Halal, explained
Certification, labels and the grey areas, covered without the jargon and without the confident misinformation.
Is Marmite halal? It depends on the jar
There is more than one Marmite, and more than one certifier. The answer depends on which jar is in your hand.
Halal ingredient or halal facility? Not the same thing
Three claims that sound alike, and only one of them is a certification you can rely on.
Halal logos: what counts, and what only looks official
One official mark, and a great many things that resemble one. Almost none mean what shoppers assume.
Reading a Malaysian food label
A fixed set of legally required information, and a much larger amount of marketing. Separating the two takes five minutes.
The grey areas: emulsifiers, enzymes and alcohol in flavourings
Some ingredients genuinely cannot be judged from the label. Not because the label is hiding something, but because the same name covers materials from completely different sources.
How halal certification actually works in Malaysia
Most people assume it is a check on the recipe. It is mostly a check on everything around the recipe, which is why so many first applications come back with corrections.
