What are Halal Products?
Halal products are consumable products such as food, beverages, drugs, cosmetics, chemical products, biological products, genetically engineered products, or any goods that can be use and applied by humans in accordance with Islamic principles (“Halal Products”).
The subject matter of Halal Products is the raw materials and manufacturing processes for such products (chapter III). Raw materials derived from certain animals are considered haram (opposite to halal) including corpuses, blood, and pork. (Article 18: 1). Halal manufacturing processes require that the location, facilities, equipment, processing, storage, packaging, distribution, and sale of Halal Products be strictly separated from non-halal products. Additionally, Halal Products manufacturing facilities must be kept clean and hygienic, free from impurities (najis), and free from non-halal materials.
The Halal Certification Procedure
In exercising its authority, The Agency of Halal Product Assurance (BPJPH) may cooperate with related ministries and/or institutions, Halal verification Agency (LPH), and Indonesian Council of Ulama (MUI). BPJPH will take over MUI’s role, which was previously the sole institution that issued halal certificates. The law No. 33/2014 mandates the establishment of BPJPH that was created in 2017.
Although halal certificates will be issued by the BPJPH, the process of verifying whether or not a product is halal will be carried out by a different party, namely the Halal Inspection Institution (Lembaga Pemeriksa Halal or “LPH”). In general, LPH will check and verify whether or not the raw materials and manufacturing process are halal. These activities may be carried out inside or outside the manufacturing facility.
LPH may be established by the government and public institutions such as universities. To run its operations, LPH must be accredited by BPJPH, employ at least 3 inspectors, and have its own laboratory or cooperate with another party that has a laboratory.
Provision on Location, Place and Processing of Halal Products
The location of Halal slaughtering, as well as the area and equipment of PPH for slaughtering, processing, storage, packaging, distribution, selling, and serving, must be separated from those that are non-Halal.
- The location of slaughtering must be:
- Physically separate the Halal and Non-Halal slaughterhouses
- Confined with a fence of at least 3 meters
- Not in flood-prone areas, polluted with smoke, odors, dust, and other contaminants
- Have a separate solid and liquid waste handling facilities from non-Halal slaughterhouses
- Have a separate door for the entrance of animal cuts and the exit of the carcass and meat
The slaughterhouses shall separate between Halal & Non-Halal. Such separation between halal and non-halal should be applied to storage of ingredients, products as well as the storage facilities, packaging ingredients as well as its facilities, transportation vehicles as well as its facilities, sales process as well as sales location facilities and serving process as well as its facilities.
The equipment for following purpose should be separated between halal and non-halal for Slaughtering, Processing, Storage, Packaging, Distribution, Serving and Selling.
After the law will have come into force only three types of products can be sold:
- Halal certified products
- Non-certified products
- Non-halal products
For number 2 and 3 the requirement applies to put clear signage on the packaging stating the product type. Details regarding the content of such signage are not available yet.
Certification Fee and Registration Procedure for Foreign Halal Certification
The certification fee will be charged to companies that apply for Halal certification. Products with halal certification from foreign institutions, which have a mutual recognition with BPJPH, only need to register their certificate and do not need to apply for new halal certification. The said registration should be sent to BPJPH and attached a copy of foreign certification approved by the Indonesian embassy at origin country, list of goods that will be imported complete with HS code, and statement letter on validity of documents. If the registration is successful, the Head of BPJPH will issue a registration number that should be attached to the packaging, and certain part/place of products and should be close to halal label.
Note: The derivative/implantation regulations of Halal are still under development process until today (09.01.19). The information above may change subject to the development of the implementation regulation.
