REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE
Guwahati, Nov 19: In the interest of public health and to prevent confusion, the Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday imposed ban on the production, storage, distribution, and sale of food, medicines and cosmetic items with ‘halal certification’ in the state with immediate effect.
“In the interest of public health, production, storing, distributions and sale of halal certified edible items are banned in Uttar Pradesh with immediate effect,” UP Food Commissioner’s order reads.
The order comes after UP police received multiple complaints against several firms for allegedly selling ‘Halal Certified’ products using fake documents.
The UP government stated that cases were registered against entities including Halal India Private Limited Chennai, Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind Halal Trust Delhi, Halal Council of India Mumbai, Jamiat Ulama Maharashtra for allegedly hurting religious sentiments to boost sale by forging halal certified products to customers of a specific religion.
Stating the right to decide the quality of food items lies only with the authorities mentioned under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, the UP Food Commissioner order said, “Thus, Halal certification of food products is a parallel system which creates confusion regarding the quality of food items and is completely against the basic intention of the said Act and is not tenable under Section 89 of the said Act.”