Experts call for soy sauce halal certification after UAE withdraws two products

In August and September the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Climate Change and Environment (MoCCAE) withdrew two types of Kikkoman soy sauce from the market after finding alcohol content in them, causing some confusion as to the halal-ness and halal certification status of soy sauces sold in the country.

HALAL-NESS

MoCCAE director for food safety, Majd Mohamed Al Herbawi, told Salaam Gateway in an email on September 26 that the withdrawal of the two types of Kikkoman soy sauce was not a first for the UAE as the same product was banned in 2015 for containing alcohol.

Kikkoman Corporation is Japan’s soy sauce market leader with around 33 percent share at home in 2016, according to research company Nikkan Keizai Tsushinsha. For its fiscal year 2017 that ended March 31 this year, the company reported 402,174 million Japanese yen ($3.59 billion) in total sales, with around 57 percent coming from overseas. Its annual report does not break down soy sauce sales but according to its 2017 factbook around 28 percent of the Group’s overall sales was earned from soy sauce at home and overseas.

For the two most recent incidents in UAE this year, the Kikkoman products were found to contain alcohol during a regular inspection of food products in the country, the Emirates Authority for Standardization and Metrology (ESMA) told Salaam Gateway in an email on September 26. ESMA is the sole authority for quality, metrology and standards and the national certification body of the UAE including for halal.

MoCCAE’s Al Herbawi told Salaam Gateway that soy sauce is more likely to contain alcohol as a result of its production process. “As the fermentation will result in producing the alcohol, the manufacturer has to get rid of [the alcohol] prior to the final packaging process in line with the approved specifications and legislations of the UAE,” said Al Herbawi.

“We confirm that soy sauce products in the UAE markets are free of alcohol. The regulatory authorities of the Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority (ADFCA), Dubai Municipality, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah have collected samples of various soya sauce products and verified that they are free of alcohol,” he added.

The UAE Halal Standard does not permit any alcohol in soy sauce but the two products somehow made their way to the open shelves in the country.

Distancing itself from how the soy sauces with alcohol content ended up on the UAE retail shelves, a spokesperson from Kikkoman Corporation based in the United States told Salaam Gateway in an email, “The product highlighted in the media that brought about this ban seems to have been imported from Japan through unofficial routes which are, unfortunately, out of our surveillance.”

The spokesperson added, “While the UAE has recently blocked the sale of our soy sauce that has been manufactured in Japan, Kikkoman is selling Singapore-produced non-alcohol soy sauce in the UAE that meets all UAE laws and regulations.”

HALAL CERTIFICATION STATUS GAPS

While MoCCAE said that “soy sauce products in the UAE markets are free of alcohol”, ESMA told Salaam Gateway in their email on September 26 that the affected Kikkoman products were not halal-certified.

UAE-based Raqam Consultancy, a regulatory affairs and compliance service provider working in the Middle East and North Africa, told Salaam Gateway in an email on October 10 that there is no list for products that must be halal-certified for the UAE.

“For UAE, at present, halal certificate is required only for meat, products containing animal derivatives or meat and animal derivatives,” Dr Hassan Bayrakdar, the company’s managing director told Salaam Gateway.

For all others, ingredients must comply with halal and suppliers that wish their products to carry the UAE National Halal Mark would have to seek further approvals, according to ESMA.

Hind Hitomi Remon, chairperson of Osaka-based halal certifier Japan Halal Association (JHA), told Salaam Gateway that if any of its clients wanted to export soy sauce to Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries JHA would advise them to not leave alcohol residue in the final products.

JHA was the first Japanese halal certifier to be accredited by the GCC Accreditation Centre (GAC), in February this year. GAC is the regional accreditation body for services and conformity assessment of laboratories and points of inspection and certification bodies, including for halal, for the six countries of the GCC and Yemen.

According to Remon, there are different ways for alcohol to find its way into soy sauce: fermentation will produce around 2 to 3 percent of alcohol, or alcohol can be deliberately added into the final product to better preserve the soy sauce.

There is also a third way. Raqam Consultancy’s Dr Bayrakdar, who has an 18-year career as a food regulations expert with companies such as Mars and Nestle Middle East, added, “Some soy sauce are specifically produced in barrels previously used for bourbon or similar alcohol production to provide aroma to the sauce. This leads to direct and indirect cross contamination of sauce with ethanol.”

JHA recommends halal certification for all soy sauces to differentiate between these different manufacturing processes. According to Remon, Malaysia’s national halal certifier JAKIM (Department of Islamic Development Malaysia) accepts soy sauce with 2 to 3 percent alcohol as a result of natural fermentation because the product is not classified as a beverage. However, this is not accepted by the UAE and GAC.

