(updated 14th October to include Referral Statistics)
The team at Halal Food launched our Meat Establishment Feature as a way to support Brothers and Sisters across Australia (and turns out also some parts of the world!) to identifying the source of Meat products as supplied to Supermarkets, Butchers and Retail outlets.
Alhamdulillah!! We recently achieved a wonderful milestone just last week, 10,000 submitted enquiries! So we wanted to share some insight into what is happening in Australia based on the data we are seeing submitted from across Australia.
A Summary of Enquiries:
Brothers and Sisters from all over Australia used the EST Feature to help in identifying whether the Meat is supplied from a Halal Certified Abattoir or Processing Plant. Based on feedback we had received we are humbled to learn that people that had struggled to identify meat in the past were now able to find suitable Meat options locally in remote sites.
That when it came to supporting Halal Food EST Feature and being a part in actively supporting the Brothers and Sisters in Social Media we found the following statistics of interest
That in the last 2 weeks there were over 6,000 entries submitted direct from bookmarks etc. With nearly 4,500 enquiries coming from Facebook Groups. Those facebook groups that play an active part in supporting the wider community includes
https://www.facebook.com/groups/halalfoodinmelbourne https://www.facebook.com/groups/AustraliasHalalfoodforum https://www.facebook.com/halalfoodaustralia https://www.facebook.com/groups/halalfoodsydney https://www.facebook.com/groups/halalfoodmelbourne https://www.facebook.com/groups/bnemuslims https://www.facebook.com/groups/5191485889
We would like to give our appreciation to the role that these groups play in supporting the Halal Consumer in Australia.
From the enquiries logged into the Halal Meat EST Feature we found that in 73% of occasions submissions were identified as either a Halal Certified Abattoir or Halal Certified Processing Plant. There is only a small number of unidentified EST entries (6%). Where an EST is not known or has not confirmed its Halal Status they are listed as unknown. So while most are shown as unknown they are in the system and the Abattoir or Processing Plant have chosen (for whatever reason) to not provide Halal Status or confirm the Halal Authority that has issued the Halal Certificate.
Some details about the enquiries:
When looking at the EST requests made some interesting observations appear.
Top 5 Halal : The majority of enquiries logged are for products supplied directly from Abattoirs to Supermarkets (such as own Brand or Retail Ready Packs).
Top 10 Non Halal : Out of the Top 10 Non Halal suppliers identified seven were found to be the supermarkets own Processing Plants. These Processing Plants are at present not Halal Certified and though the meat "may" be sourced from Halal Suppliers the risk of contamination does exist with Non Halal Meats. The remaining three EST identified as Non Halal is from the same Supplier where the risk of contamination with Non Halal Meats is identified. (In this case Turkey products are processed at the same plants as the Chicken products and as such are not covered by the Halal Certificate).
Top 10 Unknown EST : The main EST not identified in this instance is 2790. We have spoken at great lengths with that Company but to date they have not responded to requests to confirm Halal Status as a result we have left it with an "Unknown" status. Of the remainder there are some which are just not able to be identified (741, 54, 129, 52, 125, 51) and we make every effort to address the status. While the remainder have not confirmed Halal Status and remain "unknown" status.
Chicken or Beef or Lamb?:
Australia has a diverse population with many different cultures making a part of the community. So when considering the importance of meat among the tasty dishes served up at home it was no surprise to see an even split between Chicken and Red Meats (Beef and Lamb).
49% of enquiries were Chicken related and a clear leader in volume
26% of enquiries were Beef products (raw or processed)
23% of enquiries were Lamb (raw or processed) 2% of enquiries were related to animal products such as Venison, Goat or even Camel
The Team at Halal Food appreciate the responses and feedback from our brothers and sisters. We continue to monitor and contact Suppliers, Manufacturer's and Processing Plants from across Australia and work with them to identify suitable options to better manage the support related enquiries from Halal Consumers in Australia.
Mai
