The World Halal Food Council Europe which groups top experts on foods Muslims are allowed to eat will meet for the first time in Italy and is scheduled to gather in Milan on March 1-2.
The meeting, organized by the local chapter of the Halal International Authority, Hia, charged with certifying which products and cooking procedures are halal, licit under Islam, will meet at the Sheraton Malpensa Hotel. Promoters say experts will discuss common rules of certification, the sector’s challenges and the opportunities for the halal market in Europe.
Among participants, the local section of the Hia said in a statement’, will be ‘the representatives of all the agencies making up the World Halal Food Council in Europe: Hia, Halal Quality Control, Halal Food Council, Halal Institute of Spain, European Institute of Halal, Halal Control, The Grand Mosque of Paris, Halal Certification Services, Total Quality Halal Correct, The Muslim Religious Union of Poland e The Muslim Food Board’.
Consumers of halal products are over two billion worldwide, with an estimated 35 million in Europe however organizers of the event said ‘certifications are granted in an unclear way by organizations which are not recognized internationally and have unclear origins’.
The World Halal Food Council was created in Indonesia in 1999 ‘to consolidate the brotherhood and cooperation among certification agencies worldwide’.