“Where is the 40% of so called ‘halal poultry’ coming from, because we simply can’t and don’t produce this amount … it’s inevitable that there’s haraam slaughtered chicken on your plate.”
A halal consultant who’s assisted on historic food fraud investigations – one of which saw a major supermarket chain halt its halal food counters, says that the issues within the halal market have reached distressing levels.
Abu-Eesa Asif Khan, 43, works as a halal business development consultant across the country. His work includes advising UK’s supermarket chains, other retailers and numerous brands on how they can conform their products and services to meet the requirements for their Muslim customers.
Originally from Rochdale and now living in Birmingham, Abu-Eesa has played a role in numerous Halal Monitoring Committee (HMC) projects, as well as partaking in numerous televised halal debates.
After reading the Asian Express article titled: ‘Halal Chicken Scandal – Rogue butchers serving up gas-killed non-halal chicken at the counter’, published on 22nd October, Abu-Eesa contacted the newspaper in support of its investigations.
“I have personally experienced Muslims selling pure haraam to customers and also Muslims cheating with their supply chain”
Braving up to going public, the father-of-three boys contacted Asian Express to provide his expert opinion and findings of the halal chicken industry.
Abu-Eesa says: “Muslims (the vast majority) whom I have come across, simply do not care what method of slaughter is their meat coming from. Muslims are cheating Muslims for profit and paying no regard to Islamic guidelines and values. There’s deep deception and no regard to damning innuendos of Islamic law and practices.
“I have personally experienced Muslims selling pure haraam to customers, and also Muslims cheating with their supply chain to major supermarket halal counters.”
He discloses an incident where a local halal butcher selling was non-halal chicken to unwitting customers.
“During one visit to my local butchers who claimed he only bought and sold HMC certified poultry, to my surprise, had box of a brand of chicken legs which I already knew from the work I do, did not supply halal non-stunned products.
“Upon taking note of the EC number I contacted the plant in question who confirmed what I was dreading to hear…that they do not produce halal products, stunned or non-stunned.”
Interestingly, he says, whenever he has worked with non Muslims in the halal food market business, he’s witnessed immense integrity, honesty and transparency.
“It seems Allah has replaced the Muslims with hard working non Muslims who have bought the likes of Humza foods, Shazan foods, taken over meat counters of National Halal, and do a better job as some of them have opted for third party certification of HMC for transparency,” he says.
Asian Express investigation
Abu-Eesa says: “The [Asian Express Newspaper] article highlights the current issues the halal market faces on a daily basis.
“The article simply confirmed what I have been saying for years, which is that the current halal demand outstrips what is available. There simply is not enough halal chicken, available for the 5.1% Muslim population in the UK.”
Asian Express exposed that the scale of tonnage of fake halal chicken being passed off to unwitting Muslim consumers is at undeniably shocking levels. Sources from deep within the UK halal meat industry disclosed that many halal butchers wouldn’t eat their own stock.
Halal bosses say that is high-time that Muslims had official legal regulations for halal.
Fears are figures run as high as 75 per cent of ‘halal-labelled’ chicken not being halal at all, with the bulk of it coming in from across the European border; their slaughter methods include mass killing using gas chambers and mechanical blade slaughter, therefore making the entire process non-halal whilst cheaper to run and ensuring maximum profit.
HMC in a statement said: “It is our understanding that majority of the imported poultry entering the UK is from Holland, Poland and Spain and is either stunned, mechanically killed or even gas killed. No one is continuously monitoring the provenance of these “halal products” and they are simply passed off as being halal when they may not meet with the halal standard at all.”
“Where is the 40% of so-called ‘halal poultry’ coming from? because in the UK we simply can’t and don’t produce this amount,” questions Abu-Eesa.
“What I do know know demand is outstripping the supply.
“As my contacts within HMC know, it is impossible that the UK halal market can produce this amount of halal certified poultry. So, it’s inevitable that there’s haraam slaughtered chicken on your plate.”
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