But, said Remon, no halal certifier will accept alcohol in soy sauce if not produced by natural fermentation, that is, if the alcohol was deliberately added into the final product.

Explaining the justification for JAKIM accepting 2 to 3 percent of alcohol in soy sauce, Remon said, “The usage of soy sauce is either you dip a small amount to food directly like when you eat sashimi or sushi, or you mix with a large amount of water. Therefore, the amount of alcohol that you intake is very very little, which you don’t get drunk [on].”

“Unless you drink the sauce directly from the bottle you may get drunk. But in the worst case you may choke and die before you get drunk,” Remon added.

Dr Bayrakdar agrees that it is preferable for soy sauce to be halal-certified and advises companies to err on the side of caution. Better labeling could also alert consumers of the halal-ness of products such as soy sauce.

“If not halal certificate, then there should be at least a declaration from the company that the product is free (or below the allowable limit as per the regulation) from alcohol content, has been produced using non-halal ingredients and processing aid and has been processed in equipment free from alcohol residues,”  he added.

HALAL PRODUCTS LIST

The UAE may not have a list for products that must be halal-certified but the GCC does have such a list, and soy sauce is on it.

“As per the GCC import guidelines 2017 soy sauce is included in the list of products for which halal certificate is mandatory,” said Dr Bayrakdar.

Dr Bayrakdar is referring to Annex (5) "List of Food Categories and their certification requirements" of the GCC Guide for Control On Imported Foods published by the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf Secretariat General. On page 68, "fermented soybean sauce", "non-fermented soybean sauce" and "other soybean sauces" are ticked to indicate they require halal certification.

Amina Ahmed Mohammed, executive director of the Emirates International Accreditation Centre (EIAC), told Salaam Gateway on September 18 on the sidelines of the Dubai Halal Expo that there should be a list of products that must carry the halal logo. Referring to soy sauce, she said, “Maybe this is one of those products because of the alcohol content.”

“This list should be issued by ESMA but I still have not seen any approved list for compulsory halal labelling,” said Mohammed. According to her, there is currently a greater focus on animal slaughtering than other products, which echoes Dr Bayrakdar’s statement on the matter.

Mohammed added that halal certification should be extended to all halal products. “To avoid this [situation of soy sauce with alcohol content being sold in the UAE] in the future, all products coming into Dubai and the UAE should have the UAE halal logo, and should be from a certification body that is accredited by EIAC or one of the recognised accreditation bodies by the International Halal Accreditation Forum (IHAF),” Mohammed said.

Dubai-based IHAF is an industry organisation of accreditation bodies whose aim is to harmonise halal conformity assessment practices. GAC is one of its 19 members.

ESMA told Salaam Gateway in its email on October 4 that it has no plans to align UAE’s requirements with GCC import guidelines 2017 that includes soy sauce as one of the products for which halal certificate is mandatory.

ESMA reiterated that all products should comply with halal and in its earlier email on September 26 it said, “If halal is claimed then the products have to have the UAE Halal National Mark.”

KIKKOMAN’S HALAL-CERTIFIED SOY SAUCE

Kikkoman’s natural fermentation process results in its soy sauce exceeding 2 percent alcohol by volume because the starch in wheat breaks down into sugars that change into alcohol. The level of alcohol in Kikkoman’s soy sauce has precluded its approval for halal certification by authorities such as ESMA, until recently.

On August 21 this year, the company launched its first specially formulated Kikkoman Halal Soy Sauce in Japan. It is currently being produced in small liter-sized quantities, contains no wheat, and therefore is also gluten-free.

The halal soy sauce is certified by Netherlands-based Halal Feed and Food Inspection Authority (HFFIA), which is recognised by ESMA, GAC, JAKIM and Indonesia’s MUI (Indonesian Ulama Council).

The spokesperson confirmed that Kikkoman does not sell halal-certified soy sauce in the United States but does so in Europe. “Regarding whether halal soy sauce will be available in the U.S. and Europe, Kikkoman currently markets gluten-free soy sauce in Europe (250 ml for retail consumers, and 1 litre and 20 litre for foodservice customers) that has received halal certification. However, Kikkoman does not sell certified-halal soy sauce in the U.S. market.”

North America accounted for 68 percent of Kikkoman’s overseas soy sauce business in 2016. Europe followed on 16 percent, and Asia and Oceania on 15 percent.

A halal-certified gluten-free Tamari sauce, a less salty, thicker, fermented soy sauce that contains less wheat, is also produced by the company and is marketed by its European website.

Outside of Japan, Kikkoman manufactures soy sauce in seven plants in China, Netherlands, Singapore, Taiwan, and the United States.

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