SPOTLIGHT on ETHICS: Supermarket Meat

Supermarket Meat. Is it halal?
Is the meat — chicken, turkey, beef or lamb — found in your supermarket up to Islamic standards of halal?

This article discusses Islamic concerns of animal welfare, jallalah and the potential for contamination with haram substances, when considering supermarket-bought meat as halal or not. Zabiha (Islamic slaughter) is outside of the scope of this article.

Overview of Meats Found in Supermarkets

Factory Farmed Meat
If you've ever bought meat from your local supermarket, chances are it was raised in dense confinement with many other animals in the environment of a large-scale agrobusiness, known as Factory Farming. In fact, according to the Worldwatch Institute, 74 percent of the world's poultry, 43 percent of beef, and 68 percent of eggs are produced this way.[1] Factory farmed animals are reported to suffer a variety of health and emotional problems.

Organic Meat
Organic meat is meat from animals that have been raised without the use of hormones or antibiotics. Unlike most supermarket meat, organically raised chickens, cows, sheep and swine (yes, there are even organic pigs!) are given freedom of movement and allowed to roam freely in wide fields. Although preferable over standard supermarket meat, organic meat is not automatically halal.[2]

Butchering, Packaging of Supermarket Meats

If you buy chicken, beef or lamb at the supermarket, you should know where it was before it was packaged in plastic. Here are some important questions Muslim shoppers should ask their supermarket meat department, and the reasons why.

Question: Is the meat packaged at the store, or at the farm?
Most name-brand meat products specialize in one type of meat. One type of animal. Turkey farmers don't raise cows, for example. When a chicken company sells its product to supermarkets all over the country, then the equipment it uses to produce and package that chicken will be in demand 24/7, processing ONLY chicken.

If your meat is the store brand, butchered on your food store's butcher's table, then you have another question to ask to know if that chicken, beef or lamb is clean.

Question: How many butchering tables does the store's butcher have?
Many of today's supermarkets are equipt with two to three butcher tables. Typically, there is one dedicated to pork, and one to beef. Other meats such as rabbit, lamb or chicken can be cut on either, depending on store policy.

Organic stores tend to have a relatively small butcher shop, but typically offer their high-end consumers a wide range of meats, from buffalo to beef, pork, wild boar, ostrich, pheasant and chicken. Because of the low volume, and high variety of meats organic butchers typically offer, the butcher shops in organic and whole foods stores tend to have one butcher table for cutting and trimming these meats.

Bottom Line: You should ask the meat department of your supermarket or whole foods store what their butchering policies are.

Question: Does the butcher shop meat grinder grind both pork and beef?
Some supermarkets that we're familiar with purchase all of their ground pork, lamb, turkey and chicken pre-ground from their suppliers, but grind beef in-house. These suppliers, especially poultry processors, typically specialize in processing meats from one type of animal.

Bottom line: Ask which of the meats are ground using supermarket meat grinders, and if they have more than one machine to grind each type of meat.

Recommended Topics:
Jallalah of halal animals
Factory Farming
Zabiha, Islamic slaughter
Organic Meats

[1] State of the World 2006. Special Focus: China & India. "Chapter 2: Rethinking the Global Meat Industry." Danielle Nierenberg. Worldwatch Institute, p. 26. Online Summary found at: http://www.worldwatch.org/node/3993
[2] SPOTLIGHT on ETHICS: Organic Meat
[3] "Best Practices for Beef Slaughter," 2003. Edited by: National Meat Association, Southwest Meat Association, American Meat Institute, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. http://haccpalliance.org/sub/food-safety/BestPracslaught1103.pdf [PDF]

SPOTLIGHT on ETHICS: Organic Meat

Is Organic Meat halal?
For the most part, the conditions under which organically raised animals are kept are more in line with Islamic ethical and cleanliness standards than with the typical practices and conditions of Factory Farming. However, the method of slaughter is a factor as to whether organic meat remains permissible. Also of importance is the cleanliness of the butchering space, specifically whether the knives or the butcher table are contaminated with the meat of a haram animal such as the pig.

Some important questions Muslim shoppers should ask
If you buy organic meat at a supermarket or organic food store...

Question: Is the meat packaged at the store, or at the farm?
Why?: If you are buying meat packaged by the producer, chances are that that producer specializes in one type of meat, one type of animal. Organic cattle farms don't often raise pork, for example. When an organic chicken farm sells its product to supermarkets all over the country, then the equipment it uses to produce and package chicken will be in demand 24/7, processing ONLY chicken.

If your organic chicken meat is butchered and packaged at the store...

Question: How many butchering tables does the store's butcher have?
Many organic stores have a relatively small butcher shop. Organic butchers tend to offer a wide range of meats, from buffalo to beef, pork, wild boar, ostrich, pheasant and chicken in low volume amounts. More-so than with supermarket butchers, organic butchers use the same table for cutting beef, lamb and buffalo as for cutting wild boar and pork. Ask the butcher at your whole foods store if they use the same butchering table and meat grinder for pork and wild boar as for beef, lamb, buffalo or venison. If they do, choose prepackaged organic meats.

If you buy zabiha slaughtered organic meat...

You are truly in the best possible situation. Your meat is in no-doubt halal, from the food that animal ate, the way it was treated, its death and the butchering conditions.

If you buy zabiha, but don't know about the farming conditions that the cow, goat or lamb was raised under, ask your halal butcher to carry organically-raised zabiha slaughtered meats.

Recommended Topics:

Factory Farming

Zabiha, Islamic slaughter
Supermarket Meat

SPOTLIGHT on ETHICS: Factory Farming

This article is an important read for all Muslims concerned with adhering to Islamic law which mandates the humane treatment of animals. There is no guarantee that zabiha-slaughtered cattle did not also live under the questionable conditions imposed by large-scale agro-business.

