Jalel Aossey

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  www.bernama.com/bernama/v3/news_lite.php?id=371594 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 11/14/2008    Last Visited: 11/14/2008  

  Midamar Corporation director Jalel Aossey said countries like Malaysia and Brunei had well established regulatory bodies to verify products were halal-compliant and that protection levels were in place in countries like the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
  
  "There's growing demand for a universal standard across all halal products," said the representative of one of North America's largest suppliers of high quality halal meat.
  
  According to Aossey, regional governments needed help from the industry to combat fraudulent halal food certification practices and build consumer trust.
  
  "Close cooperation between governments and active certifiers in the region can help block non-halal food items from reaching supermarket shelves as halal products," he said at the Halal World Expo Forum which runs alongside the Halal World Expo 2008 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre here.
  
  He said people had to realise that it was not impossible and not too costly to put the correct halal standards in place.
  
  "Inspection teams can be sent to the various countries where food is being produced to allow it to be inspected, at that country's cost.
  
  "This is nothing when you consider the huge dollar volume of food products exported to the UAE and other Gulf countries. Malaysia has set the stage for the rest of the world to follow," added Aossey.
  
  According to him, of the American products that were found on supermarket shelves in the UAE and elsewhere in the Gulf region, about 95 percent would be the same products found in the United States' supermarkets.
  
  "But some how, on the way from the US to the Middle East, these products magically become halal. Consumers are no doubt becoming more aware of this reality and want to know what is being done to protect their religious beliefs," he said.
  
  Aossey asserted that there was no regulation of halal certification in the US as anybody could get hold of a good printer and turn out a certificate that looked genuine.
  
  "Corrupt certifiers get a taste for the money generated producing "paper halal certificates' for companies without actually performing any work. It's all too easy for them to operate in an unregulated industry," he said.
  
  He said, however, credible certifiers would send slaughter teams and auditors to production plants to check that processes were fully halal-compliant.
  
  Aossey said exporters rather than manufacturers were more likely to approach corrupt certifiers, acquire halal certification, put Arabic labels on the product and ship it to the Middle East.
  
  "The manufacturer may not have a clue where the product ends up or that their products are being misrepresented as halal," he added.

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  www.specialtyfood.com/do/news/ViewNewsArticle?id=2984 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 3/1/2009    Last Visited: 6/2/2009  

  But in the last ten years, halal foods have become much more readily available," says Jalel Aossey, director at Midamar Corporation of Iowa. Midamar, founded by Aossey's father in 1974, helped create the halal market in the U.S., and remains the leader in halal retail and food services.
  
  The global halal market is a $580 billion industry and American manufacturers, importers, restaurateurs, caterers and retailers are starting to pay attention: The U.S. halal market grew more than 20 percent last year. "The eight million Muslims living in the U.S. today have created the single greatest demand for halal food in a Western society outside of France," says Aossey. Islamic Services of America, a halal certification agency, estimates that halal foods will continue to grow at a rate of 25 to 30 percent over the next five to seven years.
  
  Halal offerings are broadening far beyond traditional meats into a wider array of products, as well as into more mainstream retail outlets. Many McDonalds-including two in Michigan-sell halal burgers and chicken nuggets, Subway provides halal products in 62 restaurants worldwide including two in New Jersey and Nestlé sold $3.5 billion worth of halal products last year. The Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America in Park Ridge, Ill., certified 1,000 companies last year, up from 330 companies in 2002. "I think of halal as the little brother to kosher, following many of the same growth trends," says Aossey.
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  "People are more concerned with what is in the food they eat, and things like Mad Cow outbreaks have driven non-Muslims to purchase halal meats," Aossey says.
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  The same is true of the halal buyer, says Aossey: "Mainstream retailers are realizing that the average halal consumer will also purchase additional groceries and supplies from stores carrying halal products.
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  The halal market is also being diversified to meet the demands of younger Muslims, says Aossey.
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  There is a similar movement within the Muslim world, as many Muslims are returning to a more religious way of life, describes Aossey.

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  www.gulfnews.com/business/General/10259492.html - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 11/13/2008    Last Visited: 11/14/2008  

  Jalel Aossey, director of Midamar, a US-based international supplier of halal food and foodservice equipment, said that there is a significant flow of non-halal food items in the region from meat-supplying countries, and the Gulf countries need tougher regulations to stop that flow.
  
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  "On one side you have producers who genuinely don't know what they have to comply with because of a lack of education from the industry. But you also have companies and exporters that are deliberately defrauding governments and consumers by not complying with regulations because they don't want to pay the fees and the transition costs to make halal products," Aossey said.
  
  Corrupt certifiers
  
  Nearly 1.8 billion Muslims around the world as well as some non-Muslims are fuelling the halal food industry, generating sales of $2.1 trillion annually, according to recent reports. The attractive halal food industry is drawing many dubious players.
  
