Halal: how to disentangle the truth of the forgery

The halal is invited in the countryside of the presidential one. Yesterday, at the time of a visit of the market of Rungis (the Valley-of-Marne), Nicolas Sarkozy estimated that the polemic started by Marine Le Pen did not take place to be. Saturday, the candidate of the National front supported that the whole of the meat which is distributed in Ile-de-France, without the knowledge of the consumer, is exclusively of the meat halal.

ON THE SAME SUBJECT

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• Meat halal: justice opens an preliminary investigation

Information contradicted by the professionals who claim, nevertheless, more transparency. Here answers to five questions to see there more clearly.

The meat halal answers a religious ritual

TRUTH. In Islam, halal, which means sells by auction, defines what is allowed for the Moslem contrary to haram, which is prohibited to him. This word does not indicate only the food, but relates to the whole of the behaviors of the faithful one. A meat is halal if it were cut down according to the Moslem rite, without preliminary dizzy spell. There exists in the slaughter-house a sacrificator charged to proceed to the sticking of the animal. It must call upon the name of God, to place the head of the animal in direction of Mecque and to use a quite sharp blade not to make suffer the animal, explains one with the mosque of Paris. Only the mosques of Paris, Lyon and Evry, entitled by the ministry for Agriculture, are authorized to deliver charts of sacrificator. There exists a multitude of organizations carrying out of the checks, but all do not have the same definition of the halal, nor the same schedule of conditions because there is no label halal. Result: controls leave something to be desired.

100% of the meat distributed in Ile-de-France east halal

FORGERY. Admittedly, three of the four slaughter-houses of mammals of Ile-de-France (fourth is specialized in the pig) practise the ritual slaughter. All the meat shot down in Paris region is according to the Moslem and Jewish traditions. What does not mean, as implies it Marine Le Pen, that 100% of the distributed meat are halal. The slaughter-houses franciliens provide only 2,5% of 200000 T meat consumed in Paris region. In fact the great cattle-rearing areas supply large surfaces whose Brittany, Normandy , Pierre Halliez, the managing director of the Trade union of the French companies of the meats adds.

The meat halal is not necessarily labelled

TRUTH. There is no obligation of labelling concerning the method of demolition and it can be that sides of meat result from the rite halal, Dominique Langlois recognizes. But that does not change of anything quality meat. The fact of labelling the shot down cattle in a ritual way is a request of associations of animal protection. Labelling raises exclusively of the EU law, only entitled to define the obligatory inscriptions which must be reproduced on the prepackaged sold food products, details one with the ministry for Agriculture. Nothing however prevents the operators from registering additional mentions by preoccupation with an information of the consumer. The room of agriculture of Ile-de-France regrets this blur, affirming that 23% of the meat shot down ritually in France are marketed like traditional meat.

The ritual slaughter is sufficiently regulated

FORGERY. Regarded up to now as an exemption from the traditional practices of demolition, which impose a preliminary dizzy spell of the animals before their bleeding, the ritual halal will be better framed the next summer. A new decree, which will come into force on July 1, subjects the ritual slaughter to a mode of prior approval. The slaughter-house will have to be specifically authorized by the prefect, ensures one the cabinet of the Minister for Bruno Le Maire Agriculture. The procedures of hygiene and the equipment will have to be adapted. And to avoid the abuses, each slaughter-house will have as an obligation to have a system of recording making it possible to check that the ritual slaughter of an animal corresponds well to a particular order.

The market of the halal is in full expansion

TRUTH AND FORGERY. The market of the halal currently amounts to approximately 5 Mds and increases by approximately 10% per annum. What is under development full, it is the market halal products processed like the cooked dishes, soups or the pork-butchery, deciphers Abbas Bendali, with the head of the cabinet of studies Solis marketing. Their presence in large surfaces exploded these last years. On the other hand, the market of the raw meat is rather stable. The offer is limited and remains the prerogative of Moslem traditional butcheries. According to its investigation, 90% of the customers who buy halal in France are originating in the Maghreb.