Hand v machine slaughter: How “Halal” is your chicken?
by Ahmed Kilani
Source: MuslimVillage.comAhmed Kilani has been working as the General + Halal Integrity Manager for Fresh Poultry for the last 8 months. In this first of a two part series he will gives an insider’s view of what is happening in the Halal Chicken industry in Australia.
In this first article, he explains the difference between Halal hand and machine slaughtered chickens looking at it from an Islamic and industry point of view.
The Halal Chicken Market in Australia
Currently there are somewhere between 7million to 8million Halal certified chickens slaughtered in Australia every week. Out of this total, about 35,000 chickens a week are hand slaughtered – about half a percent – with the balance being all Halal certified machine slaughtered chickens. That equates to 1 Halal hand slaughtered chicken for every 200 Halal certified machine slaughtered chickens that are hitting the marketplace every week.
To the average Muslim consumer desiring to do the right thing, it can get very confusing trying to work out what is Halal when it comes to chicken. The aim of this article is to provide some clarity by informing you of what the issues are to allow you to make an informed decision inshaAllah.
What’s the Islamic difference between Halal hand Slaughtered Chicken and Halal machine slaughtered chicken?
In Australia, as elsewhere in the world, there is a difference of opinion amongst some Muslim scholars and Halal certifiers as to what is “Halal”. Some advocate that all meat + chicken is Halal as long as you say “Bismillah” (In the name of Allah) before eating. Some consider machine slaughter Halal – under certain conditions and others will only accept hand slaughter as being genuinely Halal.
There are strong viewpoints and detailed arguments presented on both sides of the machine and hand slaughter debate amongst Islamic scholars. Some argue that machine slaughter is completely lawful (Halal), whereas others argue that the process is completely unacceptable and the animal slaughtered in this process is unlawful (Haram). Amongst all the differing opinions, hand slaughter is the universal slaughter method accepted by all scholars, which leaves no doubt in the halal status of hand slaughtered chickens.
Machine-slaughter is a relatively new phenomenon created by the rapid progress in modern technology and the need to feed ever-growing populations. Globally Halal machine slaughtered birds are accepted in many countries including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Malaysia, Indonesia and Iran.
Caution dictates that hand slaughter should be given preference over mechanical slaughter for Muslims. However, it is important to recognise that while a Muslim can observe personal preferences and choices for their own preferred methods of hand or machine slaughter, they cannot enforce their own preference upon other Muslims, nor should they denounce others.
Hand Slaughtering in Australia
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| A Muslim slaughter man hand slaughtering chicken |
Fresh Poultry is Australia’s only Muslim owned and managed hand slaughter chicken slaughterhouse. They are also the largest supplier of Halal hand slaughtered chickens and account for about 70% of the hand slaughtered chickens killed in Australia every week.
They currently hand slaughter around 15-20,000 chickens on site and another 5000 are hand slaughtered off site at Red Lea Chickens under Fresh Poultry’s direct supervision. Fresh Poultry also sources Halal machine slaughtered whole chickens from Red Lea for customers, Muslim and non Muslim, unwilling to pay the extra cost of hand slaughtered chickens.
To try and give an explanation of how hand slaughtering works, I will use the practices at Fresh Poultry as an example of a typical hand slaughter operation.
Where do the chickens come from?
Fresh Poultry hand slaughters chickens three nights a week – Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday at their Padstow slaughterhouse in south west Sydney.
They source all their live birds from Red Lea Chickens. These chickens are especially hatched and grown for Fresh Poultry who are required to enter into supply agreements giving an indication of their anticipated weekly numbers 8 weeks in advance. Once these chickens have grown to a size that makes them ready to be slaughtered, Fresh Poultry is obliged to purchase their allocated chickens. They are sold at a set price per kilo for a live bird all year round regardless of what ever the retail price is for chicken at the time.
Chickens are usually slaughtered at 38-45 days of age for small birds (average weight about 2kgs) and 55 days plus for big birds (average weight of 3kg plus).
All Red Lea chickens are grain fed, hormone and steroid free, eat a non-genetically modified diet and roam freely in open barns – meaning they are not caged and eat and drink as they please.
Once they are ready for slaughter, chickens are collected from farms located close to Sydney just after sunset and transported directly to Fresh Poultry for slaughtering.
The Hand Slaughter process
Just like machine slaughter, stunning to render the chicken unconscious prior to slaughter precedes the hand slaughtering process. Stunning is legally mandated and is controlled to ensure that chickens do not sustain any injury or suffer any pain. As the chickens are sedated, they obviously cannot see each other at the time of slaughter.
Immediately after stunning the chickens are hand slaughtered by a qualified Muslim slaughter man using a sharp knife. The line speed at Fresh Poultry allows for 1 Muslim slaughter man to hand slaughter 30 birds a minute.
Once slaughtered the chickens then proceed along the processing line to allow all the blood to drain from their bodies. It is argued that hand slaughtering of chicken allows more blood to drain from the chicken than mechanical machine slaughter.
Next they enter a phase of further processing to remove the feathers, feet and neck and internally and externally clean the chicken.
Hand Slaughtered Chicken Pieces
The overwhelming majority of chickens slaughtered by Fresh Poultry are large, averaging over 3kg each. These chickens are cut up and boned to produce pieces and fillets, which are sold to butchers, restaurants and cafes and via Fresh Poultry’s own shop in Padstow.
Accordingly all the pieces and frozen products that Fresh Poultry supplies are 100% hand slaughtered and always have been. This makes up about 75% of the Fresh Poultry’s business.