  "Corrupt certifiers get a taste for the money generated producing "paper halal certificates" for companies without actually performing any work," Aossey said.
  
  On regulatory measures, Aossey said, "People have to realise that it is not impossible, and that it's not too costly to put the correct halal standards in place here.
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  Aossey said that inspection teams can be sent to the various countries where food is being produced to allow it to be inspected, at that country's cost.

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  Published on: 12/7/2007    Last Visited: 12/7/2007  

  This is important to clients as well as customers, as we are committed not only by faith but by control on operational directives," stated Jalel Aossey, Director of Business Development, Midamar Corporation.He adds, "Through the experience of our staff in dealing with export and import regulations with countries throughout the Middle East and South East Asia, we are able to provide years of knowledge in working with companies interested in expanding operations abroad and needing assistance."

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  Published on: 12/6/2007    Last Visited: 12/6/2007  

  This is important to clients as well as customers, as we are committed not only by faith but by control on operational directives," stated Jalel Aossey, Director of Business Development, Midamar Corporation.He adds, "Through the experience of our staff in dealing with export and import regulations with countries throughout the Middle East and South East Asia, we are able to provide years of knowledge in working with companies interested in expanding operations abroad and needing assistance."

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  Last Visited: 4/6/2009  

  "Ninety-five percent of American food items found in supermarket shelves in the UAE and other GCC countries are not halal even though they may be certified as such," said Jalel Aossey, director of Midamar, a US-based international food supplier and one of the first Muslim- owned business groups to offer halal food and food-service equipment to North America since 1974.
  
  Aossey, who was speaking at the Halal World Expo, said there is a significant flow of non-halal food items entering the local region especially from meat-supplying countries. He added that Gulf countries need tougher regulations to stop the flow.
  
  Corrupt certifiers, he said, are also to blame for the problem as they get a taste for the money generated producing halal certificates for companies without actually performing any work. He added that he advises countries such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia to send inspectors to food producing countries to ensure proper halal standards are being upheld.
  
  "This is nothing when you consider the huge dollar volume of food products exported to Gulf countries," he said.

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  Published on: 6/12/2008    Last Visited: 6/25/2008  

  "Especially now, with the devaluation of the U.S. dollar, there's an increase in demand for American goods in the Muslim world," says Jalel Aossey, director of business development at Midamar, a U.S.-based company which manufactures and exports halal foods. Manufacturing companies are supplying to the Middle East and they are seeking halal certification, he says. While truth in labeling laws in the U.S. is quite stringent and any false information can involve heavy penalties, the laws regarding food exports are more lax. Aossey explains that, "Many exporter consolidators buy American food products that are knowingly not halal and they will put either a sticker on it or they will get a supposed halal certifier that will give them a certificate.That certificate is separate from the product and they send that product overseas.The importer, in Arab countries in particular, needs that certificate in order to clear the goods and show that it's halal."The vast majority of U.S. food products are not identified on their packaging as halal, he says.However, the certificate will say it is a halal product slaughtered according to Muslim law and that slip of paper makes the products permissible for Muslims."You can go to any supermarket in the Middle East and find American goods that are being sold as halal, but you would never find that product sold as halal in the United States," Aossey says."I think it would be shocking if people really knew how few products are actually halal in this part of the world that are being sold as such."Consumers in the Middle East are becoming increasingly aware of this problem and are being asked to play a more active role in determining what is permissible according to Islamic law. Midamar is creating a consumer organization, which will contact American food manufacturers and ask them in writing whether their foods are halal or not.It is a relatively simple process to find out whether a certificate is legitimate or not, Aossey says. If the American manufacturer says it does not produce halal products, but it is reaching countries overseas as halal, this indicates that someone in the U.S. is "making" the product halal before it leaves the country.In some ways, the halal industry is learning from the Jewish kosher industry, in which products have to be identified as kosher directly on the packages. "The product is only kosher if identified with the seal on the package.They do not accept paper certificates for obvious reasons, as the halal industry is learning now," Aossey says.
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  Aossey believes that while some people in the industry are intentionally practicing deception, there is also a lack of education about what it takes for a food product to be halal certified. "Some companies think it's just paperwork.They don't understand there's a true process from the slaughter to the processing," he says.

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  Published on: 9/19/2005    Last Visited: 3/29/2007  

  "We chose HRB because they had the best understanding of our unique line of business," said Jalel Aossey, director of Midamar.

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  Last Visited: 2/9/2008  

  "There are vast opportunities for Halal businesses in the UAE and other parts of the Middle East to take advantage of the growing Muslim community in North America," said Jalel Aossey, director, Midamar Corporation.

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  Mr. Jalel Aossey Director, Midamar Corporation

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