Indonesian government’s new halal certification body to start operating next year

Photo: Ubud, Indonesia - March 08, 2016: Woman cooks meatball soup at a street stall in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia on March 08, 2016. All halal products, including F&B, pharma and cosmetics, will have to be labeled as such by the end of 2019 / Elena Ermakova / Shutterstock.com

JAKARTA - The Indonesian government's Religious Affairs Ministry's new halal certification body, the Halal Products Certification Agency (Badan Penyelenggara Jaminan Produk, BPJPH), will start operating in early 2017, Nur Syam, the ministry’s Secretary General told Salaam Gateway.

The new body will facilitate the administrative process of halal certification, which involves receiving all applications, collecting their fees, and issuing certificates, according to Nur Syam.

“We signed the ministerial decree for the new halal certification body in October, as mandated by Law No. 33/2014 on halal certification. But we still need other government decrees to validate it. Hopefully this will happen at the end of December so the new body can start operating next year,” he said.