German ingredients-checking website, app HalalCheck preparing for European expansion

Made in Germany HalalCheck has built a database of at least 6,000 products checked for their halal-ness. The seven-year-old service is now ready for the rest of Europe.

It was a bag of gummy candies that sounded alarm bells for German halal consumer Isa Malkoc. The word “halal” was written in Arabic on the bag of sweets but Malkoc had his suspicions about its halal-ness. After an intensive internet search and back-and-forth emails to the manufacturer, the young IT manager learned that the sweets were “made of cows’ gelatin, but from cows that were not slaughtered in a halal way”.

The incident happened seven years ago and shocked Malkoc not only because it showed him how a company could misuse the halal label but also because the product is targeted at children who would not be able to conduct any product checks for themselves. The experience moved Malkoc to set up HalalCheck, a search engine for halal products in Germany, which has now become the destination for more than 80,000 users each month.

From its origins in the German city of Bonn, HalalCheck is now on the verge of expanding to other European countries.

SUPPORTING HALAL GROWTH

The issue of recognizing halal products in Germany is tricky for the growing Muslim population, which increased by 27.3 percent from 2011 to around 4.7 million in 2016, according to the Federal Office for Immigration and Refugees (BAMF).

Hundreds of thousands of food products are sold in the country and product labeling is confusing for regular consumers. Labels do not explain if food products include haram ingredients during manufacturing. For example, Salaam Gateway learnt in November last year for our story on the prevalence of the use of pork gelatin in apple juices that German law doesn’t enforce manufacturers to declare their methods or supporting materials on the product label as long as it is not an additive that is added to preserve the taste, the color or the quality of the juice.

As a result of this and other examples, halal consumers in Germany have to depend on a few “trusted” items and a limited portfolio of halal-certified products. HalalCheck has brought much-needed transparency for these halal shoppers across Germany who buy their groceries from a diversified basket of products. In 2017, the Federation of German Food and Drink Industries (BVE) said that there are around 6,000 food and beverage companies in the country, producing nearly 170,000 different products.

HalalCheck founder Isa Malkoc believes that halal consumers in Germany eat and drink products whose ingredients, origins and manufacturing processes they know little about. “When I see a [Muslim] sister in a supermarket picking one of those [non-halal] products, my heart aches,” said Malkoc. “She doesn’t know it is made that way.”

Malkoc isn’t just talking about alcohol or non-halal gelatin candies, he refers to items Muslims consider or perceive to be free of non-halal ingredients, like cheese, bread, or juice.

Malkoc’s concerns are echoed by Foodwatch, a Berlin-based non-governmental organization (NGO) focused on food transparency. Foodwatch told Salaam Gateway that consumers who follow halal, kosher or vegan diets want to know of any animal ingredients in their food. “That is often not possible in the supermarket. Many food products contain hidden ingredients or additives of animal origin, which do not always have to be indicated on the packaging,” Foodwatch told Salaam Gateway in a written statement.

Some fruit juice manufacturers use pork gelatin to clarify their juices and poultry could be added as a flavor for potato chips. It could be easy for Muslims to avoid juice and potato chips, but how will they avoid more basic food categories?

Bakery items, dairy and meat are food categories considered staples in any household in Germany.  According to the German Federal Statistical Office, in 2016, households in Germany spent an average of 342 Euros monthly on food products, equivalent to around eight percent of average household monthly gross income. Out of the average 342 Euros, 50 Euros are spent on meat and meat products, 41 Euros on bakery and cereal products, and 37 Euros on eggs and milk products.

TRANSPARENCY

Muslims in Germany can now read the ingredients for more than 6,000 products on HalalCheck. Each product on the website was subject to a careful inspection by the HalalCheck team.

The process starts by sending manufacturers a questionnaire that asks about ingredients, additives, and manufacturing agents. The result of the questionnaire is then reviewed by HalalCheck’s food analyst and only published when the result makes sense to the team.

However, HalalCheck doesn’t mark products as halal or not. Instead, users will find a colored circle next to each food item on the website or app. A green tick means halal consumers have nothing to be worried about. Orange alerts them to be careful and read the ingredients, and red means possible breach for halal standards.

HalalCheck leaves the decision-making to the consumer, based on the information gathered and provided. “There are many interpretations for halal and haram out there,” said Malkoc. “So we provide the information and the decision is yours.”

HALALCHECK VS SIMILAR PRODUCTS

Halal products and ingredients search engines are not new. Last year a company in Malaysia released the ‘Verify Halal’ app that checks if products are halal-certified by the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM) and prior to that halal consumers could also have accessed ‘Halal Buddy’, another Malaysian release, or Scan Halal from the U.S.

But HalalCheck is unique to these three halal checking apps in that users are also given a detailed response from manufacturers confirming or denying the use of specific ingredients. Manufacturers have responded positively, with only two objecting to having their answers published, according to HalalCheck.

Image: Screengrab from the HalalCheck website on March 21, 2018 showing the halal check on a food product called "Take It"

DOWNSIDES OF A FREE SERVICE

HalalCheck is a free service, and one that Malkoc says is a “service by Muslims for Muslims."

"It is the ‘zakat’ of my time,” said Malkoc.

Contacting manufacturers and publishing their responses provides a higher level of transparency for users but the process is also lengthy and labor-intensive. This means that HalalCheck’s database will not grow quickly, and this will not change anytime soon considering the service is not currently positioned as a revenue-making business. The website does not carry ads and does not receive any donations.

Until now, HalalCheck is funded only by the efforts of its members, all of whom have been active in promoting halal food. The ten halal food activists are either from the IT sector or the food industry, as well as some housewives devoting their free time.  Five of them work on the website and mobile app, and the other five collect and maintain the integrity of the data on the search engine.

Lack of funds prevents HalalCheck from getting food products independently checked and verified by laboratories. Malkoc had to forego independent verification due to the high costs, saying that the price of checking one food item at a laboratory ranges between 200 and 300 Euros.

Until or unless this situation changes, information and data published on HalalCheck will continue to rely solely on manufacturers’ statements and HalalCheck food analysts’ experience.

Feeling the financial pressure, Malkoc had previously offered HalalCheck for free to two halal certifiers in Germany in exchange for their continued running of the service. According to Malkoc, both turned him down. He declined to reveal their names.

Image: Screengrab from HalalCheck on March 21, 2018 showing check on a product from Danone called Dany Mousse Schoko + Sane

EXPANSION

Regardless, the HalalCheck team has continued its work and is now gearing up to launch a new version website and mobile app with multiple languages to add to German, specifically Arabic, Dutch, French and Turkish.

This, said Malkoc, will enable other halal food activists to join HalalCheck and start investigating food products in in their own countries.

The new multilingual website is scheduled to launch in the next six weeks, said Malkoc. HalalCheck will then be seeking volunteers in the Netherlands and France.  

(Reporting by Ali Bahnasawy; Editing by Emmy Abdul Alim emmy.alim@thomsonreuters.com)

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