about unlabelled halal meat and there have been rumours that as much as 90% of commercial halal meat is fake.[18] Certification is sometimes presented as the solution to these problems, but it has been estimated that there may be as many as 50 separate halal labels and certification schemes operating across France.

Germany has a population of more than 82 million, of whom approximately 4% are Muslim of Turkish origin. Although things are starting to change, the German halal meat market is still in its infancy compared to the UK and French markets. Debate about the authenticity of commercial forms of halal meat has only recently intensified as consumer concerns about animal welfare have forced the Aldi and Lidl supermarket chains to think through the implications of selling halal meat.[19] Consequently, as an executive from Germany's major certification body — the Halal Quality Control (HQC) www.hqc.eu and European Halal Certification Institute (EHZ) — pointed out, because German consumers are not overly concerned about the expansion of the halal market at the present time, debate about the merits of pre-stunned and non-stunned meat has not emerged to the same extent as it has done elsewhere.

While the German market remains underdeveloped compared to the UK and French markets, it is starting to get more attention from international producers and certification agencies. The German Federation of Turkish Wholesalers and Retailers recently claimed that German companies would be well advised to embrace the halal market,[19] while the Malaysian National News Agency Bernama has also drawn attention to the potential the German market offers Malaysian producers.[20] How long it takes for the market to grow as it has done elsewhere depends, it appears, on the take up of these opportunities by halal entrepreneurs and on the ongoing attempt to foster halal standardization.[21]

The majority of Norway's 72,000 Muslims live in the capital city Oslo; most are of Pakistani origin, though immigration from Somalia has recently increased.[22] Animal welfare standards in Norway are widely regarded as the highest in the world;[23] unlike the EU, where the derogation of EU legislation for the protection of animals at the time of killing allows minority groups to practice stunning without slaughter in line with their own cultural traditions, under Norwegian law it is a requirement that all animals are stunned prior to slaughter. While the Jewish population still import kosher meat to bypass this stringent regulation, collaboration between the Muslim community and the Norwegian food authorities has facilitated an ongoing process of halal standardization that has been beneficial for everyone concerned.[21] Unlike the EU countries discussed above, the grocery sector in Norway is horizontally rather than vertically integrated, with manufacturers and farmer's cooperatives rather than retailers dominating. The major producer of halal meat in Norway is the farmer's cooperative Nortura. As well as selling carcasses and cuts of halal meat in the marketplace, Nortura also supply processed halal products through their own-label halal brand Alfathi, which they purchased outright from a Somali entrepreneur in 2006. Prior to this, the owner of Alfathi worked with the Norwegian Islamic Council to find a slaughtering method that different Muslim groups could agree on, and which the Norwegian Food Safety Authority would validate. As the latter was not interested in dialogue, this was a difficult task and it took over two years to convince Norway's Imams that Alfathi halal was trustworthy. Eventually a small number of Imams travelled to Nortura's abattoir to observe production procedures and soon afterwards a method of slaughter acceptable to all parties was agreed. With the Imams operating as certifiers of halal meat in their own communities trust began to grow and a small range of processed halal products began to appear in Norwegian supermarkets. Dialogue has continued over recent years, primarily over the introduction of halal chicken into the Norwegian market, though there are worries that the encroachment of the European market and the emergence of a more mixed Muslim population — adhering to different schools of thought — will undermine the country's high animal welfare standards and challenge the halal consensus.[21]