a couple of points and some reading material, draw your own conclusions.
-
HMC has been around since 2003, HFA has been around since 1994.
-
the issue I have here is that HMC has chosen to basically not give the whole truth in their statement.
-
I have trouble trusting people and groups who try to hoodwink me by giving incorrect and incomplete information.
below is a statement from HFA. read it and compare it to HMC’s statements.
Halal Food Authority :: Definition of Zibah
Definition of ZibahAllah says in the fifth chapter of Qur`an Al-Maida 5:3 that
Forbidden unto you is the dead (carrion) and, blood and flesh of swine and, what hath been slaughtered in the name of any other than that of Allah, and the strangled, and beaten to death, and killed by a fall and gored to death by a horn, and that which the wild beasts ate, except that which ye slaughter (in accordance with the prescribed law)
Zibah is the method or the act of slaughter also known as zibah-al-Ikhtiyaariy by which an animal or a bird is slaughtered by a Muslim by saying shahada or tasmiya, Bismillah Allahu Akbar. If the slaughter is not done by zibah method, any meat or derivatives from such carcasses cannot be deemed to be halal or permissible for Muslims to consume. Requirements for zibah are:
The animal or bird should be alive and healthy at the time of slaughter.
Animal skin or fur, and bird feathers must be clean prior to slaughter and be free from faeces, mud or other unhygienic substances
Stunning is not used to kill the animal or the bird
A licensed Muslim slaughterer should slaughter by pronouncing shahada or tasmiya (when the knife is put on the throat of the bird of animal being slaughtered) “Bismillah Allahu Akbar”;
All the flowing blood should be drained out from the carcass by natural convulsion
Whence slaughtering is carried out in a mechanised plant, say for, poultry slaughtering, because of expediency of machinery and fixed blade operation, licensed Muslim slaughterman/men should be present to do the rendition of shahada. Number of slaughtermen depends on the speed of the machine/line. Generally it is accepted that a healthy young male can recite shahada approximately fifteen hundred times per hour. It is therefore, suggested that we have 2-3 Muslim slaughtermen at the slaughtering station/s of medium abattoirs. These slaughtermen would also slaughter with full recitation of shahada any bird/animal that are missed by the machine.
Halal Food Authority :: Meat and Poultry :: Slaughter Procedures
Slaughter ProceduresThe slaughterer must be an adult Muslim, and holder of a current slaughtering license accorded by Meat Hygiene Service.
The knife to be used must be razor sharp; the blade must be straight and smooth, and free from any serration, pits, notches or damage. The length of the blade must be at least four times the width of the neck of the animal to be slaughtered. The blade must not flex noticeably whence in use.
The animal must not be anaesthetised, stunned to be killed or otherwise rendered wholly insensible prior to slaughter. It must be conscious and alive when it is slaughtered.
Poultry and other birds must be restrained either in an upright or prone position for slaughter.
Lamb, sheep, goats, calves (of less than 60kg dead weight) and other similar sized animals must be placed on a cradle for slaughter and if hung on shackles all efforts are made that they do not injure or bruise themselves.
Larger bovines, equines, deer and similar sized animals must be restrained in a standing position for slaughter.
The act of slaughter (Zibah-al-Ikhtiyaariy) must be done with a simple swipe across the neck. The cut should not be any deeper than necessary to sever the carotid artery, jugular vein and windpipe and must not sever the spinal cord. The slaughterer must pronounce aloud the Arabic words, Bismillah, AllahuAkbar (in the name of Allah, Allah is the greatest) in a reverential tone, when slaughtering.
The Jugular vein, windpipe and carotid artery should be cut by a single swipe of a sharp knife, without damage to the spinal cord.
After being slaughtered, lambs, sheep, goats and other similar sized animals must be restrained in situ for at least 20 seconds. Bovine and other similarly sized animals must be restrained in situ for 60 seconds. Poultry and other birds must not be subjected to any further processing for at least 20 seconds. During the aforementioned period they must not be further injured, nor subjected to unnecessary stress or pain. Indeed it is desirable that efforts are made to clam them during this period.
The slaughterer must clean the knife after slaughter of every animal or bird and must check that the knife still conforms to above rules. If damaged, the knife must be replaced. If it is no longer razor sharp, it must be sharpened, say, on a flat stone and approved by an HFA inspector before further use. Note that the knife must not be sharpened in sight of animals awaiting slaughter.
The slaughterer or supervisor must ensure that all the flowing blood has been drained from the chicken or ovine or bovine carcass.
The water used during the poultry de-feathering process must be at the lowest practical temperature in vogue.
No dorsal cut is allowed, since this method would slice or sever the spinal cord and the bird or the animal is rendered incapacitated to convulse to drain the flowing blood out of the carcass
At the abattoir, slaughterhouse, distribution centre and retail outlets, DEFRA (Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), Meat Hygiene Services (MHS), European Union (EU) and local hygiene laws and regulations should always be adhered to, and strictly followed at every stage of the process.
Definition of Halal Origins of Halal Origin of HFA HFA Achievements Gallery Page Definition of HalalThe word ‘halal’ literally means permissible- and in translation it is usually used as lawful.
The Halal food Authority rules for halal are based on Islamic Shari’ah. Opposite to halal is haram, which means unlawful or forbidden.
It is well known in the meat trade that Muslims consume halal meat. However, at times questions are asked, what is halal? In Arabic it simply means permissible or allowed. Opposite to it is haram, which means forbidden or not allowed. Arabic is the language of Qur`an, a scripture revealed to the Holy Prophet of Islam by the Almighty Allah to be followed in its entirety by the Muslims.
