Jakim’s weaknesses jeopardising halal certification integrity

Jakim’s weaknesses jeopardising halal certification integrity



From Murray Hunter

According to the department of Islamic development’s (Jakim) Halal Malaysia Directory, many well-known branded products are currently not certified halal. These products were certified and labelled halal but for some reason had their halal status revoked.

However, most of them are still being sold to consumers.

Over the last couple of years, Jakim has made a number of announcements about improvements to its halal system following allegations of corruption.

Last November, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced that Jakim would improve three mechanisms to improve quality standards and safety assurances for halal products. This was in response to corruption allegations and the meat substitution scandal back in 2020, which led to widespread community condemnation.

The Malaysia Halal Certification Procedure Manual 2020 and the Malaysia Halal Management System 2020 were promoted as mechanisms to strengthen Jakim’s weaknesses in halal management.

Within the above package, it was also announced that Jakim was spending RM3.4 million to create an integrated halal information system.

However, at the time of writing, there appears to be little of this system visible on the Jakim website, especially the application where consumers can check the current halal status of any product in the Malaysian market. Software on the Jakim halal website appears to be more than a generation old.

In the market today, there are hundreds of products on sale with expired or cancelled halal certification.

Inquiries with industry sources indicate that by far the majority of situations where products are no longer certified halal is solely due to the backlog Jakim is facing with halal renewal procedures.

However, some halal certifications have been withdrawn or suspended for other reasons. One company’s products were found to contain pork DNA residuals after analysis. Other Jakim halal certifications were suspended for unknown reasons.

Many officers responsible for halal certification at Malaysian companies vented frustration in dealing with Jakim. Some even went so far as to claim they were being given low priority by Jakim because their companies were non-Bumiputera owned.

This creates a major integrity issue, where consumers don’t know the true situation about the halal status of a product in the market. Some manufacturers claim their product is registered halal, but for some reason, most probably a backlog in work at Jakim, this is not reflected in the database.

This also puts the integrity of companies in question, most of which have worked very hard to develop first class halal credentials.

Word around the international halal industry is that Malaysia’s system has a crisis of credibility. This backlog is occurring at a time when Jakim is trying to promote its halal certification as a world standard leader.



Murray Hunter is an independent researcher and former professor with the Prince of Songkhla University and Universiti Malaysia Perlis.