If you've ever bought meat from your local supermarket, chances are it was raised in the environment of a large-scale agrobusiness, known as Factory Farming. In fact, according to the Worldwatch Institute, 74 percent of the world's poultry, 43 percent of beef, and 68 percent of eggs are produced this way.[1]

What is it?

Cows in a U.S. factory farm

Factory farming is the practice of raising farm animals in confinement and 'high stocking density'. Factory Farming is the practice of operating a farm as a factory, as is typical in industrial farming by agribusiness.

Factory farms hold large numbers of animals, typically cows, pigs, turkeys, or chickens, often indoors, typically in crowded conditions. The aim is to produce as much meat, eggs, or milk at the lowest possible cost. A wide variety of artificial methods are employed to maintain animal health and improve production, such as the use of antimicrobial agents, vitamin supplements, and growth hormones. Animals are physically restrained to control movement or actions regarded as undesirable.

There is a continuing debate over the benefits and risks of factory farming. The issues include food production; animal welfare; the environmental impact and health risks.

Is the Meat halal?
As pertains to the feeding, raising and care of animals meant for food, some of the basic Islamic requirements for halal meat are:

Islamic Requirement: Cleanliness of feed.
Under Islamic Law, animals fed unclean food or garbage are called Jallalah. Muslims are temporarily forbidden from eating or drinking meat or milk from jallalah animals until that animal's diet can be cleaned. This cleansing period is commonly around 3 months.

Practice: Feed
The main ingredients used in commercially prepared cattle feed are: corn, soybeans, sorghum, oats, and barley. Up until the spread of BSE (mad cow disease), cattle feed contained meat and bone meal (MBM). MBM is the product of bones and waste tissue from the meat processing industry. Having a formula of about 50% protein, 35% ash, 8-12% fat, and 4-7% moisture, it was used in animal feed to increase the protein content. In most parts of the world, including America, MBM is no longer allowed in feed for ruminant animals such as cows and sheep, however it is still used in pig feed.[2, 3]

Practice: Cleanliness of Environment
One of the main features of densely populated factory farms is that waste, feces and urine, from animals is constantly being produced. Perpetually caged animals such as chickens are often urinated on by chickens in cages above them.

Islamic Requirement: Ease and Well-being of the Animal
In both Quran and Hadith, Islam mandates humane treatment towards animals. The Prophet Muhammad forbade people to capture and cage birds, burn anthills, and whip or brand animals. Muslims are forbidden from eating the meat of al-mujathama (مجثمة)—animals penned in and killed under duress for sport.

Muslims are responsible for the care of animals. So much so that an ill-treated animal will testify against the one who abused it on the Day of Judgment. It is such a serious matter that in Islam, one could gain Heaven or Hell due to one’s treatment of animals. Even in slaughtering animals for food, Islam requires that the slaughtering be done according to Islamic procedure, which aims to cause the animals as little suffering as possible.[4]

Practice: Animal Welfare

Breeding sows in gestation crates

The large concentration of animals, animal waste, and the potential for dead animals in a small space poses ethical issues. It is recognised that some techniques used in industrial agriculture can be cruel to animals.[5]

Raising a large number of animals under confinement in crowded conditions often requires that certain animals, such as veal calves, and pregnant cows or pigs be confined in cages where they cannot move or change position.[6]

In factory poultry farming, particularly for eggs, birds are kept in rows of cages, and their environment, ventilation, heating and lighting are dictated automatically.[7] The small confining cages reduce stimulation of the poultry, which often results in chickens pecking each other or themselves.[8] A study by the Agricultural and Food Research Council in 1992 also found that 50% of battery farmed poultry had bone disorders such as osteoporosis[7] or breakages. In some farms, chickens are debeaked, their beaks removed so they will not be tempted to fight each other or to resort to cannibalism.[5, 9]

Because the aim of factory farming is high-output at low cost, animals are unfortuntely regarded as a commodity to be optimized. This objectification of animals can lead to mistreatment, abuse or neglect. There have been several documented cases of such animals being mistreated, even when using the industry's guidelines as a standard.

It is AMNA's stand that meat, eggs and milk from animals coming from such an environment cannot be considered halal. The challenge, then, facing the Muslim consumer is knowing if the meat they are purchasing, whether supermarket meat, or zabiha slaughtered, is from one such animal. The growth of free-range and organic cattle farming practices, and the availability of organic and free range meat, whether at the supermarket or the local halal butcher, has made it easier for Muslims to buy meat that is truely in-line with Islamic law, from birth-through-slaughter.

References:
[1] "State of the World 2006," Worldwatch Institute, p. 26.
[2] Wikipedia: Meat and Bone Meal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meat_and_bone_meal
[3] Adedokun, S. A. and L. Adeola. 2005. "Metabolizable energy value of meat and bone meal for pigs." J. Anim. Sci. 83(11): 2519-2526.
[4] "The Love of Animals." Hediyah Al-Amin, Islam-Online.net. http://www.islamonline.net/english/introducingislam/Environment/article04.shtml
[5] UK DEFRA comment on de-beaking recognising it as cruel. http://www.kt.iger.bbsrc.ac.uk/FACT%20sheet%20PDF%20files/kt32.pdf
[6] Wikipedia: Factory Farming. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factory_farming
[7] Animal Liberation NSW Battery Hens
[8] VEGA Laying hens, free range and bird flu
[9] Wikipedia: Poultry Farming. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poultry_farming
[10] "Best Practices for Beef Slaughter," 2003. Edited by: National Meat Association, Southwest Meat Association, American Meat Institute, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. http://haccpalliance.org/sub/food-safety/BestPracslaught1103.pdf [PDF]