Jakarta – The Ministry of Religion will improve the halal certification rules in the Omnibus Law which is currently still being prepared. The Minister of Religion Fachrul Razi said on Tuesday (1/21) that in the new regulation the certification process would be shorter, which was 21 days.
Halal Audit Service Director of the Indonesian Food and Drug Administration and Cosmetics Council of the Indonesian Ulema Council (LPPOM MUI), Muti Arintawati, said that the halal certification process can be carried out quickly and easily, provided that businesses understand the halal production process.
“If we count the process from before he registers to the certificate, it means that at the point he entered the registration, the business actor must be in a state of understanding of the requirements process,” Muti told Minanews.net, Wednesday (1/22) night.
She asserted, if business actors did not really understand the halal certification process, then the audit process would be found deficiencies that must be corrected. So the halal certification process will take longer because it takes time to fix it.
According to her, there must be a good education process for business people. So they understand the requirements and process of halal certification well. So as to shorten the halal certification process.
“Because it will be easier and faster the halal certification process if the halal of raw materials is guaranteed, here often problems occur,” she said.
Muti said, if business actors understood the halal production process, the certification process could take place in only two or three weeks. The average LPPOM MUI conducts halal certification process 40 working days. The longest period is up to a year.
During the halal certification process, LPPOM MUI conducts a search of the raw materials used by each product submitted for its halal certificate. The less and easier the raw materials are used, the faster the certificate will come out.
“But as fast as possible it is not possible 1 × 24 hours or 3 × 24 hours, there is still an audit process to the production location. So far, if you want it to be fast, the business actor must really understand about halal, so how does the halal production process have to understand it well,” she said.
She then compared the halal certification process between fried banana sales and meatball sales. Fried banana sellers use bananas, flour and cooking oil that have been guaranteed halal because they are certified, so the halal certification process will be very fast.
Meanwhile, meatball sellers who use meat that has not been certified as halal as raw material, the meat used as material to make meatballs must be traced in their halal status. It must also be ensured that the animal is slaughtered in a lawful manner.
In addition, he added, it must be ensured that the meat grinder specifically serves halal meat without mixing it with non-halal meat.
“Certainly it will be more time consuming if the meat used is imported meat. Then it must be ascertained whether the animal is slaughtered in a halal manner abroad, traced whether there is a halal certificate in its home country,” she said.
In addition to the issue of imported meat, Muti also highlighted the flow of domestic meat distribution from one region to another. According to him, domestic meat distribution does not yet have clear regulations.
“The problem of internal meat distribution in Indonesia, the problem of the existence of wild boar meat, that must be regulated. If this is not clear, we will only trace the halal nature of meat, then the meat trade system must be regulated by the government,” she said.
