Halal status of ingredients after physicochemical alteration (Istihalah)

BackgroundHalal products are the only permissible products that can be consumed by Muslim population all over the world. Halal certification process is becoming critical due to processing advancements and conflict of opinions among various Islamic schools of thought. Multiple Halal certification standards are framed by regulatory bodies in different countries, but there is inconsistency about few issues among these standards. One such conflict is Istihalah, which deals with the alteration in physicochemical nature of food and render a non-permissible food (Haram) to an acceptable form (Halal) for Muslims. There is dire need to understand the grey areas, such as the concept of Istihalah, to develop unanimous International Halal Standards complying with the rulings of all Islamic schools of thought.Scope and approachTo understand the Istihalah, scientific and Islamic literature from various schools of thought, has been reviewed. The primary objective of this study is to explain the concept of Istihalah with respect to the physicochemical alteration of food matrix and rulings of various Islamic schools, leading to generate a consensus for international Halal certification standards.Key findings and conclusionsIstihalah is an agreed concept among Islamic schools of thought but the definition for the extent of such alteration (to be considered as Istihalah) is not agreed. This concept should not be used for Halal Certification as it may create ambiguous situation for the global acceptability and credibility of a certificate.     

Analysis of Porcine Gelatin DNA in a Commercial Capsule Shell Using Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction for Halal Authentication

The presence of pig derivatives, such as porcine gelatin, in any products is prohibited to be consumed by Muslim community. This study is intended to develop a specific primer from mytochondrial D-loop capable of amplifying DNA from porcine gelatin in commercial capsule shells. Two pairs of primers designed from mitochondrial D-loop region were tested in order to confirm the primer specificity in gelatin sources (pork, beef, and catfish) and fresh tissue (pig, cows, goat, chickens, and rat). Primers were then used to perform sensitivity test of six dilution series (1000, 200, 100, 10, 5, and 1 pg/µL) of porcine gelatin and porcine capsule shell. The amplification was also performed on capsule shell from porcine-bovine mixture gelatin at 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 100% concentration. The repeatability test was performed by measuring amplification capsule shells from porcine–bovine gelatin mixture. Real time polymerase chain reaction method using primers designed was further applied to analyze capsule shells purchased from markets. From two primers have been designed specifically, only primer D-Loop 108 (forward: 5’-CGT ATG CAA AAA ACC ACG CCA-3’; reverse: 5’-CTT ACT ATA GGG AGC TGC ATG-3’) had the capability to identify the presence of porcine DNA in fresh tissue and gelatin sources at optimum annealing temperature of 58.4ºC. Sensitivity of the developed method expressed as limit of detection of DNA in gelatin and capsule shells is 5 pg.     

False aneurysms in carotid arteries of cattle and water buffalo during shechita and halal slaughter

It has previously been shown that the cattle brain is supplied with blood via a basi-occipital plexus, in addition to branches from the carotid and basilar arteries. In addition it has been shown during conventional stunning and slaughter that the carotid arteries in cattle can develop false aneurysms at their severed ends and this can curtail exsanguination. This investigation examined whether false aneurysms can occur during religious slaughter, and during bleeding following electrical stunning that simultaneously induced a cardiac arrest. The prevalence of large (>3 cm outer diameter) false aneurysms in cattle carotid arteries was 10% for both shechita and halal slaughter. The prevalence of animals with bilateral false aneurysms (at least 2 cm in one artery and at least 3 cm diameter in the opposite artery) was 7% and 8% for shechita and halal slaughter, respectively. No false aneurysms occurred during bleeding in cattle that were electrically stunned and simultaneously developed a cardiac arrest. The combination of false aneurysms and collateral routes to the brain present a risk of sustained consciousness during religious slaughter in cattle.     

Alternative for Rapid Detection and Screening of Pork,Chicken, and Beef Using Dielectric Properties in the Frequency of 0.5 to 50 GHz

Dielectric property at high microwave frequency region has been utilized for possible rapid detection and screening of different types of meat, especially for halal authentication. This investigation focused on both raw and sterilized (processed) beef, pork, and chicken samples. Dielectric response that consists of dielectric constant and dielectric loss factor was measured over the range of 0.5 to 50 GHz. All raw and sterilized meat samples could be differentiated by the dielectric values. Two distinct peaks were observed only for both raw and sterilized pork samples at the frequency around 7.43 and 31.19 GHz. These peaks can potentially be linked to compounds that exist only in pork such as DNA, microbes, enzyme, proteins, amino acids, and many others. Dielectric values for sterilized samples were lower than raw samples due to molecule structural changes that occurred in the samples. The dielectric results promise a great potential of utilizing dielectric properties as a rapid on-site detection approach prior to subsequent laborious analysis.     

Rapid discrimination of pork in Halal and non-Halal Chinese ham sausages by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and chemometrics

Rapid discrimination of pork in Halal and non-Halal Chinese ham sausages was developed by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometry combined with chemometrics. Transmittance spectra ranging from 400 to 4000cm(-1) of 73 Halal and 78 non-Halal Chinese ham sausages were measured. Sample preparation involved finely grinding of samples and formation of KBr disks (under 10MPa for 5min). The influence of data preprocessing methods including smoothing, taking derivatives and standard normal variate (SNV) on partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLSDA) and least squares support vector machine (LS-SVM) was investigated. The results indicate removal of spectral background and baseline plays an important role in discrimination. Taking derivatives, SNV can improve classification accuracy and reduce the complexity of PLSDA. Possibly due to the loss of detailed high-frequency spectral information, smoothing degrades the model performance. For the best models, the sensitivity and specificity was 0.913 and 0.929 for PLSDA with SNV spectra, 0.957 and 0.929 for LS-SVM with second derivative spectra, respectively.     

