09/18/07
KOSHER GELATIN IS NOT A HALAL INGREDIENT
MCG is educating Muslim consumers that the Kosher Gelatin is not a Halal ingredient since long time because it is obtained from pork or non Zabiha beef. A Professor who is expert in Kosher foods has confirmed MCG position at International Association of Food Safety seminar on Ethnic foods. He told that the majority of Kosher Gelatin is from pork.
09/18/07
WHY DORITOS AND CHEETOS PRODUCTS ARE NOT HALAL IN USA &
Lot of Muslims calls Frito Lay Company to find out the Halal status of Doritos and Cheetos products. The 800 personnel are trained by the company to tell consumers that their cheeses are made with microbial rennet enzyme. But many Muslims are not aware that the rennet is not only thing, which decide the Halal status of a cheese. There are other things which has to be Halal if used during manufacture of a cheese such as Mother Culture Media, Bulk Culture Media (which is used to grow bacterial cheese cultures), other Enzymes such as Lipase and finally dairy flavors containing Enzymes, if the rennet is from microbial and above mentioned are not from Halal source then cheese will not be Halal. The culture medias are made with milk, whey and lactose (Haram if made from pork rennet, Haram media, pork enzymes), dried autolyzed brewer’s yeast (by product of beer) and Pancreatin (Haram if from pork). If culture media is pure milk then it is Halal. There was a international uproar from Muslims around the world when Ajinomoto of Indonesia used a pork derived culture media to grow bacteria for the production of Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) in Indonesia in 2000 (Muslim Consumer Group’s News/Alert update Jan. 05, 2001). We explained to Frito Lay Nutritionist supervisor Ms. Nina Ferguson about the requirements for Halal cheese and other ingredients. She is not aware of what are Halal and its requirements for Doritos and Cheetos products. We offered our help to educate them about Halal status of their products.
Doritos and Cheetos products are not Halal because of the following reasons:
1. The ingredients they used are not Halal or kosher certified.
2. The products are made on the same line where animal derived ingredients (including pork) containing products are manufactured.
3. Cheese used in Doritos and Cheetos products is not Halal or kosher certified. So cheese in Doritos and Cheetos is not Halal.
4. Dairy ingredients used in Doritos and Cheetos products are not Halal or kosher certified. So Doritos and Cheetos products are not made with Halal dairy ingredients.
5. Natural and Artificial flavors used are not Halal or kosher certified. These flavors may have contained animal derived ingredients and alcohol as a solvent.
6. Artificial Liquid colors used are Halal or kosher certified (Pork glycerin can be used as a solvent in FD&C liquid colors).
7. Doritos and Cheetos products are not Halal or kosher certified, so there is no protection for Muslim consumers. The source of ingredients can be change at any time without informing Muslim consumers.
Muslim
Consumer Group does not recommend Muslims to consume Doritos and Cheetose
products because of the above facts.
09/18/07
LAMB STEAKES AT OUTBACK RESTAURANTS
Outback restaurants do
not claim that they are serving Halal lamb stakes in
their restaurants because if they claim, then they will not serve bacon from
pork in their cabernet sauce with lamb stake. The lamb supplier in
CHANGES IN THE HALAL STATUS OF WRIGLEY
GUMS
Wrigley has informed MCG
in writing 3-4 years back that only Polar Bear Gum contains gelatin. But in a
recent letter to Muslim consumer Dr. Maqbool MD
(thanks for providing letter, Dr. Maqbool),
they claimed the following
gums contain gelatin.
We recommend Muslim
consumers to avoid these gums because they are not Halal:
EXTRA POLAR ICETM STICK GUM
JUICY FRUIT PELLET GUMS
SPEARMINT GUMS
EXTRA POLAR ICE GUM
CREAM SAVERS
ALTOID
ALERT
PRILOSAC OTC TABLETS
Proctor and Gamble can
not guarantee about absence of animal derived ingredients in Prilosac OTC tablets. One the ingredient in the tablet,
Magnesium stearate which acts as an emulsifier or anti
caking agent or lubricant or binder can be obtained either from animal or
vegetable fat depend upon what is available at the time of
purchase.
