More To Halal Concept

The issue of what is halal is not just about not selling liquor and pork at an outlet.

In fact, the term covers the whole process of handling food and the business itself in a clean and honest manner.

Food outlet operator Mohd Nazrin @ Ludwig Gaisbauer believes the concept of “halal” is about the physical cleanliness of a restaurant, handling of food, paying creditors on time and treating customers right.

This was the report from starmetro today.

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It is interesting to note that most operators in the food industries do not know this. I have been to factories, homes and even kitchens of big restaurants which leave much for desire. These places do not practice or know the meaning of hygiene and handling of food.

Case in point is a factory in Malacca. Where the toilets are located, the foods are lain down to dried. Staff going in and out of the toilet steps on the food, water from the toilet run into the drying area. Staffs handling the food do not wash their hands after their toilet trips nor do they use glove. When I spoke to the owners, they maintained that every factory run similar to that.

A popular Malay restaurant located at Queensbay Mall is one place you should visit but not eat the food. The staffs there have habits like digging their noses and wiping them on whatever is available. The kitchen walls have accumulated stains from the time they started operation till today. The staffs are rude and will spit onto the food before serving you if you complain or step on their toes.

I stopped going to one well known western food restaurant located at Am pang. It was one of the most unpleasant encounters I had ever experienced. If not mistaken it was a Christmas Dinner, the place was full and the restaurant ran out of food. Since all the supermarkets nearby were about to close, the staffs rather the people in the kitchen decided to ram through their rubbish bags to find enough ingredients to cook. The group I was with all suffer from food poisoning the next day.

2 bakery ingredient shops located in Selangor are selling stolen goods. The authorities are aware of this but have accepted bribes to close their eyes.

An ingredient shop located at Chow Kit, have staffs that are rude and are not shy to throw unpleasant remark if you seek their help in finding certain product or how to make certain bread etc. Yet the majority of their customers can accept that kind of behaviour because it’s normal.

As long as we continue to bark at the wall, we will continue to live in denial of the truth.