Youjung Kwon
Kwon1996@gmail.com
In such an ever growing technological society, which has inevitably resulted in instant and even unsanitary foods, reliability towards everyday dietary and tools has unfortunately plummeted. For this reason, halal food and cosmetics have become an upcoming trend to compensate for these problems. In this article, we aim to focus on what halal is, the two most latent contents of halal: food and cosmetics, and how Korea and even sejong is adjusting to the dissemination of this new movement.
What is halal?
About one-fourth of the earth’s population, estimated to be about a little more than 1.5 billion, are Islamic muslims. Muslims base their lives on the scriptures of the Qur’an and thoroughly follow the contents indicated in the texts. Among the narratives that they specify, “Halal” means to be “allowed.” According to the Shari-ah law, halal is one of the five measures of morality: Ford (compulsory), Mustahabb (suggested), Halal (allowed), Makruh (not recommended), and Haram (prohibited). These five commandments are enforced as long as one does not suffer from it and are merged into the Islam culture, making them inseparable.
What is halal food?
Halal food is food that has been processed according to the halal regulations, also known as Dhabihah. As the nature of halal food, it does not include haram: no poisonous substances, no liquid that stupefies (ie. potable alcohol), and no materials detrimental to the body. The reason why halal has funneled into the spotlight owes its reason to halal’s morally produced procedures and clean sanitation, which ultimately guarantees its taste, freshness, and quality. As a matter of fact, halal industry takes up 16 percent of the world’s, approximated to be about 160 trillion dollars worth.
To understand “morally produced by Islamic law,” it means to avoid haram. First, hygiene and exact declaration of its components are crucial. There must be no excretion, blood or saliva originating from animals, and the ingredients inputted must be written according to the halal certification format. Second, additives contaminated by haram or humans are not allowed. This applies to the time beginning from its production to transportation and even retail.
Extending on to Dhabihah, Dhabihah is a humane method of slaughter, purposed to kill with the least amount of pain required. The steps in butchery goes as such: one must first hold the animal’s head towards the Mecca, the holiest city according to Qur’an, and shout the phrases, “bismillah ir rahman ir rahim, Allahu ekber (In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious. the Most Merciful / God is greater). Then, with a metal knife specifically made for the slaughtering process, the butcher must quickly cut from the neck through the veins to its esophagus. This is done in order to push out all of the blood in the animal’s body since Islamic law prohibits drinking of animal blood. A small merit rooting from this commandment is that the meat becomes softer, but a downside is that there is little gravy to enjoy after cooking. Along with the rules mentioned above, it is essential that the slaughtered animal is killed for the one purpose of being consumed.
As demonstrated as above, halal food undergoes rigorous inspection in safety and hygiene, which promises establishment of trust amongst customers. In fact, credence towards halal food has heightened its popularity among wellbeing and vegetarian groups in countries such as US and Europe. Korea’s domestic market has also caught up to the pace by signing the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU: official partnership) with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and by even promoting halal food in the Korean industry.
How does one obtain halal certification?
In order to obtain halal certification, one must first fully understand the procedure that international halal certification institutions, such as JAKIM (Malaysia) and MUI (Indonesia), undergo to validate its process. As the expiry of halal certification is only one year, one must take into account and annually take note of the small changes of the process that the institutions make. After fully comprehending the procedure, one must visit Korean halal certification institutions, such as Pentaglobal, GCC, or Halal Industry Research Center, and go through the authentication process. Certification fundamentally depends on the Islamic law, which means full understanding of Islam as a religion is also required.
What is halal cosmetics?
Halal cosmetics is, alike halal food, cosmetics that uses ingredients from halal substances. Because it does not include extractions from pigs or potable alcohol, countries such as Indonesia, favoring natural looks, are increasingly becoming interested in halal cosmetics. According to 2015’s, “Present Islam’s Economic Briefing,” global halal cosmetics is predicted to double, from 2013’s 40 billion dollars to 2019’s 73 billion dollars. These numbers are proportionately large in scale, considering it only includes halal cosmetics, not the whole halal industry.
How does halal differentiate from other types of cosmetics?
As the nature of halal cosmetics, there are restrictions into what can be included as ingredients. Recycled water is not allowed and any substance affiliated with haram and animals classified as Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species and Flora (CITES) are prohibited. Although potable alcohol is banned, khamar, which is alcohol that does not intoxicate no matter how much consumed, such as Cetyl or Ethanol, is allowed.
Halal cosmetics also shares differences and commonalities with Natural / Organic and vegetarian cosmetics. Organic cosmetics is usually regulated under the US Department of Agriculture, which legally monitors their cosmetics and other substances to be composed of 70 percent organic ingredients. This means it must be mostly naturally extracted, and preservatives, such as paraben and sulfate, are banned. Extending onto this guideline, companies thoroughly follow the expiry date and store their cosmetics in glass, rather than plastic or rubber, in order to maximize the quality.
Similarly, Cruelty-free cosmetics and Vegan Beauty parallels with halal cosmetics in their faith. Vegan beauty, rooting from vegan and vegetarian, is usually classified by dermatologists as cosmetics that do not contain by-products of animals, such as fatty acids, collagen, and gelatin. Cruelty-free also shares the ideology of Vegan, where it does not include anything associated with any type of animal cruelty or animal testing. Halal can be seen as an ultimate combination of Organic, Cruelty-free, Vegan cosmtics, and essentially the halal certification.
What are Sejong students doing to raise awareness?
Sejong Nanuri, Sejong’s Innovative and Sharing Volunteer Group, has fast realized this latent field of halal food and formed a volunteer group named Stimulating Culture Interaction (SCI). SCI aims to solve the lack of awareness in halal amongst Sejong students. They have held various programs, such as making halal rice balls, improving perceptions of Muslim culture by education, and selling halal food in the school cafeteria. Yoonjung Yang, one of the volunteers, commented, “It felt rewarding to visually be able to perceive the people's perceptions slowly change as we carried out the volunteer work.”
How should Korea prepare for the bloom of latent halal industry?
Halal industry, including not only the above mentioned halal food and cosmetics, but also a whole obscure fields yet to be discovered, is expected to become the next big current. Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC: regional intergovernmental, political, and economic union of Arab states in the Persian Gulf) and international halal product certifying institutions are taking steps to cooperate, finding a way to better certifying procedures and environments.
As halal is becoming not only a lifestyle tendency of the Islamic countries, but also of anyone who wishes for an upswing of daily customs, halal industry is expected to be a big hit. Hence, it is important for Korea to follow the current with eager anticipation, keeping up with the pace of International Halal Integrity Alliance (IHIA), to target consumer layers.
