Religions have their own set of rules about foods. There are institutions to supervise the conformity of the food products to these particular sets of rules. Products that are ritually fit according to the religious law and therefore are proper to be consumed are called “kosher” for Jews and “halal” for Muslims. The topic of halal food has sparked a continuously increasing interest, especially in recent years, and it is one of the most popular topics on the agenda of both the scientific and business communities as well as the states. In this chapter, both the concept of “halal” and the logistics operations that also have a significant relevance with the concept have thoroughly been examined. The concept of halal covers all of the activities related with food products “from farm to fork,” but logistics activities in this sense have usually been ignored. In this study, the definition and scope of halal logistics and also the opportunities for businesses have been dealt with. The aim of the research is to determine the potential of the halal food market around the world and opportunities for the logistics sector. Since the number of the studies about halal food and halal market is limited, this chapter is expected to help academicians and practitioners. One of the objectives of this study is to compare similarities and differences between halal food and kosher food. Another objective of the study is to determine the rules of halal food in logistics operations.
TopHalal Food
The impact of religion on food consumption depends on the religion itself and on the extent to which individual follows the teachings of their religion (Bonne and Verbeke, 2008a). Most religions forbid certain foods. For example pork, together with not ritually slaughtered meat is both forbidden in Judaism and Islam while pork and beef in Hinduism and Buddhism are forbidden. The only exception is Christianity in which there are no food taboos. Although religions may impose strict dietary laws; the numbers of people following them may vary considerably. For instance, it has been estimated that 90% of Buddhists and Hindus, 75% of Muslims and 16% of Jews in the US follow their religious dietary laws (Bonne and Verbeke, 2008a; Lada, Tanakinjal and Amin, 2009).
Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world with a total population of the Muslims estimated around 2 billion (“Muslim population”, 2013). Muslims in Asia, Europe and Africa constitute the majority of the total population in 50 countries (Alserhan, 2010a). Some European cities have a Muslim population of 10% or more, such as Brussels with 17%. In Belgium, there are approximately 400,000 Muslims, originating mainly from North Africa and Turkey, who make up the 4% of the Belgian population. As such, the Muslim population constitutes a considerable market segment in today’s food market (Bonne and Verbeke, 2008a).
The halal dietary laws define food products as “halal” (permitted) or “haram” (prohibited). The law deals with the following five issues (Regenstein, Chaudry and Regenstein, 2003).