Important Update (23 March 2024)
Alhamdulillah!!
The past month has been one with many challenges laid before us but the team has done an exceptional job to achieve so much under such heavy tests! Thank you to the Design Team, Development Team and the Management Team for the sacrifices and time spent to get the Mobile Application this far.
We are excited to be near completion of the Halal Food Application and the many features that will be available FREE to our members is a testimony to the Grass Root Community First approach that we have always worked towards. Thank you to everyone who has been a part of our Journey it has been a path with many twists and turns but it is a burden not carried by one person but so many that has made this journey easier to deal with.
So what are we so excited about? The reality is that the goal of launching for the Holy Month of Ramadan just was one hurdle too far and rather than rushing to deliver an app that would fall short of our standards the decision was made to push the launch date back to April, after Ramadan and EID.
In doing this it allowed us to focus on the many wonderful features....so what will we be bringing to the market? An absolute game changer. Alhamdulillah. Just a sample of the many features....
Free Online Product Scan Feature to identify from Image or Scan of Barcode the Halal Status of common groceries found across Australia and New Zealand.
Integrated EST Feature to assist our brothers and sisters that are looking for Halal Meat here in Australia and Overseas.
Halal Restaurant Directory (with some amazing features that we are excited to share!!)
Halal Butcher Directory so now you can easily find suppliers of Hand Slaughtered Chicken near you
Halal Bake & Cake Directory so every type of Traditional and Sugar Fix can be satisfied from Halal Local Bakeries and Cake Outlets
Prayer Section - This is full of features that include Holy Quaran, Hadiths, Locate Nearest Mosque or Musallah, Learn Arabic, Learn to Salat, Call to Prayer Reminders, Islamic Calendar, Islamic Days of Importance, Find my Qibla, Tahbeeh Counter and much much more...
Zakat and Saddaqah Section to allow for local Community Projects and Special Projects to be promoted to members for Support
News Articles and Announcements
Amazing Online Range of Halal Products to be purchased through our Online Store.
Employment Opportunities
Korban Donations. Now you can select where you want your donation of Meat to be placed. You can also select the type of Livestock (Lamb, Goat, Cow and even Camel). This will then be processed on your behalf and you will receive Certificate from the Authority of the Region receiving who will provide pictures and blessings for your Donation. You can even select if you want the donation to be a blessing to an Adult, Family, Elderly or Orphans.
There is so much more!!!
The first thing we wanted to share with you were some screenshots of what we will be going live with now of course insyallah we still have a long way to go with data and legal aspects but with the blessings of Allah we will have everything in order and will be releasing the App in Google Playstore and Apple Store.
Important Update (8 September 2023)
Alhamdulillah!!
The team from Halal Food are excited to share the news that the journey for the Mobile Application has taken a massive step forward towards completion.
The team at Halal Food have completed some key milestones which included
The selection of a suitable Mobile Application Developer based in Australia to be a partner with us during the next and final exciting step.
Registration and securing of some key patents to protect the security and interests of Halal Food with the app. This is vital and the app will launch once we have secured all Patents.
Registration with key distributors - unfortunately we will need to distribute our application through iTunes and Playstore and not make available through our own Website. There are Update and Security aspects to this decision which after much consultation with all parties was considered to be the best option to support our brothers and sisters.
The application will be free to download and will operate locally on your mobiles and tablets without need for Internet. There will be a limitation on how many EST enquiries can be made (10 per month) but you can upgrade your app for a small fee to remove any restrictions.
Thanks to the wonderful support of our Brothers and Sisters we will be providing the app to all without any irritating advertisements or annoying pop ups.
We wanted to thank our members who have been a part of this journey in sharing our vision and will be sending out an email in the next day or two to those members with an important update. It will also contain an outline of the features available to them. Without the support of our wonderful members we would not be able to make this massive change to support our brothers and sisters across Australia and the globe in identifying Halal Meat from Supermarkets, Butcher shops and many other retail outlets.
It is in the path we have travelled together that we are fortunate the test before us has been one that was shared amongst so many of our own brothers and sisters,
Jazakallah Khairyn
(Updated : September 2023 - Key Statistics updated to reflect the current 2023 data)
By far one of the most successful features that we have launched on our site is the EST FEATURE. This was created as a tool that would help Halal Consumers to identify the Halal Status of an Abattoir or Processing site that was used to supply a range of Meats into supermarkets across Australia and overseas! We initially pushed hard to launch the feature in time to support our Melbourne Brothers and Sisters as they approached the second Lockdown and in a short time, it has continued to grow in use. Alhamdulillah!
This feature has been widely accepted as a strong source of information to assist our brothers and sisters in remote sites, cities enduring lockdowns and even in other countries to identify whether the supplier is Halal Certified and who the Halal Authority is.
Some interesting statistics to consider:
The EST Feature has now had over 1.2M submissions since its launch in 2021
The largest spike of use was when we experienced over 7,300 logged queries in a single day!! Other key events occurred when we experienced a rapid 5,000+ logged enquiries. We were completely baffled as most were spread across Malaysia - when we analysed why it was related to the Malaysian Market losing confidence in Australian Meat sold in that country so many locals turned to our EST Feature to help them identify if the Meat they were buying was able to be confirmed as from a Halal Certified Store
The EST Feature has an average of 520 new queries per day.
The EST Feature has been able to help identify a range of Halal Certified and Non-Halal Meat options across Australia in all types of outlets.
The EST Feature has been used to assist people in other countries to identify or confirm the Halal Status of Australian Meats purchased in UK, France, USA, Singapore, Qatar, Malaysia and even South Africa!!
