Meat imported into the region by Meat & Livestock Australia is subject to stringent segregation in Australia to ensure it complies with halal standards.
Twenty two meat products labelled ‘halal’ were pulled off shelves in Bahrain’s supermarkets after they were found to contain pork and horsemeat during testing by the Ministry of Health. A total of 172 products were tested by the ministry in collaboration with the Arabian Gulf University (AGU) laboratories, and 22 were found to be contaminated.
“A total of 22 contaminated imported and processed meat products were found in the market. 16 products were found to have horse meat and six with pork,” the ministry said.
Labelled as beef, these canned items were sold in supermarkets and fast food outlets in the Kingdom. There have since been calls for consumers to take action against those responsible through filing of lawsuits. The ministry also said it will continue its tests of imported meat to ensure they are halal.
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As of now, a Health Ministry official has told local media that Bahrain is free of meat products contaminated with pork and horsemeat. The country has since shared its test results with other GCC countries.
Halal integrity is an important factor that governs meat imports into the UAE, according to experts who discussed the issue during a roundtable with Caterer Middle East.
Meat & Livestock Australia’s regional manager Middle East & North Africa Jamie Ferguson said halal integrity is an important issue with the organisation working on a related campaign with the Emirates Standardisation and Metrology Authority (ESMA). The latter is responsible for unified halal codes and is mandated by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
Ferguson said: “HH Sheikh Mohammed basically said that UAE wants to be the leader of halal. There are 1.5 billion Muslims in the world and if we want part of that action, we have got to do it well.”
Dubai Municipality Food Control Department's food health inspection officer Mohammad Khalid Saeed explained that non-halal meat is not allowed in the country, unless in rare cases of special permits. Any meat consignment arriving in the UAE from non-Muslim countries or specified areas needs to have a halal certificate, according to Saeed.
Ferguson explained that Australia has a stringent system in place for its meat exports, with six main Islamic organisations and an Australian goverment-approved halal programme since 1982. This programme is also approved by the OIC and the UAE.
“The Islamic organisation controls anything religious and the Australian government controls segregation. If any carcass is deemed not to be halal, it becomes the Australian government’s responsibility to ensure that there’s no contamination, there’s segregation and integrity is maintained.”
Dubai Municipality’s principal food studies and surveys officer Bobby Krishna shed some more light on the procedures undertaken to ensure integrity of products entering the country and said the scandal needs to be assessed with a clear mind.
“Yes, certain technologies have helped with detection of unauthorised DNA, but bear in mind that DNA presence does not necessarily mean that the other meat — pork or horse — was added to it. Contamination yes, but was it actual meat? So we should not get into drawing conclusions.”
Krishna revealed that food safety is an important focus in the UAE, with all meat products’ ingredients tested to check for things like pork DNA. Imported products go through what Krishna described as a risk-based food sampling procedure.
“It selects products which are susceptible to contamination and tests them more often. It is also based on where we import from — if the importer is complying with all the requirements then we test them less. It’s a risk-based model,” he said.
Krishna said it would be unfair to blame testing authorities. “For example, the Snapple issue. That was found out because of our own testing as we have random samplings carried out all the time. We inform the public immediately if we find anything wrong.”
He explained that country profiles are in place for imports, with the risk-based model evolving based on any emerging situations. “Knee-jerk reactions are not going to help. We need to first look at if we really have a problem, and then put the system right.”
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