Hand slaughtered whole chickens
With whole birds, Fresh Poultry obtains a very small amount from their own internal hand slaughtering. The rest are mainly sourced as small sized whole processed chickens size 9-18 directly from Red Lea Chickens.
These chickens are hand slaughtered for Fresh Poultry under their direct supervision. Red Lea hand slaughtered chickens are processed at a faster line speed of 100 birds a minute and require 5 Muslim slaughter men. The rest of the processing at Red Lea is virtually identical to the process used at Fresh Poultry.
Unlike machine slaughter where hundreds of thousands of chickens are slaughtered everyday, it is very hard to get all the exact sizes that one requires when only slaughtering a few thousand chickens at a time. People tend to forget that Allah (God) did not create chickens to be individually sized - eg.
A chicken can’t just naturally grow to be an exact size 13 by a certain number of days. There will always be a variation in sizes even when chickens may be the same age and eat the same diet. This is an act of nature that people often forget and is one of the main factors, besides line speed and extra labour, that make hand slaughter more expensive.
Halal certified machine slaughtered whole chickens
Fresh Poultry also source Halal certified machine slaughtered chickens from Red Lea. All of Red Lea’s machine slaughtered chickens are Halal Certified by the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC).
A mechanical blade slaughters these chickens with a Muslim slaughter man placing his hand along the processing line and physically touching the chickens just before they are slaughtered by the mechanical blade. He is constantly reciting “Bismillah” (In the name of Allah) as the chickens run past at a speed of 200 chickens a minute. Those that deem machine slaughter via this method as acceptable argue that it is virtually impossible to recite Bismillah on each bird at this line speed for hour on end.
Once they chickens have been slaughtered by the mechanical blade there is another Muslim slaughter man that stands after the mechanical blade and hand slaughters any chickens that the blade may have missed or not cut properly. The machine slaughter line speed runs at 200 birds a minute with 7 Muslim slaughter men on site that work over an 8 hour shift.
Machine slaughtered chickens can be purchased with a few hours notice 24hrs a day from Red Lea and do not require any forward commitments, as is the case with Hand slaughter. Red Lea Chickens slaughters about 500,000 chickens a week in this manner. Baiada (Steggles), due to also being AFIC Halal certified, use the same technique as red Lea to machine slaughter 5 million chickens every week.
Halal machine slaughtered birds can be easily purchased in the exact sizes required at far less cost due to the less labour, faster processing speed and bigger amount of chicken being slaughtered that allows more flexibility.
The Halal certified machine slaughtered whole chickens Fresh Poultry source from Red Lea are for customers, Muslim and non Muslim, that are not willing to pay the extra cost for hand slaughtered whole chicken.
Although Fresh Poultry would love to see this trend change and it is happening slowly, this currently is the majority of Fresh Poultry’s whole bird customers.
It is important to note that these chickens are sold as is and are never boned or cut up to make pieces as it is financially unviable to do so and would contaminate the hand slaughter pieces.
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| Hand slaughter processing at Fresh Poultry |
It is common sense that chicken processed at 200 birds a minute and using 2 slaughter men is going to cost far less than one processed at 100 birds a minute using 5 slaughter men (or 30 a minute and one slaughter man as is the case at Fresh Poultry). As detailed above, there are other factors that also make hand slaughter more expensive.
However to the vast majority of the general Australian Muslim public, unfortunately they are both considered “Halal” and they are both expected to sell for the same price. With the exception of the approximate 5% of Muslims that are strict on Halal and will eat only Hand slaughtered chicken, the remaining 95% of the community are either unaware of the difference or are unwilling to pay the required minimum 25% premium in price.
This is clearly evidenced by the market share that each type of “Halal” chicken holds. The current reality is that people appear to be more driven by financial than religious considerations. The other reality is that unless this situation changes soon, it is doubtful that hand slaughtering of chicken can be financially sustainable to any business, beyond on a very small scale.
Halal hand slaughter v Kosher hand slaughter
Although Kosher is more demanding to apply, the slaughtering process is essentially the same as Halal hand slaughter. When Halal hand slaughter pricing is compared to Kosher hand slaughter chicken, the difference in price is astounding.
As an example, a kilo of Kosher certified drumsticks retails for over $10/kg. The current Halal retail prices for machine and hand slaughtered drumsticks is about $2.50/kg.
With breast fillet, which compromises the majority part of a chicken, Kosher is upwards of $20/kg, where as Halal machine slaughter is currently about $6.50 -$7.00/kg and Halal Hand slaughter is about $9- $11/kg
The bottom line is that if these prices for Halal hand slaughter chicken are maintained, it is doubtful that it can remain a commercially viable option for any chicken processor to offer.
If the Muslim community truly values what is really Halal and is not willing to compromise on their religious values, they need to immediately start supporting companies such as Fresh Poultry and those that they supply if they are to remain sustainable as businesses.
Now that you have been informed of the reality, the question you need to ask yourself is how much are you willing to pay to not compromise your beliefs?
For a few extra dollars a week we can all ensure that Halal hand slaughter is not only sustainable, but that we as individuals are feeding ourselves and our family’s food that is 100% certain to be halal. Our goal should be as a minimum to make hand slaughter the norm and machine slaughter the exception InshaAllah.
In part 2, I will explore in depth the practices that go on in the industry. Some of it will be very uncomfortable to read and will shock many in the community. But as Muslim consumers of “Halal”, everyone should be informed and have a right to know what exactly they are putting into their stomachs. (HSH)
Source: MuslimVillage.com
http://muslimvillage.com/2014/06/05/54221/hand-v-machine-slaughter-halal-chicken/
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