Another image of halal labelling gone wrong took social media by storm at the weekend. The item, a pack of Pick ‘n Pay russians and chips, was seen labelled with halal certification from the MJC Halal Trust (MJCHT) but upon further inspection, the ingredients stated that it included pork. But director of the trust, Sheikh Achmat Sedick, says the mistake stems from the incorrect code identification or LAN marking on the part of the supermarket. Sedick assured VOC News that the item was in fact halal.

“The PnP deli and the hot foods are halal certified by the MJCHT. The store manager is a prominent Muslim whom many of us know. The deli and hot foods has a female Muslim manager. There is a full-time MJCHT monitor at the store and a there is a MJCHT Inspector who inspects the store once a month and the halal butcher once a week,” Sedick said.

To ensure that this problem does not re-occur, Sedick said after meeting with the store manager of the Ottery branch, certain instructions has been sent off to the PnP head office in Johannesburg as the machine used for labelling has been printing the incorrect data.

“Because a similar matter occurred in the past, I requested from them to delete this code no completely from the system, because once the code is punched in error by whoever is working with the scale, the wording with MJCHT’S logo will appear on the sticker,” Sedick continued.

On Friday, a member of the local Muslim community posted a picture of the item in question and immediately uploaded it onto a social media site. But Sedick said the individual should have first resorted to speaking with the relevant people to get clarity on the matter before broadcasting it to the masses.

Meanwhile, the matter has once again sparked the age old debate around operating halal regulatory bodies. According to Imraahn Mukkadam from the National Consumer Forum, “the only solution is that halaal certification should reside under the Consumer Protection Act with a uniform set of requirements that has to be adhered to in-order to use the term Halaal on any label”.

In this way, he said certification will “automatically be according to a unified standard and the profit incentive of the current franchise system will be removed.”

Pick ‘n Pay has however issued a statement, apologising to its customers.

“The product was correctly halaal certified. This LAN number has been totally removed from the printer to prevent this from happening again. We apologise to all our customers for any concern or inconvenience this mistake may have caused. We hope that customers will be reassured by our confirmation that this was a labelling error and the product contained no pork,” the statement read. VOC (Ra’eesah Isaacs)