Criteria For Slaughterhouses

CRITERIA FOR HALAL CERTIFICATION OF SLAUGHTERING FACILITIES OF

BEEF/LAMB/GOAT
1. The slaughtering plant should be inspected and approved by our organization for
slaughtering of livestock according to Islamic Rites.
2. The plant should be under the USDA health inspection, have a current Grant of Inspection,
and apply a HACCP program.
3. The animals should not be fed any pork ingredient or filth material.
4. The animals should be healthy and free of diseases at the time of slaughtering, i.e. pass the
USDA premortem and postmortem inspections. No processing of downers or DOA.
The following Halal Slaughtering Procedure should be applied at the slaughterhouse as
submitted by HTO:
a- Slaughtering/Blessing of animals is done by an adult Muslim who recites the prayer
“Bismillah Allahu Akbar” which translates to “By the name of God the most gracious”. If
stunning is used it should not result in killing of animals instantly.
b- Slaughtering is performed by hand using a sharp knife, the knife should produce a sharp
and clean cut on the front side of the animal’s neck cutting through the skin, trachea,
esophagus, and major blood vessels.
c- The slaughtering should result in maximum bleed out of the carcass
d- The animal must be completely dead from the act of slaughtering before any further
cutting or processing.
6. There should be no slaughtering of pigs in the same facility and the Halal meat should not
come in contact with any other meat or forbidden
material during any phase of processing, storage and shipping.
7. The plant should have a good system of marking, tracking, tracing and recall of products
inside the plant from receiving to shipping (from farm to fork).
8. Clear labels should be applied to the finished products bearing: establishment name and
number; name of product; added ingredients, if any, date of
production; weights, and the Halal logo. Some customers may require printing the expiration
date of the product plus other additional labeling
requirements.
9. The plant should guarantee the quantities and qualities of the products shipped to the
customers according to the customers’ specifications and their
documentation requirements.
10. If the raw meat/offal are to be shipped to domestic customers or to be used for further
processing at another facility in the US, the product should be
accompanied with our Domestic Halal Certificate, and if the product is to be shipped
overseas it should be accompanied with our Export Halal
Certificate.
11. The Halal products must be stored in a USDA inspected freezer/storage facility.
12. The product should be shipped out to customers in clean and refrigerated vehicles and
accompanied with proper documentation.
CRITERIA FOR HALAL CERTIFICATION OF
POULTRY SLAUGHTERING FACILITIES
1. The plant should be inspected by a Muslim representative of our organization and
approved for slaughtering of poultry according to Islamic Rites.
2. The plant should be USDA inspected, has a current Grant of Inspection and applies a
HACCP program.
3. The birds should have not been fed pork byproducts, filth material or growth hormones.
4. The birds should be treated humanely on the farm and in the slaughterhouse.
5. The birds should be alive and healthy at the time of slaughter. No processing of downers or
DOA.
6. Processing of Halal products should be done on full time basis or on certain days/times
when all the machinery are fully cleaned and sanitized.
The plant should apply the following Halal Blessing procedure as supervised by HTO:
a- Blessing of birds should be done by an adult Muslim who recites the prayer “Bismillah
Allahu Akbar” which translates to “By the name of God the most gracious”. If stunning is
used it should not result in killing of the birds instantly.
b- The slaughtering should be done by means of a sharp knife, either held by hand or by a
using an approved mechanical system. The kill knife
should produce a sharp and clean cut on the front side of the bird’s neck, cutting through the
skin, trachea, esophagus, and major
blood vessels. The Blesser should turn on the switch to the mechanical kill knife and back up
the knife to correct any miss-cut.
c- The birds should be thoroughly bled with maximum bleed out from the act of slaughtering.
d- The birds should be completely dead before going into the hot scolder or further
processing.
8. The plant should have a good system of labeling, tracing tracking and recall of products
inside the plant from receiving to shipping (from farm to fork).
9. If other ingredients are added to the processed products through marinating, injecting,
flavoring, breading, etc. a list of the ingredients must be
disclosed and pre approved by HTO and should not contain any pork, alcohol, blood, or
suspicious ingredients.
10. Clear labels should be applied to the finished products bearing the: name of product;
ingredients, date of production, weight, plant name, plant number,
and our Halal logo.
11. The plant should guarantee the quantities and qualities of the sold products according to
the customers’ specifications and satisfy their labeling
and documentation requirements.
12. If the raw poultry product is to be used for domestic sales or for further processing in the
US it should be accompanied with our Domestic Halal
Certificate, and if the product is to be exported it should be accompanied with our Export
Halal Certificate.
13. The product should be stored only in USDA inspected freezer/storage facilities.
14. The product should be shipped out to customers in clean and refrigerated vehicles and
accompanied with proper documentation.