The EST Feature gives us a real-time outline of market demand for the type of products by location, states and even down to the time of shopping which is a vital aspect for a market analysis for outlets. Because of the high demand for Halal Meat in some areas we have been able to lobby for a regular supply of Halal Meat to the stores serving the community in those areas!
There are a small number of EST's that we have not been able to identify but we are actively researching and updating on a regular basis.
To compile the data used for the EST Feature our small team has carried out the following to support the wider community
Spoken to over 550 Abattoirs, Processing Plants, Further Processing Plants across Australia
Attended sites and liaised with staff to understand and view Halal procedures and processes implemented across sites from around Australia. We do not review compliance of Halal status as that is managed by Halal Authorities who are ultimately responsible for issuing Halal certificates.
When you consider that each call would last an average of 23 minutes that is close to a total of 11,500 Minutes and we are not even counting the missed calls, callbacks and longer than normal discussions.
There have been over 2,800 Email chains sent to the Management of sites to actively raise awareness of the value of Halal Consumers within Australia and seek clarification of the Halal Status of the sites managed by them. This allowed us to learn of the procedures and processes that the companies have implemented to ensure compliance to Halal requirements for access to the demands of Export Regulations and for supply to the Australian Local Markets.
The team secured a range of documents not freely available to the public from some State Government Authorities (that were reluctant to confirm details of companies - we could not understand why)
Cross-Referenced all known EST listings with approved export authorities from Federal Government and overseas authorities
Verified Halal Certificates by the issuing Halal Authorities. We would like to thank the support of these Halal Authorities in being open to confirming details of Halal Certificates issued and we want to recognise the key role that these Authorities provide in bringing Halal Meats (and other products) to our tables. Jazak'Allah Khair for your experience, knowledge and persistence in such a demanding market.
We Liaised with some of the Industries peak Bodies to make sure we got it all right and we want to thank each of them for being able to provide guidance on industry standards and trends. The work that Industry Groups such as MLA, ACMF have worked tirelessly in regulating the industries and ensuring that Halal Status is recognised for its value to the community markets within Australia and Overseas.
There is so much more involved in managing the database, reviewing queries and data analysis to ensure that everything is accurate and updated frequently to reflect the changing markets (and it changes so easily with many closures or buyouts)
The Biggest Support Questions asked of us?
When are we going to launch a mobile application?
Well, finally, we agree it is important to consider a way forward to move not only the Halal Food Website to a Mobile Application but to also bring a full range of exciting features to your hands when out shopping, Insya Allah, 2023 will be a key year for the exciting direction that Halal Food is moving forward. The team at Halal Food have followed a path that has been exciting and dynamic with many challenges but we have followed a simple rule. "We will be where we are meant to be by the grace of Allah".
The team at Halal Food have worked tirelessly to support our Brothers and Sisters across the World. While 80% of support queries are Australian based we have had a growing number of enquiries from the community overseas and this has allowed us to provide access to Halal
The main issue we were confronted with when considering a Mobile Application was the cost to develop a secure application that would not compromise our database or other information we had gathered in commercial confidence. We would hate to see competitors pop up and just copy everything we do without making an effort to check things for themselves or even worse for misinformation to be presented to the community to direct our Brothers and Sisters to eat Non Halal meats or products.
So now we are excited to confirm that we have commenced the process of developing an application that can be downloaded and installed. It is no small task and because of the nature of the application and information we want to give everyone access, it is important we move this forward with a strong local developer. We are reluctant to outsource this development for data and privacy issues and feel that the cheaper cost to do so would just be inviting issues to standards down the road ahead,Insya Allah, with the support of the community we can hire full-time staff to focus on the developing mobile app and ongoing maintenance.
Share the path with us...
We need your help,Insya Allah, you might be using our features and tools to help you maintain a strong Halal Diet and benefit from the work we have done. All we ask is that you consider making a small donation to help us offset the costs so that we can avoid advertisements and ensure all information is regularly updated. With your donation we will be able to move faster to an Integrated Mobile Application that can operate on Mobile Phones, Tablets and more...this will allow for our Brothers and Sisters to be able to have greater access to key information when shopping for Halal Meat and Halal Products.
The application will consist of the following features:
Scan Barcodes of Australian Meat products to identify Halal Status
Scan Barcodes of Australian Packaged products to identify Halal Status
Scan Barcodes of Restaurants to view Halal Status and Certificates for suppliers and stores.
Rate and Review Products
Rate and Review Restaurants
Vote for Awards
Receive critical notifications of changes to Halal Status for Outlets
Receive notifications of new Halal Meats, Products, Outlets by location to you
Interactive AI Feature which will allow for query by ingredients (Australian Standards)
These are just a small outline of what the Halal Food Mobile Application will involve. With so many wonderful features and because we are moving towards giving full free unrestricted access to support the Community with Halal requirements, we need your help.
To do this we need to ask you to humbly consider a donation that can be made below.
All people that donate will be given access to a downloadable application before it goes to market once we have completed the design, coding and testing stages and you will be a part of our continued growth, Alhamdulillah, where the benefits of helping our community to access and eat only Halal Meat and Products will be largely due to your support and our hard work and the grace of Allah.
Donating is easy we have created options for a one-off donation for $30, $50 or $100
Just select which option you would like to use and then checkout. You can make donations by credit card or EFT.
With your assistance,Insya Allah, the team from Halal Food will be able to bring a robust and strong Mobile Application to the market. This Mobile application will give enhanced support across Meats, Products and Services. Giving access to a range of wonderful features to the Australian Market that will pioneer a change to how Halal Food is identified at stores.
The Halal Food Team