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What is Accredited Halal Food Certificate and How to Get It?
The demand for halal food certified products is increasing day by day due to the fact that Muslims, who have a quarter of the world's population, want to be fed with halal and clean products. The demand for halal products in the global market is much more than 7 trillion dollars. Turkey, on the other hand, has an important share in this market with approximately 100 billion dollars. The new target is to increase this figure to 400 billion dollars. Therefore, the need for the growth of the halal food market arises. The 57 member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which has a population of 1.8 billion, constitute the majority of the market.
With the production of halal food certified products in Turkey, a significant increase has started in food exports. In the last 5 years, meat and many food products, especially chicken, have been exported to many countries of the world at significant rates. However, the biggest technical obstacle faced by many exporting companies is that each country demands halal food certificate from different organizations and exporting organizations try to obtain many documents at the same time and encounter difficulties in both time and money. In this context, T.R. The Halal Accreditation Agency (HAK), affiliated to the Ministry of Commerce, was established in November 2017 and started to accredit the applicant certification bodies in 2019. Accredited halal food certificates issued by accredited organizations have begun to be recognized as a reliable and prestigious document within the framework of OIC/SMIIC standards, which are the Halal standards of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. Thus, the products in which consumer confidence can be ensured are entered into the market and an important advantage is provided when entering international markets. In addition, it can benefit from both domestic (KOSGEB) and foreign export-based supports (supporting 2014/8 Market entry certificates) regarding accredited halal certificates.
In accordance with the law published in the Official Gazette dated 4 June 2022 and numbered 31856, the organizations that will carry out halal conformity assessment for products and services to be supplied to the domestic market, which are subject to the conformity assessment areas in which they provide halal accreditation services, are obliged to be accredited by the HAK. Thus, it is obligatory for organizations that want to obtain Halal certificate for products produced and sold domestically, to obtain this service from organizations approved by the Halal accreditation institution. This change will be implemented after the transition period of 1 (one) year.
In this context, the path to be followed by a food company that wants to obtain an accredited halal food certificate is as follows;
-First of all, they must obtain the OIC/SMIIC 1:2019 general requirements standard for halal food and establish the system in accordance with the requirements of this standard. In addition, it should be ensured that all personnel have knowledge of this standard.
- It should be ensured that the infrastructure, documents and practices of the organization meet the requirements related to food safety.
You can access the halal food Management System Handbook document by clicking the link below:
Prepared by: Emel Karaçay Gökkaya, OIC/SMIIC 1 Halal Food Technical Auditor