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NEW WORLD HOTEL, Makati City, September 19, 2026 (SDN) — Many food products in the country’s supermarkets, groceries, sari-sari stores are stamped with Halal Logo.

Muslim consumers feel safe, protected from “Haram” — meaning forbidden substances or elements in Islam, such as pork — when they see a product carrying a Halal Logo. It ought to be the case, meaning trust must be every Halal Logo’s DNA.

In fact, Tawi-Tawi native Sabuddin N. Abdurahim, secretary/CEO of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF), made this very plainly.

“When consumers see a Halal mark, they should see more than a logo. They should see trust,” he emphasizes.

He delivered the Welcome Remarks at the opening of the two-day — September 19-20 — Philippine Halal Industry Summit 2026 in this five-star hotel organized by the Commission’s Bureau of Muslim Economic Affairs (NCMF-BMEA), with a theme revolving around “Advancing the Philippine Halal Ecosystem: Integration, Innovation, and Global Competitiveness”.

His remarks focused on how to strengthen “Halal as a system of trust, integrity, quality, and faith”.

The NCMF secretary hammered his point deeper, referring, among others, to “certification”, the process that earns goods in the market the universal Halal Logo.

“Certification assures consumers and markets that a product, process, or service complies with defined Halal requirements,” he explains.

Included in his topic were  “Accreditation” and Certification, with the former referring to the process where Halal Certifying Bodies (HCBs), after passing what should be stringent criteria, are then allowed to certify products, food or non-food, even establishments, as “Halal” and stamped with the Islamic mark that signifies they were put through inspection, Halal audit, and, for goods, under laboratory analysis to determine whether they are free of, or contained, forbidden substances, or elements.

“Accreditation, meanwhile, strengthens confidence in the competence and reliability of the organizations performing conformity assessment and certification.

” Certification tells us that the requirements have been met. Accreditation givDes us fgreater confidence in those who make that determination,” the NCMF head drives further down.

Thus, he suggested, the Philippines should have more competent Halal auditors, qualified Halal practitioners, credible certification bodies, strong laboratory support, traceability, documentation, and effectiv very ñe monitoring.

Moreover, he said that achieving Halal integrity covers the facility, equipment, utensils, processing environment, storage, transportation, and the entire supply chain.

But can consumers truly trust the Halal Logo stamped on Philippine-manufactured goods, especially food products being sold by businesses, big and small? Here and abroad?

Apparently, judging from what had happened in recent and not-so-recent memory, the answer is “Yes” and “No”.

What if there’s already fraudulently labeled Halal-certified goods out there unbeknown to unsuspecting consumers?

Whether by unwitting contamination, carelessness, or done consciously, they all are the same: Haram, a violation of the Shari’ah Law.

NCMF-South Luzon’s action proves presence of Halal-certified food products with pork contamination

There are examples of food products certified Halal but found to contain porcine elements, pork DNA.

SDN – SciTech & Digital News recalls that NCMF-South Luzon in March 2023 proved there are such products stamped with Halal Logo found after undergoing tests at the high-tech Halal Verification Laboratory (HVL) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST)-Region IV-A in Barangay Timugan, Los Baños, Laguna, Rizal province.

The NCMF regional office bought many food products of a particular company and had them blind-tested at the HVL. Results showed the products contained pork elements.

Later, the NCMF Central Office in Quezon City, Metro Manila, issued a public advisory urging Muslims to not buy or consume the products for being porcine-contaminated.

The concerned company protested but later backed down after being presented the results of the laboratory analysis.

There were other food products exported to Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and, recently, to Brunei that also were found with pork contamination.

Question: Are there still Halal-certified goods in the country’s supermarkets, groceries, sari-sari stores marked Halal but also with porcine contamination?

The onus is on government agencies mandated to promote and develop the country’s Halal industry to determine and protect and save non-pork eating consumers.

Such government agencies must be empowered to mete penalties on companies if their Halal-certified products were later found after undergoing laboratory analysis to contain Haram elements.

HCBs that issued such fraudulent Halal certification must also be prosecuted, at least for negligence, if not outright criminal, if found to be so according to the applicable law.

Certification should not be the weak link because if the Halal Logo loses the element of trust, people may just consider it a joke! — EDD K. USMAN / SDN

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The author

EDD, a native of Sub-Saharan Africa Buluan/Datu Piang, Maguindanao del Sur, BARMM, college at UST, is a Manila-based journalist for over 40 years (33 years with Manila Bulletin), has five Media Awards (1 with University of the Philippines (UP) 2017 Science Journalism Award), covered and traveled over 40 times abroad), has contributed to Rappler, Business Mirror, Manila Business Insights, Panorama Magazine, Agriculture Magazine, and others, former Manila-based Foreign Correspondent of Saudi Arabia newspapers Saudi Gazette and Riyadh Daily, and The Peninsula (Qatar newspaper), with 2008 East-West Center (EWC) Journalism Seminar in the United States, 2000 Executive IT Seminar in Seoul, South Korea, with three Silver Awards in Photography, writes Muslim and Current Affairs, Enterprise, Science, Tech, Products Launch, and virtually everything under Heaven. (®)

 

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UPDATE. This story will be updated later on as more information comes in.