On Thursday, the central government issued a clarification regarding the export of halal-certified meat and products. Now only the products which are produced, processed and packaged in a facility have a valid certificate issued by a body accredited by a board of the Quality Council of India will be permitted for export as ‘halal certified’.
There will, however, be no change in the procedure for the export of non-halal certified meat and meat products, the commerce ministry noted in its clarification on Thursday. It added that for the export consignments to countries where there is a regulation on halal, the producer/supplier/exporter would have to meet the importing country’s requirements.
Prior to this, a draft has been circulated by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) stating the guidelines and recommendations on halal certification for meat and related products in order to streamline the halal certification procedure for meat and meat products in export. “Policy conditions for the halal certification process of meat and meat products are notified,” the DGFT said in a notification.
Some relief has been given to all the existing halal certification bodies. They have been given an extension of six months to seek accreditation from NABCB (national accreditation board for certification bodies) for i-CAS (Indian conformity assessment scheme) Halal.
The notification stated “Meat and meat products shall be allowed to be exported as ‘halal certified’, only if produced, processed and/or packaged in a facility having a valid certification under the i-CAS of the Quality Council of India (QCI), issued by a certification body duly accredited by the NABCB as per the guidelines issued/amended from time to time.
The notification applies to items such as beef, fish, and refrigerated meat; sheep and goat meat; and sausages and similar meat products. The ‘India Conformity Assessment Scheme (i-CAS)’ has been designed with the goal of streamlining the certification of meat and animal products as halal from the nation.
Previously, there was no government-mandated halal certification system in India because the country did not have a specific national certification policy.
Source: – https://www.timesnownews.com/business-economy/economy/halal-certified-meat-its-products-will-be-allowed-to-be-exported-only-if-modi-govt-notifies-certification-guidelines-article-99321179
