RI seeks international 'halal' recognation

By Joko Sarwono

BOGOR, West Java (JP): The spate of bomb hoaxes in Jakarta which marked the heightened political tension prior to and during the presidential election last month did more than just scare people in high-rise buildings.

The hoaxes also forced the Indonesian Council of Ulemas (MUI) to cancel a meeting with a United States delegation to discuss the establishment of a global network linking organizations to an authority on whether certain foodstuffs are halal (permissible according to Islamic law).

"We canceled the meeting because we'd feel too uncomfortable to receive guests in such a situation," said Aisjah Girindra, director of the council's Food, Drug and Cosmetic Research Institute (LPPOM MUI). The institute is in charge of issuing halal certificates in Indonesia.

Aisjah believes a linkup with other countries is crucial to world Moslems' peace of mind given how international trade enables the free traffic of various commodities, including food products.

Aisjah said that in some countries there were institutions that automatically issue halal certificates for US$100 and neglect to investigate how a product is processed.

"It's clear we cannot trust such institutions," she said.

Islam prohibits its followers from consuming blood, pork and alcohol as well as animals that are slaughtered without saying the name of Allah over them. In 1988, Indonesian Moslems panicked and unrest erupted following reports that certain food products contained or were contaminated by pork.

"The government was overwhelmed and asked the MUI to help allay (the unrest). In order to prevent the same thing from happening, the LPPOM MUI was established (in 1989)," she said.

"The body only started operating in 1994, at the same time as we held the International Halal Food Exhibition III in Jakarta," she said. "We spent the time between 1989 and 1994 studying the issue. We understood the technology and Islamic law, but we did not know how to combine the two.

"We learned through various seminars, and through visits to Malaysia and Singapore which had applied the concept" of certification of halal food.

The LPPOM MUI, established a year after the pork scare, now has a number of experts who audit and investigate food processing.

It may take the body between three weeks to four years before a halal certificate is issued.

Born in Bukittinggi, West Sumatra, on Oct. 7, 1935, Aisjah is a professor of biochemistry at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture. She spoke to The Jakarta Post recently.

Question: What other factors prompted the establishment of LPPOM MUI?

Answer: With the advancement of technology, there's always the possibility that the food we consume contains elements which are not halal. Now consumers demand that products taste good, appear attractive, are succulent ... For all that, producers use food additives made of either vegetables or animals -- which are not always halal.

The MUI is obligated to provide Moslems with peace of mind as to the status of the food they consume.

Your agency issues halal certificates but has the government officially named it the sole body authorized to do so?

The 1996 Law on Food stipulates that a food product has to be halal. A draft of a government regulation, prepared a year ago to complement the law, says that MUI is the authority to issue certificates. The draft has not yet been signed into effect by the President. We know why, but that's our secret.

I am confident, though, that the draft will eventually go into effect, because the community wants it. Despite the lack of (official authorization), we intend to just go on with our duty.

How does a food producer get a halal certificate from the LPPOM MUI?

Since April 1997, we have cooperated with the Ministry of Health. Applicants (for halal certificates) first register their products with the ministry. We then investigate the processing in factories, and examine the products in the biochemistry laboratory at the Bogor Institute of Technology, or crosscheck them at other laboratories.

The result is then taken to a panel of 20 to 30 auditors. If the team is satisfied, the products will then be discussed in a meeting of the MUI commission in charge of decreeing whether they are halal.

Sometimes, we cannot issue a certificate. We rejected a restaurant's application because the proprietor could not say where they procured their raw materials. They just said the materials were imported from this or that country, and we did not know how the materials were processed.

Have you had applicants become impatient with how you work?

Yes. They did not understand the scientific procedures that we have to undertake. They wanted us to issue a certificate just like that. Some even try to bribe us. That offends us greatly.

A certificate expires after two years. The recipients have to sign an agreement stating they will hire internal auditors whose job is to make sure the food processing remains religiously correct. We check and recheck with the internal auditors.

Sometimes we also make impromptu visits to the producers and check them, or buy their products and do laboratory tests on them.

What's the benefit of a halal certificate?

The products will be trusted by the public. Imagine, 89 percent of Indonesia's 202 million population are Moslems. If only 50 percent of them demand halal food, they represent a potential market!

How many producers have halal certificate?

It's difficult to say. Maybe around 30 percent of all large companies. Not many are interested in applying for certificates, maybe because they think the procedure is expensive, or difficult. Some of them just don't care about whether their products are halal.