ALERT
CHANGES IN THE HALAL STATUS OF WRIGLEY GUMS
Wrigley has informed MCG
in writing 3-4 years back that only Polar Bear Gum contains gelatin. But in a
recent letter to Muslim consumer Dr. Maqbool MD
(thanks for providing letter, Dr. Maqbool), they
claimed the following gums contain gelatin.
We recommend Muslim
consumers to avoid these gums because they are not Halal:
EXTRA POLAR ICETM STICK GUM
JUICY FRUIT PELLET GUMS
SPEARMINT GUMS
EXTRA POLAR ICE GUM
CREAM SAVERS
ALTOID
ALERT
PRILOSAC OTC TABLETS
Proctor and Gamble can
not guarantee about absence of animal derived ingredients in Prilosac OTC tablets. One the ingredient in the tablet,
Magnesium stearate which acts as an emulsifier or anti
caking agent or lubricant or binder can be obtained either from animal or
vegetable fat depend upon what is available at the time of
purchase.
ALERT
NOT
Bayer's 81 mg coated
tablets are not Halal because they contain non
certified lactose. Bayer's gel tablets are not Halal
because they are made with gelatin.
ALERT
NOT
Not all Kosher Certified
food products are Halal because they do not meet the
Islamic dietary requirements.
The Kosher Certified
food products are not considered Halal if they contain
the following ingredients:
(1) Gelatin (2) Kosher
Gelatin (3) L-Cysteine made from human hair (4)
Wine (5) Liquor (6) Beer batter (7) Rum flavor (8) Ethyl Alcohol as a main
ingredient appears on the ingredient list (9) Cochineal or Carmine, a red color
from insects (10) Naturally Brewed Soy Sauce (11) Yeast Extract or Autolyzed Yeast made from brewer’s yeast, a by product of
beer making (12) Torula Yeast grown on alcohol
(13) Nucleotides (building block of nucleic acid) are obtained from yeast cells
grown on alcohol, used in Infant Milk formulas to help babies build a good
immune, digestive system and decreased incident of diarrhea (14) Vanilla Extract
(15) Wine Vinegar (16) Ethyl alcohol is used as a solvent in natural and
artificial flavors.
ALERT
MAALOX ANTACID TABLETS
MANUFACTURED BEFORE SEPTEMBER 2004 WITH EXPIRATION DATE 05/06 CONTAIN ANIMAL
DERIVED INGREDIENTS
ALERT
MYLANTA ANTIGAS TABLETS,
ANTACID
Johnson & Johnson
has informed MCG that Mylanta anti gas tablets, Mylanta ant acid gel
tablets and Pepcid antacid are made from animal
derived ingredients. If gelatin, magnesium stearate
and polysorbate 80 present in Inactive ingredients in
any products then they
ALERT
ISNA FAILS AGAIN IN
PROVIDING HALAL FOOD PRODUCTS AT THEIR CONVENTION IN
Once again ISNA fails to
check the Halal status of snacks supplied by the
venders at their convention in
1. They allowed Non
Halal and Non Kosher certified Gold Medal's # 5277 El
Nacho Grande cheese sauce for Muslims who trust ISNA for providing only Halal food products at their convention.
The ingredients
statement of Gold Medal Nacho Grande Cheese sauce on the package obtained by MCG
is as follows:
Water, Partially
Hydrogenated Soybean oil, Modified Food starch, Malto
dextrin, Cheddar cheese (Culture, milk, salt, enzyme), Jalapeno peppers, Natural
Flavor, Salt , Sodium Phosphate, Vinegar, Lactic & citric acids, Mono &
diglycerides, yeast extract and natural
color.
MCG contacted the Gold
Medal Company and found out that this cheese sauce is not Halal or Kosher certified according to Food Technologist
Todd Sunderhause. There is the possibility that
cheddar cheese could be made with pork enzyme, non Halal starter culture media. The natural flavor could be
made from non Halal sources and may contain alcohol as
a solvent. The yeast extract is obtained from brewer's yeast from beer making
which provides meaty flavor.
