Norway: Islamic Council halal concerns

The Halal group of the Islamic Council of Norway are concerned that halal chicken from halal slaughter houses are authentic. The data from Mattilsynet (Norwegian Food Safety Authority) shows that many chickens are killed euthanized, even before losing blood.

"Many Muslims today are uncertain if chickens from slaughter houses in Norway are truly halal. We have received data that up to 20% of the chickens could have been killed euthanized. We have taken up the issue with producers and Mattilsynet, but received different answers depending on who we spoke with. Now we want an orderly survey of the conditions so that we can finally get a clear result," says general secretary Shoaib Sultan.

Supermarket chain Prior's halal chicken come from the slaughter house in Everum. Here it was just moved to using gas as euthanasia before slaughter.

"We work together with the imams on this subject and are dependent on them approving the slaughter methods. We will continue to survey how many chickens die after euthanasia. If the imams are not satisfied with the results, we must do something with it," says information head Ellen Flø Skagen in Nortura, Øst region.

Mattilsynet is aware that many chickens die before they are slaughtered, but has not researched the case more deeply. They have received several inquiries from the Islamic Council of Norway about the uncertainty round slaughter methods, but think that this is not Mattilsynet's responsibility.

"This is on the whole not a case which belongs to Mattilsynet. We don't come to carry out more scientific tests of Elverum's of other slaughter houses' slaughtering methods," says senior advisor Bjørnar Jakobsen.

He is case handler in one of the concern requests from Norwegian imams and thinks that this is a private legal relationship between slaughterers and consumers.

"We're turning to Mattilsynet since they are a state authority and are not a party in the case. It is strange that they don't think that this is their responsibility," says Sultan

Source: Aftenposten (Norwegian)

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