Labelling Meat And Poultry As 'halal'.

[hc4361]

Assuming you are neither Muslim nor vegetarian, would you be put off buying meat if you knew it was slaughtered the Halal way?

I have had this email from Tesco.
"For example, all our New Zealand lamb meets Halal standards."

I know for a fact that this isn't labelled on the product nor sold in the Halal section - I would expect some sort of label or symbol to indicate to Muslims that the product is suitable for them.

Could it be that Tesco believe they would sell less it the meat was labelled as Halal?

[hc4361]

Stunning is the difference.

[EDDIE51]

em10, how do you think animals are slaughtered then ? ALL slaughter houses use the method of slitting the throat , there is no other way of doing it.

[Mamyalynne]

As the OP points out - label the meat accordingly and let the customer make the choice.

[sherrardk]

I have seen meat being transferred from an ordinary butcher's van into a (an?) Halal butcher's van (it said Halal on the side) in a lay by, something not Kosher about that.

[EDDIE51]

Naomi, Any one, man or woman, of any religion or none can slaughter animals in the Halal method . They do not have to be Muslim or indeed have any religion at all. The verses from the Quran played are over a loud speaker the slaughter man (or woman) does not have to actually say them.
Originally it was true that the slaughter man had to actually say the verses / prayers as he killed the animal, but that has not been the case for decades , far too costly , so now just the need to play the tape remains.

[society]

There could be any number of reasons for that, Sherr - the van refrigerator system broke down, splitting up the deliveries, the van itself might have been faulty etc.

Hope the the CP is about gone.

[LazyGun]

I eat meat. I would want to know that the meat that I am eating has been slaughtered according to a humane standard. I do not think that such a stance is hypocritical.

There are abbatoirs in the UK ANSA - Association of Non-Stun Abbatoirs- who have an exemption from stunning on religious grounds.

Although Halal allows for pre-stunning, Kosher does not, and for most muslims that i have heard, they assume that halal means non-stun too.

There was an animal welfare report from 2004 which suggested that a large % of the animals killed in the halal fashion in the UK were pre-stunned, which is all well and good, although I have not seen the report myself, but as a consumer I want to be able to make that distinction for myself.

And as we have all seen with the recent scandal of adulteration of beef with horsemeat, how do we know what goes on in other countries abbatoirs?

I do not think that Tesco are acting in the consumers best interests, if all their NZ lamb is slaughtered in the halal fashion, but not marketed as such.

So I no longer by any meat products from a supermarket but from a local butcher who makes use of a local abbatoir.

[237SJ]

I remember being in Western Australia (can`t remember whether it was Perth or Freemantle) and watching an absolutely massive ship sailing out from dock. It was full of sheep that were being transported thousands of miles to Saudi so that they could be slaughtered via halal methods. Imagine a slave ship and substitute sheep for slaves. Humane? I don`t think so.

[sherrardk]

Hi society (sorry for the pun - but do love it) looked well iffy to me. CP has been very mild, only one proper spot (almost disappointing), but lots of blotchy itchy bits, a bit achey and a sickening bad head. Must be really horrible for little people who can't explain how they feel (must have been horrid for thing 2 with his speech problems). Just hoping the others don't get it, xxx

[sherrardk]

Sorry society, did FB kisses, don't want to look too familiar! x (back to one for Aber's)

[EDDIE51]

Sherrardk, As I said ,virtually every slaugher house now is 'Halal' . The simple and very cheap method of playing a tape of verses or prayers in the slaughter area means the meat can be sold as Halal ( at a higher price of course). In actual fact nearly all meat could if the shop / supplier wanted be sold as Halal. This is proved by the statement from Tesco in the original question that '' All our New Zealand lamb meets Halal standards'' in fact they could just as easily say '' All our lamb meets Halal standards'' as it would be true in 99% of cases.

[sherrardk]

Eddie, not questioning what you said. Crossed wires maybe?

[EDDIE51]

2373J it was a lot cheaper to ship live sheep as the ship does not have to be refrigerated to keep the meat fresh , that is why live sheep were shipped from Oz , nothing to do with Halal. The live shipping has been banned now as the conditions were so poor with no reguard for the animal welfare. Again nothing to do with Halal meat, that can be slaughtered any where.

[LazyGun]

@Eddie. Thats great. If Tescos can offer customers that kind of guarantee, then all they need do to reassure their customers is to guarantee that all animals are pre-stunned prior to slaughter and I would be happier..

Still buying all my meat from a local butcher/ local abbatoir though.

[237SJ]

All lamb is not halal Eddie. New Zealand lamb might be (possibly because it has been through the process that I mentioned in my previous post) but I have farmer friends in the West Country (they have 1500 sheep) and I know the butchers that sell on the Devon lamb and it is not halal.

[237SJ]

Eddie, the sheep are transported live so that they can be killed in Saudi Arabia via halal methods. That is a fact

[237SJ]

Further, it is not cheaper to ship sheep live. It is cheaper to fly the killed and prepared lamb via cargo on cargo and passenger aircraft. There would have been no reason to ship live sheep except to fulfill halal requirements.

[EDDIE51]

Supermarket meat will be almost always Halal as it costs no more to produce.
Local farms have always sold their meat that has been locally slaughtered and always will . The problem is the price diffrence, few can afford the cost of local produced and slaughtered meat. We have such a shop in our town but the meat is at least twice the price of supermarket meat , very few can afford to buy there . I looked in there a few days ago Fillet steak £38 a kg ! I can't even afford the supermarket price of £18 a kg

[LazyGun]

Thats why it seems to me that the Supermarkets have an obligation to those customers of theirs that wish to have a guarantee that at the very least they have the opportunity, through labelling, of being able to reassure themselves that the animals slaughtered for their meat have been pre-stunned prior to slaughter.

And at the moment they offer no such reassurance, at least as I understand it.Rather, they offer rather bland reassurances, and we get rather vague statements from the regulatory bodies that "most" meat killed by the halal method has been pre-stunned.

I do not think that that is good enough.

And obviously peoples local experience of their butchers and its prices will differ.My local tescos for instance - finest fillet £32/Kilo. My local butcher? £30/Kilo....

[naomi24]

Eddie, I couldn’t give a damn about prayers. Butchers can say a full mass over the meat for all I care. This is about slaughtering animals as humanely as possible. Contrary to the rumour that seems to be spreading here that under the halal method animals are stunned first and therefore their slaughter is humane, they are not. Did anyone actually read Jake’s misleading post and the link he provided? He didn’t post this bit, but here you are. This is a quote from the Muslim butcher.

//'Stunning just gives you five seconds to get the chain around its leg and get it into a position to slaughter. It's not like an English stun, it just lasts five seconds, that's all. At the point that the throat is slashed, the animal has revived. It is kicking.'//

^^That’s Islam’s version of stunning before slaughter - and it doesn't help the animal one jot. It's all about making life easier for the butcher!!