Agilent aim to boost halal food safety and authentication through collaboration

Food safety technologist Agilent Technologies Inc. is aiming to accelerate the development of analytical testing methods to ensure the safety and authenticity of halal products through its latest research collaboration.

The US-based firm has entered into a two year research agreement that will see it join forces with Universiti Putra Malaysia’s Halal Products Research Institute (HPRI) in an effort to strengthen Malaysia’s research capabilities for halal food products.

Halal, which refers to any product permitted for use or consumption by Muslims, is worth an estimated $662bn a year - representing around 17% of the global food industry.

The partnership will see the development of methods to detect adulteration and the presence of non-halal materials and ingredients, and authenticate foods that fully comply with halal standards.

It will focus on everything from transport to raw materials, ingredients, processing aids, packaging material.

Halal food safety concern

“The embedded value in halal is that it must be trustworthy, safe and truth. Although halal is closely related to religious values, it can also be embraced by people of different religious faiths,” HPRI director, Dr Russly Abdul Rahman said.

“Therefore, food safety is also a halal concern. Practically it means that, any food product that contravenes any food act or food regulations will not be given a halal certificate.”

Research in the field is relatively new with a lack of testing methods to effectively detect the presence of nonhalal materials in food - relying heavily on documentation and the routine inspection of production plants.

“These concerns can be addressed by putting in place testing methods which will ensure the authenticity of the halal food product. This is also complemented by putting in place standards, enforcement and monitoring measures which are effective and of high standard,” said Rahman.

“In this respect, Malaysia has started to use laboratory testing as one of the steps in halal certification applications which will consolidate the integrity of the halal certification process. Laboratory testing, once it is in place is applied right through the food supply chain as halal is not only a one stop assessment but it is applicable throughout the entire food supply chain.”

The research will also address issues related to contamination during processing, particularly in cases where halal food production is not segregated during manufacturing.

Analytical testing

“Firstly, we are looking to accelerate the development of analytical testing method since we believe that both parties have the necessary expertise and experience to be involved in this collaboration. This will fill the gap that exists in terms of the lack of available testing methods for halal applications.”

The collaboration will also see efforts to boost human resource capacity in this field to “enable this emerging area to be expanded and advanced.”

“UPM is one of the pioneering institutions involved in Halal R&D in Malaysia and through this collaboration with Agilent it is hoped that the development of the halal analytical testing methods can be accelerated, making them available to be used by testing laboratories all around the world,” added Rahman.

Source: Agilent Technologies Inc.