2. The Elgin Dairy Inc.
has provided the 4% Vanilla Soft Serve Ice cream and one of the ingredients of
ice cream was natural flavor. Elisa Locant QA Manager
of
3. The Ice cream Cones are made by Keebler Company and vanilla was used as a flavor, and the
presence or absence of alcohol was not confirmed. It means the cones are Mushbow items.
4. The cheese pizza was supplied by Deliccouse, a unknown company. The Halal status of crust, pizza sauce and cheese was not known.
ISNA is now providing
Halal certification services. The question is how
Muslim consumers will trust ISNA if they do not even provide Halal food products to Muslims at their
convention.
ALERT
PORK FAT CONTAINING
ALLERGY TABLETS, JELL CAPS & CAPLETS
The following allergy
products are made with ingredients derived from pork fat.
1. Sudafed Non Drowsy
Sinus tablets
2. Benadryl Allergy
Tablets
3. Tylenol Allergy
Complete Jell Tab, Caplets
4. Claritin Non Drowsy
Tablets
5. Tylenol Sever Allergy
Fast Relief Jell Caps
ALERT
Although the Red Bull
energy drinks are Kosher certified, the company refuses to provide information
on solvent use in artificial flavors. The company did provide the ethyl alcohol
content less than 0.05% rather than zero. It means the solvent used in
artificial flavor is ethyl alcohol because the rest of the ingredients in the
Red Bull soft drinks do not provide any source for alcohol, so where this minute
alcohol comes from, it is definitely contributed by artificial flavor in the
energy drinks.
ALERT
CLAIROL'S HERBAL ESSENCES SHAMPOOS
Procter and Gamble Company has informed MCG
that after acquiring Clairol's shampoo business from
ALERT
LONG JOHN SILVER FRIED FISH
According to Long John Silver Inc., Non
Zabiha Chicken products, Fish, French Fries and Hush
Puppies are fried in the same oil.
ALERT
NUCLEOTIDES IN INFANT FORMULA
Nucleotides are made
from yeast cells including torula yeast and brewer
yeast. One of the larger manufacturer of nucleotides is using a specific strain
of torula yeast and
growing on alcoholic beverages such as beer and wine to manufacture the
Nucleotide. But the residual of amount of alcohol in nucleotide is very
minimum such as 200 part per millions (PPM).
Nucleotides are now
adding to infant formulas such as in Similac and
Enfamil brands. Islamic dietary laws considered alcoholic beverages are Haram. Nucleotide is considered as Mushbooh ingredient by MCG.
ALERT
NOXZEMA
CREAM PRODUCTS
According to
Procter Gamble Company all Noxzema cream products containing gelatin are made
with pork or beef based gelatin and company can not guarantee that it is pork
free.
ALERT
LUCOZADE
Muslim Consumer Group
was contacted by a
Use of ethyl alcohol as
a solvent in Natural and Artificial Flavors in Lucozade soft drink:
1. There is a difference
in purpose between ethyl alcohol produced naturally in many fruits, during
fermentation of bread baking and alcohol produced commercially. Production of
alcohol in fruits by nature is not for intoxication purpose or having pleasure
while purpose of producing alcohol commercially are many, such as adding alcohol
to wine or liquor to meet FDA requirements of alcohol content.
Many ulema are very keen to point out very low amount of alcohol
such as 0.01% alcohol in above soft drinks. This is misleading
and confuse the Muslim consumers. Let us examine the alcohol content of
natural or artificial as a raw material at the time of manufacturing soft drink.
The alcohol content of most flavors are any where
between 90-95% of the total flavor. The actual flavoring compounds percentage in
a flavor is very low compared to alcohol content. Ulema ignore this fact of adding a Haram ingredient to make a soft drink, but they are
interested only in the minute amount of alcohol in a finished soft
drink.
2. Natural and
artificial flavors can be made without alcohol by using Halal solvent such as Propylene Glycol. Many soft drinks are
available in the market without alcohol being used as a solvent. I personally
developed four high protein nutritional bars for MLO products;
3. Flavor
chemists and Flavor houses in western countries are not educated about the Haram status of ethyl alcohol as a solvent. They considered
ethyl alcohol as an excellent solvent without any side effects for its use in
food products. Ulema should not come under the
pressure from food companies to follow their wishes and find out loop holes in
the sharia which are not acceptable to majority of
Muslim consumers.