Now to make meat halal or permissible, an animal or poultry has to be slaughtered in a ritual way known as Zibah. To make it readily comprehended halal is somewhat like Jewish kosher and, Zibah is with some exception similar to Shechita. The Qur`an gives following underlined injunctions in chapter al-Maida 5:3 that
Zibah require animals to be alive and healthy at the time of slaughter, since carrion is forbidden and, jugular vein, carotid artery and windpipe have to be severed by a razor sharp knife by a single swipe, to incur as less a pain as possible. Here the only difference is that a rabbi will read what is required by his faith and, a Muslim will recite tasmiya or shahada, which fulfils the requirement of dedication. The question of how to overcome the issue of recitation of shahada on individual bird whence we now have poultry being slaughtered at a rate of six to nine thousand per hour, has already been addressed. A Muslim is commanded to commence all his deeds in the name of Allah.
All the flowing blood (al- An`am 6:145) must be drained out of the carcass, as blood is forbidden
Swine flesh is also forbidden, and it is repeated in few other places in the Qur`an
Forbidden is an animal that has been killed by strangling or by a violent blow, or by a headlong fall
What now becomes abundantly clear for halal purposes is that:
An animal should not be dead prior to slaughter
A Muslim should perform slaughter
Any flowing blood of the carcass should be completely drained
Choice of modern and in vogue method has to be considered with caution and, it should be mirroring to the Islamic ethos
Since pork is forbidden, halal slaughtering must not be done where pigs are slaughtered or in the vicinity of pigs slaughtering area. There are a few more edicts and rules that have to be followed in the interest of animal welfare. For example, animal has to be fed as normal and given water prior to slaughter, one animal must not see the other being slaughtered, knife should be four times the size of the neck and razor sharp, and as far as possible the slaughterer and the animal should face Qibla or Mecca and, animal must not be suffering with any ailments or any lacerations.
Halal Food Authority :: Definition of Halal
Stunning?
Aids prior to slaughter
Generally it is believed that for humane killing stunning modes and methods have been in use for a long time. We all know that for sure it is not the fact and it is untrue. It is only a few decades old engineering and still is in experimental stages. It is the expediency of the machinery for the numbers and volume which the viable commercial enterprise requires, for some kind of immobilisation of animals on the slaughtering line, to avoid injury to all concerned and bruising of the carcass. Bruised and bloodshot parts are neither to be sold, nor are they allowed in any way in achieving required financial yields.
There are four known methods of rendering partially or completely immobilising the animals:
Captive bolt system used mainly on cattle
Gas system for asphyxiation
Electrical stunning for ovine animals and / or
Electric-water bath stunning, the type used for poultry
Captive bolt used on cattle smashes its brain to smithereens and this causes animal to die prior to slaughter. Hence it is irreversible procedure and cannot be deemed to be halal. Similarly gas smothers the animal or the bird and there is no known revival method, so this is also not allowed.
Since majority of abattoirs, because of the wordings of the EU directives or for some given reasons use stunning prior to slaughter, we at the Halal Food Authority have researched and scrutinised it. It was categorically then encapsulated in halal rules as stated earlier, that because of the possibility of death prior to slaughter, no stunning is allowed to be used to kill the animal. However, at the initiative of the Meat and Livestock Commission, Mr. Steve Wotton of Division of Food Animal Science of Department of Clinical Veterinary Science of the University of Bristol, has developed a prototype method of stunning and have produced a stunner together with Hellenic Co., by which the animal will not succumb to the shock and can also be sent back to grazing pasture duly revived. How does it work?
Unlike ordinary stunning method where animal loses only 50-60% of the blood volume at exsanguinations - that is bleeding in simple terms- because cardiac arrest takes place and animal never recovers consciousness and, there is a reduced convulsion. This somewhat fail safe new system of head-only stunning, is reversible. Electric dosage though is of high frequency and electrode are sharp, this pre slaughter stunning in not painful. It is defined as being at humane level and within the remit of the relevant EU law and with an auto-calibration system for current monitoring and there is a very accurate record of stunner’s performance.
Logging systems enable a progress check separately on every animal individually. In test conditions it was found that animal whence slaughtered bled profusely with convulsions. Animals do revive naturally, within a safe period if spared from slaughter for whatever reason.
There could still be a prevailing opinion of a section that even this fail-safe method does not mirror to the Islamic requirement. For reasons that electric shock is unethical and, in the knowledge and opinion of the critics there is no guarantee of feasibility of revival. It has, time and again to the contrary to this belief, been proven that animals do regain consciousness within a desired period.
It is also argued that since even Jewish faith does not subscribe to stunning, why should the Muslims even contemplate to look at it. The evidence is that although the quantity of kosher meat is small and can be operated manually, it is now emerging that there is some leaning by some Rabbinical section towards the possibility of adopting the system. We Muslims have to be positive and should not appear to pre-typify technology and at the same time ensure that we do not change or seem to be changing the dietary laws as commanded by the Scripture, the Holy Quran and the Shariah, the Islamic jurisprudence.
Halal Food Authority is satisfied that this system is superior to, and there is potential for further improvisation and, safer than the one in use for halal slaughter in New Zealand and Australia. Thousands of tonnage of meat is exported from these aforementioned countries to a considerable number of Muslim States and, is used even here in the UK We are given to understand that Steve Wotton has nearly completed his work on Poultry Stunner Monitor as well, and this in due course could be a good news for providers of halal poultry and the consumers. Needless to say that there is a dire need of constant halal inspection, audit and stringent monitoring of the developing situation.
