Certifications
Green Certificate
About 35% of the world’s entire Vegetarian population lives in India. This means to say that every 3rd person who is a Vegetarian in the world is an Indian. After India, highest number of Vegetarians are in Israel (13%), followed by Taiwan (12%), Italy (10%) and Germany (9%). Of the world’s entire population of about 7 billion, close to half a billion are Vegetarians. However, despite such a big population of Vegetarians all across the world and particularly in India, there is no known system in existence for Pure Veg or Green Certification. This is despite the fact that a good population in countries like India are Vegetarian due to religious reasons and abhor even contact with Non-Vegetarian food, leave apart consuming it.
Who is a Vegan?
Vegan or vegetarian is a person who excludes foods of the ‘flesh’ of any kind, be it red meat, poultry, birds, fish, shellfish or seafood for religious, social or other reasons. However, they do consume milk and dairy products (like curd, cheese, butter, cream, whey and cottage cheese), eggs and honey, and other products of animal origin, as long as no animals are killed.
Vegetarian Movement
The concept of being Vegan or Vegetarian has been in vogue since times immemorial. Many of the early Greek and Roman philosophers, including Plutarch, Pythagoras, Seneca and Porfirio followed a meatless diet as a refusal of animal sacrifices to the gods and out of respect for living beings. Even the luminaries like Leonardo da Vinci and Descartes were vegetarian.
Societe des Animaux Protectrice was formed in France (in 1845). Similar societies also came up in countries like Holland and Bavaria around the same time. The Vegetarian Movement got a shot in the arm with the opening of the Vegetarian Society in Great Britain (in 1847) and in the USA (in 1850).
In India, Buddhist and Jain doctrines in particular and certain castes among the Hindus are known to follow a strictly Vegetarian diet due to religious or social obligations.
Across the world, an increasingly large number of people are turning Vegetarian for various reasons, like health, ethics, environmentalism or religion.
Your Confectionary or Cosmetics too can have Non-Vegetarian Ingredients
Imagine a scenario where you are a strict Vegetarian, for religious reasons or otherwise. You will never use a product if you know that it contains Non-Vegetarian ingredient. You purchase a product from the market thinking that it has 100% Vegetarian ingredients and processes. In case of products like soap or cosmetics, the thought may not even cross your mind that it could contain non-Vegetarian ingredients. You keep using these products unknowingly, not realizing for a moment that you are consuming a non-Vegetarian product. World Food Trust (WFT)’s Green Certificate is intended as a service for all Vegetarians of the world.
Green Certificate
It is utmost necessary that Vegetarians consume only Vegetarian food. On several occasions, and in case of several food products, packaged or otherwise, it is not clearly mentioned whether the product is 100% Vegetarian or not. World Food Trust (WFT) is taking this pioneering step in introducing Green Certificate, which is issued after WFT undergoes a stringent exercise to check the methods, procedures and ingredients that go in making of a particular product and the Certificate is issued only when the product is found meeting all the checks and guidelines.
Halal Certificate
‘Halal’ is an Arabic term meaning ‘permissible’ or ‘lawful’. It is a term used by the Muslim community to describe products which are suitable for consumption or use by the community. The opposite of ‘Halal’ is ‘Haram’, which means prohibited or unlawful.
The term ’Halal’ is mainly applied to meat products and other food products such as milk, canned food and additives. Specifically for meat products, Halal certifies that the animals were slaughtered in the prescribed way, in accordance with the Islamic laws, and the meat have not been in contact with animals slaughtered otherwise and, especially, pork, alcohol, blood, flesh of carnivorous animals or animals that were dead before slaughter. ‘Halal’ restrictions also ensure that the products are in compliance with ethical standards and are cruelty free.
What is Halal?
There are more than 2 billion people in the world who claim to be following Islam. This makes up to more than one-fourth of the world population. For all these people, it is imperative that they consume only Halal products. With the world gradually turning into a global village, this necessity of Muslims to consume only permissible or lawful products is increasing the necessity of Certification.
Consuming Halal means that a Muslim must know what the animal was, how it has been slaughtered and whether blood, alcohol or other intoxicants, and inappropriately used drugs are used. With regard to marine animals too there are some that are allowed and some that are not. There are guidelines for Genetically Modified Organism (GMO)s, body parts/fluids, keratin, stem cells and products like gelatine which need to be kept in consideration. Even the biscuit that you consume fondly, cosmetics that you wear and a variety of other marketed products could be ‘Halal’ or ‘Haram’, depending on whether the prescribed safety, purity and quality guidelines are adhered to or not.