According to
IslamonLine.net "Zaki, however, urged the drinks maker
to pursue research to find alternative material in order to allay the conscience
of Muslims who might be worried". This does not make any
sense, it means that they are not even sure about their
own fatwa. Then why Muslims in
Why Br.
Zaki and council do not want to wait to get Halal alternate. What is is
rush? Why GlaxoSmithKline is pressuring the council?.
Are they really representing
4. When an
alternate to ethyl alcohol as a solvent is ready available and it is being used
in many Halal food products what is the need of this
fatwa. Can
5. According to Sahee Muslim, Sahee Muslim and Sahee Bukhar 492 Narrated by Aisha R.A, Allah’s Messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallum said “all drinks that intoxicate are unlawful
to drink (Kullu Sharbin
Askara Fahuwa Haramun).
According to Sahee Muslim and Sahee Tarmizi Narrated by Ibn Omar,
Allah’s Messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallum said every
intoxicant is khamer and every intoxicant is
Haram (Kullu muskirun khumrun wa Kullu Muskirun Haramun).
According Sahee Muslim, narrated by Bareda
R.A Allah’s Messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallum said every
intoxicant is Haram (Kullu
Muskirun Haramun).
According Sahee Turmizi, narrated by Aisha
R.A, Allah’s Messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallum said every
intoxicant is Haram (Kullu
Muskirun Haramun).
From the above, we can
conclude that the alcohol is Haram and can not be used
in Halal food product because there is a Halal alternative is available.
Pork Gelatin used as a
filter in Ribina soft drink:
There is lot of
literature about how gelatin is made on internet. But we have to understand the
basic biochemistry of gelatin raw material and gelatin itself. The basic
components of collagen (raw material of gelatin) and gelatin is protein
and amino acids. If the components of the raw material and
finished product is same that mean the chemical reaction and processing
does not cause any changes to the original component. Then it is not the case
for Tabdeele Mahiya.
(a) If you run a
(b) What is gelatin, it
is a derived water-soluble protein made by controlled hydrolytic
conversion of collagen, the protein constituent of white fibrous
connective tissue from animals. The manufacturing process will take out the
extraneous material from bones, skin hide trimming. Neutralizing, washing and
converting the collagen to gelatin occurs but the basic components remain the
same.
(c) Extensive study have
shown that the amino acid (basic component) content of white connective tissue
whether from bone, skin or tendon is very uniform and yields gelatins also
having uniform amino acid composition. This confirms no change has occurred in
the basic components.
(d) The gelatin is
subject to hydrolytic breakdown by which it is converted from insoluble
macromolecular collagen to water soluble protein.
(e) The whole
manufacturing process is based on purification and conversion of water insoluble
collagen protein to water soluble gelatin. There is no new product and
originality of gelatin raw material remains the same during manufacturing
process.
Gelatin is not an
example of Tabdeele Mahiya.
Type A gelatin (pig) is Haram
because it is still contain the original pig protein and amino
acids.
Since pork gelatin
filter is used in the manufacturing of Ribena soft
drink and the soft drink is in a direct contact with a Najus material which is prohibited ingredient, the Ribena soft drink is considered a Haram soft drink.
We request our
PORK
SAUSAGE, FISH FILET
Burger King
restaurants all over USA use the same fryer to fry Pork Sausage, Fish Filet and
Chicken Tenders. Please avoid eating Fish Filet or Chicken Tenders (those
Muslims who consider it as meat slaughtered by people of the books) at Burger
King Restaurants.
WHY JUICY JUICE FRUIT JUICES
There are four
reasons why juicy juice fruit juices made in
ALERT
DART CONTAINER CORPORATION
Dart
Container Corporation is using pork/beef fat Zink Stearate as a lubricant on the molds to make their foam
cups. Please avoid Dart Container Corporation's Styrofoam cups