We always get questions like how to get a halal certificate or how to get my products halal certified from our food handler course participants.
Note: Want to know more on halal, you should checkout out this Halal Certificate – The Ultimate Guide Post.
And every time we will give the same answer that is – Understand first the concept of Halal & Toyyib and off course you have to read and follow the guidelines written in MS1500:2019, MPPHM (Domestic) 2020 and other related guidelines related to your related scheme.
After understanding this concept, you can decide whether your business is ready to apply for halal or not.
Based on our observation, 90% of applicants do not understand the basic concept of halal. Later on they will get frustrated on why is halal so hard to apply and why such requirements needed.
If you, like them, do not yet know about the basics of halal, I highly recommend you to download this FREE basic halal guide (ebook).
How To Get Halal Certificate For Restaurant / Caterer / Products
Applying for a halal certificate for a restaurant is not as complicated as applying for a product scheme.
However, if you do not have a good halal assurance system and halal file management, your halal application will be very complicated.
Start now by building up your list of Products/Menus and the master list of all Halal ingredients that you use. Once that is done, check for their halal status. It can separate into 3 parts:
- Halal Malaysia – Status Valid
- Halal Malaysia – Status Expired
- Halal from other countries – Check if the halal is recognized by JAKIM. There are fake halal logo everywhere.
This does not means that applying halal certificate for product scheme is hard. It is just for product scheme, there are several other requirements needs to be met such as Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP).
A common mistakes in halal application is documentation part. Because the restaurant or caterer has dozens of menus and hundreds of raw materials in use.
This does not take into account ingredients that do not have halal certification and that are imported from abroad.
But if everything is done systematically, managing halal will be easy.
Steps To Get Halal Certified
Time needed: 120 days
General Guide on how to get JAKIM halal certificate
- Premise Preparation
Premises must follow safety guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health Malaysia. The layout in the premises must take into account GHP elements. Drainage system must work properly and no entry of pests (Rats/Cockroaches)
- Staff Preparation
Employees must have these 3 documents, namely a Copy of Identity Card or Passport, Copy of Food Handler Certificate (Kursus Pengendalian Makanan) & Copy of typhoid injection which is still valid. For halal application, at least 2 Malaysian and Muslim employees are required.
You may need to organized Halal Awareness Training to all the staff so that the staff aware that the organizations is moving towards halal compliance and there are rules and guidelines that must be followed.
This Certificate of attendance must be properly documented as the Halal auditor will review this documents for proof of training. - Raw Materials
List down all you raw materials used. We suggest to list it in excel or word file and call it Master-List. Once, done, source the halal certificate for each of the items.
- Develop IHCS
IHCS known as Internal Halal Control system which is a new requirement in MPPHM2020 guidelines effective 1 January 2021.
- Halal File
Once the steps above is complete, compile all of the documents into a single file. Halal file must be updated periodically if there are any changes. This halal file will be requested by the audit officer every time they conduct an audit on the premises.
- Create MyEhalal Account
All information that has been collected from steps 1 to 5 must be entered into MyEhalal account. If you do not have one, head to MyeHalal and create an account. This should takes 1-2 days for your account to be activated. You may create this from step 1 to save time.
- Submit Hardcopy
The last step in applying for halal certification is to submit a hardcopy document to the Halal Processing Division
Basic Requirements for Halal Application
- Register with SSM / Other Government Agencies
- Register with FOSIM
- Hold a valid business license from a local authorities
- Fully operational before applying (Atleast 3 Month)
- Only produce and / or process Halal products
- Copy of Food Handling Course Certificate, Typhoid Vaccination Documents and Identity card for all staff.
Conclusion
This whole process of halal certificate application normally takes around 4-6 Month based on our years of experience. Now that you know how to get halal certificate by using the process flow mention above, please bare in mind that it is just not that straght-forward.
There are other thing to consider such as premise layout readiness, premise license and a lot more. You can get all this information in Halal Mastery Digital eBook – Mohon Halal DIY. This ebook is written by Abdul Fazmin, a halal coach and consultant since 2009. The best part is you about this is you only have to purchase it once and whenever there is an update, his team will update the content and you can view it without any other charges.
It is worth it. Get it today.