Assalaamu alaikum,

As you may remember from the last issue, this past year marked the fortieth anniversary of IFANCA. To celebrate this important milestone, we hosted a banquet to thank our employees, clients, and partners. We also held a two-day conference on a range of topics relevant to the halal industry. This conference was in line with our vision of embracing halal for all, creating a world where halal consumers around the globe have access to products that meet their needs and wants.

During this conference, we were fortunate to host speakers from various countries. Our panelists looked at halal regulations in places like Indonesia and the UAE and addressed the possibility of creating a global halal standard in the future. They also explored how IFANCA’s emphasis on science has impacted the halal industry and examined the role of ingredient and product testing in ensuring halal compliance. These speakers even took a look at future food trends, such as insect protein and cultivated meat, and analyzed their potential impact on the halal industry,

Our focus on “halal for all” remained front and center throughout the conference. For halal consumers, eating halal is not merely an option but an imperative. However, many of us still struggle to find adequate food products. This is a problem in many institutions, such as schools, where children go hungry when faced with no halal lunch options.

Halal-certified products should not be an afterthought. IFANCA’s mission continues to focus on promoting and improving access to halal foods, and halal consumers deserve the same access to nutritious foods that our peers enjoy. We have made significant progress in the last forty years by working with our clients and partners to make halal more accessible. We look forward to the next forty years as we continue towards the goal of making halal mainstream.

Sincerely,
Muhammad Munir Chaudry, president