Indonesian Halal Requirements

The Indonesian policy on the required Halal certifications for food products has often been a topic of discussion since the Indonesian Council of Ulama (MUI), has in April 2009 published a new list of Accepted Overseas Halal Certification Bodies, to enter into force on 1st October 2009. The Trade Officer Economic and Trade Section from Delegation of the European Commission to Indonesia and Brunei Darussalam, Minna Piekkari, just received an update on the list. The news seems positive, since all the Certifiers with pending status have been approved. However, for certain product groups, the certification has been withdrawn.
These Halal certifiers are approved for conducting the Halal inspections in all EU countries. Additionally, there is one Halal Certifier Body in the UK, the "Halal Food Authority", which remains approved only for slaughtering. To be noted that the Certificates from these accepted overseas Halal bodies can only be used for exports to Indonesia of slaughtered meat or raw materials for manufacturing. In the case of products sold directly to Indonesian consumers, the Halal certification inspection has to be conducted by the MUI's own inspectors.