Foreign snacks are increasingly popular and sought after. One is Hummus & Pretzels, a popular foreign snack that is delicious and useful for diet programs. How is it halal?
Snacks can improve your mood when carrying out daily activities. Foreign snacks are also in demand and increasingly sought after today. Unfortunately, most snacks contain high levels of fat and sugar. This has a negative impact on physical and mental health in the long term.
However, unlike other snacks. Hummus and Pretzels have low sugar content and are high in nutrition. Therefore, this snack can be the right solution for someone on a diet. This snack is widely found in supermarkets in big cities and is freely sold in online shopping stalls.
Hummus is a typical dish from Syria that is popular as a Middle Eastern snack [1]. As a snack, Hummus is usually paired with crunchy Pretzel bites, a perfect combination of salty, soft, and chewy that all ages will love.
As reported from healthline.com, Pretzels are popular European cookies often associated with Germany, shaped like twisted knots or three knots; based on legend, a monk created this classic Pretzels knot to depict a pair of praying arms. Over time, Hummus and Pretzels snacks have been developed into various shapes and toppings.
Hummus and Pretzels snacks are a good source of energy. As reported by Halodoc.com, Hummus itself has many health functions, such as high iron content that facilitates oxygen flow to red blood cells to prevent and relieve anemia, high vitamin K, which can thin the blood to prevent blood clots, and high fiber content to help the digestive system.
Diyetz.com reports that 100 grams of Hummus contain 166 calories, 9.6 grams of fat, 7.9 grams of protein, 14.3 grams of carbohydrates, 6 grams of fiber, manganese 39% of the RDI (recommended daily intake), copper 26% RDI, folate 21% RDI, magnesium 18% RDI, phosphorus 18% RDI, iron 14% RDI, zinc 12% RDI, vitamin B1 12% RDI, vitamin B6 10% RDI, and potassium 7% RDI [5].
In 1.5 ounces or 42.5 grams of Hard Pretzels contains 163 calories, 1 gram of fat, 4 grams of protein, 34 grams of carbohydrates, less than 1 gram of sugar, 1 gram of fiber, 23% dv (daily value) of sodium, 19% dv of folate (vitamin B9), 11% dv of iron, 14% dv of niacin (vitamin B3), 11% dv of riboflavin (vitamin B2), 15% dv of thiamine (vitamin B1), 4% dv of zinc, 3% dv of selenium, and 7% dv of copper.
Making Hard Pretzels with whole wheat or whole wheat flour will increase the fiber content 3 times [3], and toppings in the form of fruits, vegetables, nuts, dark chocolate, cinnamon, and yogurt will increase the nutritional value of this snack. Consumption of low-sugar Hummus and Pretzels snacks can improve diet quality and several indexes of appetite, satiety, and glycemic control in healthy adults. A snack of Hummus and Pretzels in the afternoon can suppress appetite in the evening and reduce afternoon blood glucose concentrations by up to 5% [2].
Raw Materials and Manufacturing Process
Hummus is a porridge, dip, or savory spread made from ground chickpeas or chickpeas mixed with ground tahini or sesame seeds, olive oil, lime juice, salt, and garlic [1]. Pretzel dough is made from wheat flour, water, sugar, yeast and sprinkled with coarse salt [2].
The Pretzels production process includes mixing the dough, forming using an extruder at low pressure, cooking, and baking [3]. The main difference between Hard Pretzels and Soft Pretzels production is the length of cooking and baking to produce a certain amount of water content in the final product.
The lower the water content in the final product, the longer the shelf life. As a snack that is expected to have a long shelf life so that it can be sold easily and safely to various countries, Pretzels in the form of small bites as a companion to Hummus usually have a low water content.
Halal Aspect
To comply with halal regulations as a good citizen and maintain oneself as a good Muslim, the halal aspect must be considered when making or buying these healthy and attractive Hummus and Pretzels snacks.
Several critical points of ingredients must be examined for halalness, namely wheat flour, sugar, and yeast. The potential use of additional ingredients and auxiliary materials, such as toppings and preservatives, must also be checked.
