Johannesburg – The South African National Halaal Association (SANHA) has urged consumers to exercise caution when buying three Cadbury products. This comes after it was found that Lunch Bar, Chomp and PS – contain Tartaric Acid / Cream of Tartar derived from wine sources. Despite the National Independent Halaal Trust (NIHT) having certified these chocolates as Halaal.
The alert has created confusion and doubt amongst the South African Muslim community. Hafiz Moorad Booley, Chairperson NIHT, expressed his dissatisfaction in the way the alert was issued as he felt it created doubt about whether the chocolates were Halaal or not.
“Why now did SANHA have to make a statement? The spokesperson of SANHA has categorically stated that they never explicitly said the product was Haraam. They are just saying that it is not approved by them. So why then was there a need to create this doubt and confusion?”
SANHA had the information on the ingredients for two years and knew that NIHT had been certifying Cadbury. They could have, at any point, sat down with NIHT to discuss the matter but instead chose to release an alert to create doubt within the community, said Booley.
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Cadbury was never certified by SANHA
What confuses Booley even more about the alert is that Cadbury was never certified by SANHA. The alert was only issued after Cadbury informed the public that they were being certified by NIHT. Booley expressed dismay that SANHA knew about the ingredients for over a year but only decided to release the alert after NIHT started certifying Cadbury.
“SANHA has never certified Cadbury. SANHA has given approval. There are a number of Cadbury products that are being used by SANHA certified suppliers. The issue is they did not ever certify Cadbury, we certified them. The correct thing would have been for them to engage us first before going to the public and that is something which they did not [do].”
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Creating one Halaal certifying body to erase the confusion and doubt
South Africa has many Halaal certifying bodies. There have been questions raised as to why there are so many bodies. If there can’t be a single body or agreement reached as to what is Halaal and what is Haraam. Although this is something that Booley claims the NIHT wants, there has been no talks to bring every organisation under one banner. It does not seem like it will happen any time soon.
“At the moment we have four major Halaal certifying bodies which are the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC), NIHT, SANHA and Islamic Council of South Africa (ICSA). Between the MJC, ICSA and ourselves we have a very good working relationship. We have a common understanding. The only situation seems to come from SANHA coming out with these ambiguous statements. Creating dispersion and doubts against other organisations.”
Although SANHA has now backtracked on their statement saying they only wanted to inform the public, Booley believes the damage has been done. Doubt and confusion have already been created within the public. However, Booley said the NIHT is still willing to sit down with SANHA and discuss things in a civil manner and rectify the situation.
