Halal label on health supplementary products: the needs for legislative measures / Assayidatun Najwa Muhammad Nasution … [et al.]

Recently, demand on health supplementary products in Malaysia is increasing due to the public awareness on how to improve their health by consuming such products instead of physical exercises. The advancement of science and technology has made it possible to produce various types of health supplementary products in many forms which are easily consumed and available in most supermarkets. The availability and benefits of health supplementary products raised concerns on Muslim consumers with regards to the issue of halal production of its manufacturing process. The question is whether these health supplementary products are halal for Muslims to consume since there is no halal label to signify that the food has been processed according to the actual halal certification process prescribed by JAKIM in accordance with the Trade Description (Use of Halal Expression) Order 1975. The halal label is important to represent its halal manufacturing process because the Muslim consumers cannot access the manufacturing process of the health supplementary products. They have to rely on the halal label appearing on the products, if any. Since there is no specific legislation that governs halal certification process on health supplementary products, it is the aim of this research to analyze the adequacy of legislation regarding halal matters and to propose a legal provision to be made regarding halal label on health supplementary products. This research may settle all Muslims concerns on consuming health supplementary products without hesitations as to the halal manufacturing process of the health supplementary products and benefit from it.