The Halal Certification Process
World Food Trust (WFT) follows a stringent certification process which typically starts with an application, followed by submission of the documents related to sourcing of all raw materials, followed by onsite inspection by a team of experts to check factors like manufacturing, storage, packaging and transportation processes. This Certification is helpful for anyone involved in the business of food, and non-availability of a Halal Certificate would mean it cannot be said with certainty whether the food, including the various processes involved in reaching to you, is Halal or not. This Certification will also be of immense benefit to international trade including: exporters, importers, distributors, traders & brokers, logistics professionals, forwarding agents, shipping lines, airlines and international trucking firms besides trade associations, chambers of commerce, travel agents, hospitality chains and tour operators, as well as a discerning traveller.
Halal Beauty
An increasingly large number of people today care what goes into their beauty products. Concepts such as organic, vegan, and cruelty-free beauty are on the rise. A new concept among these, that is gaining in popularity increasingly, is of Halal Beauty. This concept is gaining in popularity because it is not easy to know the constituents of the cosmetics we use; some of the favourite beauty products may have ingredients that are derived from animal fat, hooves, or other obscure body parts.
Just as Halal food is to be consumed by a Muslim, it is necessary that the external applications i.e. cosmetics too must contain admitted ingredients. Not only ingredients but also packaging and communication of the product must be in accordance with the prescribed dictates. Halal Beauty Certification is necessary because the Muslim consumers across the world are spending an increasing amount of money on cosmetics. Aggressive advertising coupled with increasing disposal income, growing youth population and their inclination towards cosmetics products coupled with surging desire among women for trying new innovative products in order to maintain their youthful looks and easy availability due to expanding retail network and online channels are factors leading to upsurge.
In the Middle East Saudi Arabia is the biggest consumer of cosmetics followed by Iran. World Muslim spending on cosmetics is estimated to be $46 billion in 2013 – 6.78% of global expenditure. It is expected to increase to $73 billion, about 8.2% of global expenditure. Halal market too is expected to increase form$23.4 billion to $45 billion by 2020.
Halal Certification may soon be required in facilities like hotels, saunas, swimming pools, gyms or beauty centers.
Constituents of Halal Cosmetics
Halal cosmetics cannot contain parts of big or donkey and their derivatives, as well as parts such as bones, claws, hair and fats commonly used to manufacture cosmetics. Alcohol too is considered a highly risky ingredient in cosmetics production. Extraction of substances from live animals if this creates suffering too is forbidden. If child labour has been used during any process of production, that too is not permissible. Substances allowed are those which come from all herbivorous animals, except donkeys, where it is possible to use their meat but not their blood and the animal must be slaughtered according to prescribed laws.
Halal Certification
World Food Trust (WFT) provides Halal Certification to restaurant, hotels, companies dealing in food, beverages and catering, abattoirs, warehouses, packaging and labelling companies, pharmaceutical, healthcare, cosmetics & beauty products, including every industry that is associated with food and consumption. Application and submission of documents is followed by a stringent audit carried by a team of experts, to check the processing, handling & product distribution, storage, display & product serving; cleanliness, sanitary & food safety; tools, apparatus & machines; packaging & labelling; and, the overall aspects of the premises and processes. The Technical Committee reviews the documents and Audit Report and only when satisfied, the Halal Certificate is issued.
Kosher Certificate
‘Kosher’ is a Hebrew word meaning ‘fit’, ‘proper’ or ‘acceptable’. These days, it is mostly used to describe food and drink that complies with Jewish religious dietary laws.
Kosher laws have their origin in the Bible, and are detailed in the Talmud and the other codes of Jewish traditions, with applied applications brought in vogue due to changing times. To be certified Kosher, all ingredients in every product – and the process of preparing the food too – must be certified for orthodox Kosher-compliance. A Kosher Certified product means strict policy of Kosher food laws, including cleanliness, purity and quality, have been adhered to,
Meaning of Kosher Certified and Not Kosher
Kosher Certification is the stamp of Kosher approval by a Rabbinic Agency and/or expert Kosher auditors verifying they have checked the products ingredients, food additive, production facility, processing aid and actual production to ensure all ingredients, derivatives, tools and machinery have no trace of non-Kosher substances. World Food Trust (WFT), through assistance provided by Rabbis and experts in Kosher to ascertain and give certification.
Bible lists certain categories of food items which are not Kosher. These include certain animals, fowl and fish (such as pork and rabbit, eagle and owl, catfish and sturgeon), most insects, and any shellfish or reptile. In addition, Kosher species of meat and fowl must be slaughtered in a prescribed manner, and meat and dairy products may not be manufactured or consumed together.