Advances in the industrial production of halal and kosher red meat

The worldwide volume and value of trade in halal and kosher meat and co-products are huge. Muslim countries alone consumed meat estimated to be worth USD 57.2 billion in 2008. The halal and kosher principles that govern the production of red meat have many similarities, as well as some fundamental differences. Perhaps the most significant difference is that at the time of slaughter, the animal needs only to be alive to meet the minimum halal requirement, but must be both alive and conscious for kosher. It is for this reason that reversible pre-slaughter stunning is acceptable only for halal meat, although a compromise form of post-slaughter stunning is now considered kosher in some countries. Extensive research on animal physiology and welfare has characterised and optimised the methods for stunning livestock, and enabled advancement in associated technologies. This forms the basis for harmonising the religious and secular requirements for the protection of animal welfare at slaughter. These technologies and the associated processing practices for the industrial production of halal and kosher meat are reviewed in this paper.     

Critical success factors affecting the implementation of halal food management systems: Perspective of halal executives,consultants and auditors

The provision of halal certified food is important for both Muslims consumers as well as halal food manufacturers in Malaysia. Nevertheless, there are still lots of consumers’ complaints resulted from the partial implementation of Malaysia halal standard (MS1500:2009) by these food manufacturers. Hence, critical factors affecting the implementation of halal standard need to be identified and examined as an initial step in fostering its implementation. To date, only limited empirical research is available on the implementation of halal food management system (based on MS1500:2009) especially amongst the small and medium enterprise (SME). Therefore, this study seeks to identify critical factors for effective implementation of halal food management system in SMEs. Using a qualitative approach, fifteen semi-structured interviews were carried out with halal executives, consultants and auditors from Malaysian/local halal authority. The recorded interviews were transcribed, translated, coded, and reconciled. Atlas.ti software (version 7) assisted in data coding to identify themes and subthemes. The findings suggested that top management, halal executive, employees, suppliers, and consumers are critical factors. Similarly, information and knowledge, teamwork, support, policy and procedure, and training are also important determinants towards the successful implementation of the systems. Effective recruitment to ensure the availability of Malaysian Muslim manpower, halal personnel empowerment to play dual roles relate to halal and quality/safety, and keeping up to date with recent fatwa development were found to be important and unique to halal context.     

Time to collapse following slaughter without stunning in cattle

Time to physical collapse was examined in 174 cattle which were restrained in the upright position and then released immediately from the restraint following the halal cut. The frequencies of swelling and false aneurysm in the cephalic and cardiac severed ends of the arteries were recorded. Fourteen percent of the cattle collapsed and stood up again before finally collapsing. The average time to final collapse for all the cattle was 20 s (sd ± 33). In 8% of the animals time to final collapse was ?60 s. Seventy-one percent of the cattle that took more than 75 s to collapse had false aneurysms in the cardiac ends of the severed carotid arteries. The frequency of swelling at the cephalic severed ends of the carotid arteries in 129 cattle was 7%. Failure to collapse within 60 s was associated with swelling of the cephalic ends of the carotid arteries.     

Identification and verification of porcine DNA in commercial gelatin and gelatin containing processed foods

Gelatin, derived from bovine and porcine sources, has been used in many foods and pharmaceutical products. To ensure the compliance of food products with halal regulations, the reliable analytical methods are very much required. In this study, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay using species-specific primers was performed to evaluate the halal authenticity of commercial pure gelatin and gelatin-containing processed food products. Based on the specificity and cross-reactivity results of the seven species-specific primers by conventional PCR, the porcine species primer No. 2 was selected and it was able to detect species DNA in 12 out of 36 processed foods. The cloning, sequencing, and blasting at NCBI confirmed the presence of pork DNA in 5 out of 12 porcine DNA positive food samples. The maximum identity (homology) with pork sequence available in NCBI Gene Bank for the five samples ranged from 87% to 97% and the Query Cover ranged from 94% to 100%. The real-time PCR assay detected more positive samples (27 positive amplifications) compared to 12 positive samples with conventional PCR using porcine specific primer No. 2. PCR using species specific primers is a very useful and effective technique for halal authenticity of gelatin and gelatin-containing food products.     

Identification of pork in beef meatballs using Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometry and real-time polymerase chain reaction

A study on development of Fourier-transform infrared spectrophotometric method combined with principle component analysis as well as real-time polymerase chain reaction for determination of pork–beef mixture in meatballs has been performed. A lipid component extracted from pork and beef in meatballs is analyzed using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, while DNA extracted from meatball was analyzed using real-time polymerase chain reaction. The correlation between actual and predicted concentration of lard using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy was performed by aid of partial least squares, while grouping of lard and beef fat components in meatball was carried out by Fourier-transform infrared spectra coupled with principle component analysis. The results showed that Fourier-transform infrared spectra at wavenumbers of 1000–1200 cm^?1 coupled with partial least square and principle component analysis are successfully used for quantification and classification of pork in beef meatballs. The relationship between actual value and predicted value of lard (lipid fraction obtained from meatballs containing pork) with Fourier-transform infrared spectrophotometric method revealed good correlation, with coefficient determination (R²) value of 0.997 and standard error of calibration of 0.04%. Principle component analysis is able to classify samples containing pork and beef meatballs. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy using normal spectra is fast technique for identification and quantification of lard extracted from pork in meatball. In addition, real-time polymerase chain reaction using Leptin Primer–AJ 865080 can be used for amplification of pork DNA specifically in meatballs containing pork.