The halalness of wheat flour needs to be examined based on the raw materials, additional ingredients, and auxiliary materials used. Although wheat as a raw material is halal, in the manufacturing process, it is fortified to increase its vitamin and mineral content; commonly used fortifiers are iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), vitamin B1, vitamin B2, and folic acid.
Vitamins can be produced from the process of biotransformation or chemical synthesis. In contrast, biotransformation uses microorganisms multiplied in a growth medium that requires a carbon source and a nitrogen source that can come from haram animals or halal animals that are not slaughtered according to Islamic rules, so their status becomes non-halal.
Other fortifiers, such as the amino acid L-cysteine, are also commonly used as wheat gluten softeners. L-cysteine can come from human hair extraction, animal fur extraction, and microbial products. L-cysteine from human hair is haram, based on MUI Fatwa No. 2/Munas VI/MUI/2000 the use of body parts is forbidden.
L-cysteine from animal fur needs to be investigated further; sheep’s wool can be taken while still alive, but poultry will be in pain if their feathers are taken, so they must be slaughtered first; this slaughter must be by Islamic rules. Microbial products require more complex tracing, including microbial cultures, media materials, purification materials, auxiliary materials and other materials.
The next material that must be considered is sugar; various types of sugar, such as glucose, fructose, sucrose, and others, function as sweeteners or preservatives in food products. Crystal sugar from sugar cane juice is the most widely circulated on the market through extraction, purification, evaporation, crystallization, centrifugation, and drying.
Purification is critical for halal sugar if animal derivatives are used; purification can use activated carbon filtration agents and ion exchange resins. Activated carbon removes sugar’s natural brown color (decolorization) to pure white. Activated carbon can come from plants, coal, chemicals, or animal bones.
In ion exchange resins, it is necessary to pay attention to whether gelatin is used as a dispersant agent, gelatin itself can come from animal bones. In addition, if the sugar-making process uses microbial products, it must be ensured that the media used is halal and not contaminated with impurities.
Likewise, yeast, an important ingredient in making Pretzels dough, converts sugar into carbon dioxide ethanol, a bread-raising agent, through fermentation. Commercially, yeast can be obtained in 3 forms: compressed yeast, active dry yeast, and instant active dry yeast. Instant active dry or instant yeast can be directly added to the dough in supermarkets.
Yeast itself is obtained through a fermentation process, where the fermentation medium is a source of carbon and nitrogen, which can come from plant or animal sources. Emulsifiers, anti-caking agents, and other additives are often added in its manufacture.
Emulsifiers can come from vegetable or animal fatty acids. Anti-caking agents can come from animal bones, such as E542 (edible bone phosphate). E570 (stearic acid) and E572 (magnesium stearate) may be present in instant yeast, which can come from vegetable or animal fatty acids. So it is necessary to ensure that all ingredients sourced from animals come from halal animals that are slaughtered according to sharia.
With the explanation above, lovers of this Middle Eastern Hummus and Pretzels diet snack must be patient enough to enjoy halal Hummus and Pretzels sold in various shopping centers in big cities in Indonesia until they obtain halal certification. However, if you want to make it yourself, ensure that the ingredients used are guaranteed halal by looking at each ingredient’s halal label on the packaging. (***)
Literacy Source
[1] “National, Communal and Global Dimensions in Middle Eastern Food Cultures” in Sami Zubaida and Richard Tapper, A Taste of Thyme: Culinary Cultures of the Middle East, London and New York, 1994 and 2000, ISBN 1-86064-603-4, p. 35.
[2] An Afternoon Hummus Snack Affects Diet Quality, Appetite, and Glycemic Control in Healthy Adults. Evan J Reister and Heather J Leidy. The Journal of Nutrition Volume 150, Issue 8, Agustus 2020, p. 2214-2222.
[3] Pretzels Production and Quality Control. koushik Seetharaman. Bakery Products Science and Technology, Second Edition, Chapter 35. 2014. Willey.
Halal Journal Edition 169 https://halalmui.org/jurnal-halal/169/
