The Muslim Judicial Council’s Halaal Trust (MJCHT) investigated a complaint from a consumer in which one of its labels was used on a non-halaal sandwich at Fedics, Sanlam Head office.

The error occurred when a student that served her interim training period in the Halaal unintentionally labelled the incorrect product without the knowledge of her supervisor.

“We had been in contact with Fedics and they profusely apologize for the error which was immediately rectified as it was non-Halaal sandwiches that were inadvertently labelled by a student,” said Chief Operations Officer of the MJCHT, Shaykh Moosa Titus.

An MJCHT Halaal inspector was immediately sent to Fedics to verify the facts of this matter with Fedics Management so as to ensure all halaal procedures are being adhered to and that a repeat of such incident does not reoccur.

“We assure the community that all procedures are followed when issuing a Halaal certificate and labels to companies. Unfortunately, Halaal inspectors cannot be present at all companies 24/7. It is, therefore, imperative that companies abide by the rules and regulations of labelling and not give the job of labelling to those who are inexperienced,” Shaykh Titus continued.

Project Manager of Fedics, Annetjie Van Breuken said in her email to the MJCHT:

 “We would like to sincerely apologise for the transgression made today by the student that served her interim training period in Halaal. We would like to assure you that this was sincerely not intentional. The student has profusely apologised.

We do not experience such incidents as we take all procedures extremely seriously. We have learnt from this very serious incident and experience and before any student or interim will be allowed to work in the Halaal area, they will be provided with on job training and this will be signed off to allow the person to understand the seriousness of following procedures and to provide them with the understanding of why we have this procedure in place.

I will keep all Halaal stickers in my cupboard under lock and key and this will only be issued by myself to ensure I guard this process.

Once again, please accept our sincerest apologies,” the email read.

Consumers can contact Shaykh Moosa Titus or Shaykh Achmat Sedick at the Halaal Trust on 021 6844 600/1 for any further information.

Alternately, email Shaykh Achmat Sedick on director@mjchalaaltrust.co.za