75% Halal!

The newspaper clip above is from the local paper Le Villefranchois. The article warns the citizens of Villefranche-de-Rouergue (department of l'Aveyron) that 75% of the meat they purchase is halal. In addition it warns of the religious tax they are paying unknowingly: 10 - 15 centîmes of a euro per kilo of meat.

Sources: Yves Daoudal and François Desouche

Note on a related topic: For those who buy New Zealand lamb, you should be aware that 70% of the lamb, including exported lamb, is halal. Since NZ lamb is highly prized, it is often sought after by chefs and restaurants of quality, as well as by consumers.

An Islamic website, also concerned about halal, but from the opposite point of view (i.e., it provides information for its readers seeking halal meat), posted this in 2008:

This will be old news to some of you, but thanks to the contributors at DeenPort, we can be safe in the knowledge that any sheep/lamb meat from New Zealand is halal, as long as it's not from one of the following abattoirs - code indicated on the packaging - ME 80; ME 103; ME 104; ME 108; ME 112; ME 131; ME 132; ME 133. This is regardless of whether a 'halal' mark appears on the packaging or not.

Please note that the links to Deenport are not working. This could mean that the above information is not up to date. If you are interested you can conduct your own search and let me know if you find anything substantially different from what is posted above. Also, are we supposed to ask the butcher in the Whole Foods Market, or wherever we go for meat, to check the code? Has anybody ever done that and what was the result?

For those interested, I found this fascinating article on New Zealand's capitulation to halal, with a link at the end to an equally fascinating article on Kosher.