Aussies unwittingly eat halal, kosher meat

Australians are likely consuming halal and kosher meat without knowing it, a Senate inquiry has been told.

Halal meat for export, prepared according to Islamic law, is typically produced in separate facilities from non-halal products but anecdotal evidence suggests they occasionally need to plug shortfalls for the domestic market.

“For sure there’s probably some halal meat that’s getting onto the market,” Australian Food and Grocery Council director Chris Preston told the inquiry into food labelling in Canberra on Friday.

But producers only need to label meat as halal if they’re claiming it is halal, since there’s no safety issue with people unwittingly eating halal meat.

The inquiry heard the hindquarters of cow and lamb killed according to Jewish law in Australia are also being sold unlabelled in supermarkets.

Kosher Australia rabbinic administrator Rabbi Mordechai Gutnick said labelling the meat would be costly.

Given there were only three kosher abattoirs slaughtering about 500 cows and 1000 lamb a week “we’re talking about really negligible numbers”.

Liberal senator Cory Bernardi, who initiated the inquiry, said some consumers might have ethical concerns about how the animal is slaughtered or “prayers being said over it” and had a right to know if their meat was halal or kosher.

“I can only imagine the outcry if it was a priest there with holy water,” he said.

Administrator Rabbi Moshe Gutnick, of the Kashrut Authority which supervises kosher food services, said labelling meat sold to the general public as kosher would lead to “hysteria” from people who don’t understand and unnecessary economic backlash.

Although lamb is not pre-stunned before slaughter “it’s done with a very special knife in a very special way” making a sheep unconscious within seconds, he said.

He said cows were stunned after being cut but insists the method complies with animal welfare guidelines.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry executive director Peter Wertheim said if religious freedom was weighed against the “uncertain” animal welfare benefits to be gained if kosher slaughter was banned, “the scales fall very heavily in favour of religious freedom”.

“It’s been banned in Nazi Germany and it’s often been used as a cloak for persecution and discrimination against the Jewish community of that country,” he said.

Rabbi Moshe said kosher labels were about informing Jewish consumers rather than making money - it’s like the Heart Foundation Tick but it tells consumers what’s good for their “Jewish heart”.

Department of Agriculture assistant secretary Greg Read told the inquiry halal meat is stunned before being killed, according to Australian standards.

Australian Food and Grocery Council chief executive Gary Dawson expressed concern that exporters were being forced to pay for country-specific halal certification, so a meat producer needs to pay separate halal certifications for each country they export to.

Exports to Islamic countries were worth $13 billion to Australia, with processed red meat accounting for $2 billion.

Export Council of Australia director Andrew Hudson said certification was important to sell the product.

“Our government can’t dictate to domestic governments in our export markets about what they should be expecting regarding certification,” he told the inquiry.

“We have similar standards.”

The inquiry is due to release its report by November 30.

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