Halal food products in US supermarkets

..feeling so naive.i have been here almost a year and still struggling with the halal/non-halal food products issues.yeah,it should be continuous awareness among muslim especially in non-muslim country(should be everywhere actually).

I dont have to stress more on the important of consuming the halal products,

not restricted to only food..pretty much everything.

"Forbidden to you (your food) are: dead meat, blood, the flesh of swine, and that on which the name of other than Allah hath been invoked; that which hath been killed by strangling, or by a violent blow, or by a headlong fall, or by being gored to death; that which hath been (partly) eaten by a wild animal; unless ye are able to slaughter it (in due form); that which is sacrificed on stone (altars); (forbidden) also is the division (of meat) by raffling with arrows: that is impiety.''(Holy Quran 5:3)

Well,we are always looking for food labels. If an authentic and genuine non meat kosher certified food products bearing kosher symbols such as OU,K.CRC,V,MK and Parve meet the Islamic dietary requirements,then those products are considered Halal.

But then,

Not all food products carrying kosher symbols are Halal unless they meet halal requirements.They are not Halal when any of these ingredients are present ;

1)gelatin

2)kosher gelatin

3)L-Cysteine made from human hair/chicken/duck feathers

4)wine

5)liqour

6)beer batter

7)rum flavor

8)ethyl alcohol (main ingredient in McDonald's buns in Canada)

and many more..

I cant write everything here but just share some common food that we consume.

Hidden ingredients not on the ingredients statement on the package:

1)apple juice-gelatin is used to remove cloudiness in apple juice,

buy the apple juice only with kosher symbol OU

2)majority of cheese-growth cultural media used to grow starter cultures added to milk for cheese

3)Sunny Delight-fish gelatin in Beta carotene color

Well..to list some products (that are pretty common for me),just so you know they are non-halal:

1)WONDER bread-Whole Grain White w/out KIDS w/out symbol

2)COCA COLA vanilla

3)7-up

4)LIPTON-Green Tea with Mixed Berry

-Sparkling Green Tea

-Diet Green Tea with Citrus

5)all CHEETOS

6)all DORITOS except Toasted Corn Tortilla & Chips

7)NESTLE-Mini Marshmallow

8)some KELLOGG'S cereal&granola

most important

BEN & JERRY'S

NOT HALAL:

Vanilla Caramel Fudge New York

Super Fudge Chunk

Vanilla Ice Cream

Half Baked

Karamel Sutra

Flipped Out

Vanilla Fudge Brownie

Peanut Butter Chocolate

Cookie Dough

and i was shocked that bun and fish fillet in McD are not halal too.

gonna find other food to eat while staying overnight at JFK airport.

information are from -->

Syed Rasheeduddin Ahmed is a senior food scientist consultant.He is the founder and president of Muslim Consumer Group.He developed 17 food products for supermarkets, 10 products for Kraft Foods, 3 products for Nabisco and 4 products for MLO Products Company. He gave a presentation about the benefit of the US food industry experience in educating Muslims and its benefit in Halal certification at International Seminar on Halal Food and Products arranged by Kolej University Islam Malaysia at Putrajaya, Malaysia in 2004. He also gave a lecture on Halal foods at the Halal Food Exhibition in London, England in 2005. Syed Rasheeduddin Ahmed visits various masajid in US for questions and answers sessions about Halal food products.

p/s : its my pleasure if anyone would like to borrow this book.