The Blood Used in the Food Industry — Is It Halal?

With the name of Allah, we begin series of articles about the food additives: thickeners, dyes, fillers — which are made from products prohibited by the Shariah. They are widely used in the food industry, but not much is written about them in the Muslim segment of Internet.

We have compiled a small list of such additives and want to draw your attention to them. The symbol ‘Halal’ on the label ensures that there are no prohibited elements in the certified products. Indeed, many articles have been written about the slaughter according to Sharia, gelatine and even carmine, on our website as well. But Halal means more, than just not using carmine. The differences are much greater — in the sanitary standards and in a fully tested composition.

Do you know, for example, that specially treated blood is used in the meat industry as a red food coloring?

There is a natural dye, which is obtained from pork blood. It is used in sausages, delicacies and convenience foods. The dye reacts with nitrite during the preparation of minced meat and subsequent heat treatment and gives a rich color to the finished products.

The hemoglobin in the blood of other slaughter animals is also used as a natural dye. In the manufacturing of such a dye the blood is saturated with carbon monoxide, evaporated and dried.

The use of blood as a dye often indicates that the product is of poor quality: in economy-class sausages they reduce the amount of meat by adding various fillers, flavor enhancers, flavors and blood dyes.

What is said about this in the Shariah?

Obviously, the blood of prohibited animals, such as pigs, and permissible animals, that are not slaughtered according to the Shariah, is not allowed.

But the flowing blood of a permissible animal is also considered unclean, even if the animal is slaughtered in accordance with the Islamic norms.

If the flowing blood gets on the clothes and the area of contamination will be larger than the size of the dirham, then you should not pray in such clothes and the prayer in it will not be valid. The size of the dirham is about the amount that will fit in the center of the outstretched palm.

However, we note that in the case of a slaughter according to the Islamic norms, only flowing blood is considered unclean. Therefore, small particles of the blood that remained in the meat after the proper slaughter and blood flow, are not considered unclean, because this blood does not flow. Thus, if we are talking about cutting Halal meat after slaughtering and after the blood flew out from the carcass, the remnants of blood and the meat juice will not be considered unclean. And their presence on clothes will not break the prayer.

Selling blood is not allowed. Moreover, such a transaction is not valid.

Thus, no dye from flowing blood is permitted. And, of course, products from the blood, which is used not as a dye, but as the main component (for example, blood sausages) are not allowed as well.

Note!

• The use of dye from blood is prohibited.
• Carefully read the composition, when buying products. Especially pay attention to the words that include a combination ‘hae(e)ma(o)’, which means “blood”: haematogen, hemoglobin and so on. Blood also can be listed as food albumin or black albumin.
• If a product to which a dye from blood has been added gets on your clothes and a stain is larger than a dirham (large coin), then you should not pray in these clothes.
• The symbol ‘Halal’ on the label guarantees the absence of flowing blood as a component.

Malika Umm Yahya

Checked by Bulat Mubarakov.