The accusation led many French Muslims to question how they can be sure that any of the halal food they buy meets certification standards — only to discover that no single set of standards exists for determining which products are halal and which aren't.
On Feb. 1, one of France's largest supermarket chains, Casino, removed the sausages from its stores to run its own test to "guarantee the strictest respect of halal certification." Still, the entire episode led Muslim consumers to wonder about the reliability of all the halal food they buy.
While trying to find out exactly what the national norms are for halal certification, French Muslims have found there is no unified set of criteria or inspection procedures to verify a product as being halal. Instead, food companies work along differing standards overseen by rival factions of France's Islamic community.
"France's Muslim community is a mosaic of national origins, customs, tastes and habits to begin with, but unless rivalries can be overcome and a unified system regulating halal food can be created, the French halal market will remain splintered," says Abbas Bendali, director of the Paris-based Solis Conseil marketing consultancy, and an expert on France's halal food sector.
Reaching a consensus on halal standards will be difficult among France's diverse, disparate Muslim population. Lacking an international structure like the Catholic Church to replicate at the national level, French Muslims remained largely unorganized until 2003, when government authorities helped found the French Council of the Muslim Faith as the representative of France's "official Islam."
However, the organization has continually been undercut by rival factions and clashing loyalties that have made uniting French Muslims under a single structure — or unified halal Code — impossible.
That may change, however, as shoppers and companies start demanding clear halal criteria verified by inspectors that France's entire Muslim community can trust.
ORIGINAL SOURCE
No comments:
Post a Comment