Halal Meat – The Pure Meat

Food is a very essential part of our lives as it plays a vital role in maintaining a proper health. Good nutritive food implies a balanced diet which includes both vegetarian and non-vegetarian. In the process of eating food, as a gourmet would agree, it is also essential to satisfy taste buds.

Gourmets would not shy away from trying and tasting varieties of delicious food which most of the times include meat. ‘Meatatarians’ tend to savour every bite of the juicy meat they consume. Apart from good taste, it is considered to be a very healthy diet.

Now if we go a layer beneath this aspect of food, ways of consuming meat are distinct according to various religions. If we talk about Islam, it is world's second most popular religion in the world; they have a specific set of rules when it comes to the consumption of meat.

In Islam, according to the Holy Qur’an, the followers are preached to exclusively eat Halal meat. In Arabic language, the word "Halal" connotes permissible or lawful. Halal meats are the foods that falls under Islamic dietary guidelines. Muslims are very particular about eating proper Halal meat and in its absence, they would rather have eggs or fish or any other source of protein.

According to Islam, Halal is one of the most humane methods of animal slaughter. Muslims are taught through the Qur’an that all animals should be treated with respect and should be taken care of. The goal is to slaughter the animal, limiting the amount of pain the animal will endure. This particular way to slaughter the animal is known as "zabihah" and there are certain guidelines to it as follows:

About the source, out of the popular meat sources like sheep, goat, lamb, cow, buffalo, camel, turkey, chicken etc., the Pig meat (pork) is not allowed for consumption to Muslims, also including carnivorous animals, dead animals, birds of prey and land animals without external ears. These are called "Haram" in Arabic, meaning forbidden.

• The meat cannot be a forbidden cut, that is, it cannot be from the hindquarters of the animal to be slaughtered.
• Allah's (Almighty's) name must be recited in the ears of the animal to be slaughtered. Islamic butchers believe that this renders the animal to be submissive and be ready for death.
• The knife to be used must be very sharp. The animal must be slit at throat cutting off the jugular vein but the spinal cord is left intact and the heart keeps beating to pump out almost all the blood from the body. The body is then hung upside down to drain out the blood. Eating blood is not considered halal.
• It must be ensured the animal is not dead or unconscious prior to the slaughter.
• The animal must be fed with natural diet that does not include any animal by product.
• All these steps must be carried out by a Muslim or "People of the Book"(Jews or Christians).

The colour of halal meat is light in shade which signifies the drained out blood from most part of the blood, even from the very tiny veins present inside the meat. This is considered to be hygienic as blood is responsible for causing a lot of diseases. Hence, as per Islam, Halal meat is considered to be better than stunned meat.

With growing demands for Halal meat, a lot of national supermarket chains provide Halal Meats and even Halal Turkey meat is available for Thanksgiving!

Jasmine Grayson provides information about halal meat and its significance.