Halal meat: what is it and why is it so controversial?

Halal meat is a key part of Islam and was conceived on the principle of compassionate and humane slaughter of animals for food.

Yet the traditional slaughter of animals, when they are not stunned, has consistently come under fire from animal welfare groups for being unnecessarily cruel. While European and UK law says animals must be stunned before slaughter, there are exceptions for halal and kosher meats, though 65% of animals slaughtered for halal meat are stunned first, according to the RSPCA.

What is halal meat?

Halal is a word regularly used to refer to food, specifically the slaughter and preparation of meat, by non-Muslim people. But its meaning is actually much more far-reaching.

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"Halal" literally translates as "permissible" in Arabic, and refers to any action or behaviour that is allowed in Islam, including what types of meat and methods of preparation are acceptable. Conversely, "haram" refers to impermissible or unlawful actions.

In the context of dietary rules, pork and blood, as well as meat from birds of prey and reptiles, are defined as haram and so forbidden to practising Muslims.

How is halal meat prepared?

God's name must be invoked in a one-line blessing called the Tasmiyah, said before any slaughter. British Halal Food Authority slaughtermen use the most common version, “Bismillahi-Allahu Akbar” (In the name of Allah the greatest).

Reciting a short blessing beginning with “bismillah” (in the name of Allah) is a prerequisite for Muslims before embarking on any significant task. Orthodox Jews recite similar everyday blessings, including a prayer used before performing kosher slaughter.

The Islamic method of killing an animal for meat is called zabiha. After reciting the blessing, the slaughterman uses a surgically sharp instrument to cut the animal's throat, windpipe and the blood vessels around its neck. The blood is then allowed to drain from the body.

Only one animal can be ritually slaughtered at a time and the other animals must not witness any death.

The religious law also says how the animal must be treated during its life, with bans on mistreatment or causing any pain. It must also be provided with enough space to roam, clean water, food and fresh air.

Some animals killed for halal meat in the UK are stunned electrically before their throats are slit, known as “pre-stunned slaughter”. The British Halal Food Authority approves of low-voltage electrified water baths to stun poultry, and electric-tong stunning for sheep and goats.

However, it is forbidden to use methods of stunning that can actually kill the animal, such as bolt guns. Animals not killed by ritual slaughter are considered carrion meat, which is haram.

Do the animals feel pain?

Outside religions, non-stunned slaughter was widely abandoned in the 20th century and is increasingly perceived as cruel. But non-stunned slaughter continues to be permitted for religious purposes and the question of whether it is more or less humane than other forms is a matter of debate.

Some studies suggest religious slaughter can be as "humane as good conventional slaughter methods" when performed "properly", said the Islamic Services of America.

Writing in The Guardian in 2014, Shuja Shafi and Jonathan Arkush agreed, arguing that traditional methods of stunning, using a captive bolt, gas or electricity, only paralyse the animal so it cannot move, and do not reduce suffering. "It is impossible to know whether the animal is feeling pain or not," they said.

In both Muslim and Jewish religious slaughter, the act of slitting the throat "stuns the animal", they added, and “there is no delay between stun and subsequent death”.

Animal health experts and campaigners disagree. The RSPCA argues that killing animals without stunning them causes them to "experience suffering and distress", and has urged the UK government to ensure all animals are unconscious when slaughtered. Activist group Peta said that although religious slaughter was "probably more humane than any other existing alternative" thousands of years ago, that the "world has changed drastically since then" and the practice leaves animals "terrified" and in "unimaginably agonising" pain when their throats are slit. However, it also argues that no slaughter for meat is humane.

The British Veterinary Association calls for all animals to be effectively stunned before slaughter because of the "pain, suffering and distress" experienced during the cut and bleeding. The Farm Animal Welfare Council says cutting an animal's throat is "such a massive injury [that it] would result in very significant pain and distress in the period before insensibility supervenes".

How does it differ from kosher practice?

Unlike halal, the Jewish method of slaughter, known as shechita, cannot involve pre-slaughter stunning at all.

Its proponents say the use of a chalaf, a surgically sharp instrument twice the width of the animal's neck, by practitioners who have trained for a minimum of seven years. Proponents for shechita say it "swiftly renders the animal unconscious", said The Jewish Chronicle, but animal campaigners say it is unnecessarily cruel.

So how is halal meat regulated?

Both European and UK law "requires animals to be stunned before being killed", though there are exemptions for religious slaughter in approved abattoirs, said the BBC.

A ban on non-stunned slaughter came into effect in Belgium in 2019 and was upheld in the European Court of Human Rights after challenges by religious groups this year. Belgium ministers argued that there was "considerable strength of feeling on the issue". Ben Weyts, Flemish minister for animal welfare said the upheld ban meant the "door is open for a ban on ritual slaughter not only in Brussels but in the whole of Europe".

Other countries including Iceland, Estonia, Sweden, Switzerland and Denmark already have existing laws against non-stunned slaughter. However, Jewish groups say that these bans "invalidate their religious practices", according to the Jewish Chronicle, and they have to resort to importing kosher meat from abroad.

The British government has repeatedly resisted pressure from animal welfare groups such as the RSPCA to outlaw halal slaughter without pre-stunning, and opposed EU measures that would have required meat to carry labels confirming whether it came from animals that had been stunned before slaughter on the grounds they discriminated against Muslim and Jewish groups.

How does this work in practice?

In a highly publicised case in 2018, Lancashire council became the first local authority to ban unstunned halal meat in school dinners.

Following an impassioned and at times bitter campaign between council leader Geoff Driver and the local Muslim community, the Conservative-controlled council narrowly voted for the ban.

The decision prompted calls for Muslim students to boycott school lunches and provoked a war of words between Muslim leaders, the council and animal rights groups.

Lancashire Council of Mosques (LCM) accused Driver of leading a "crusade" on the issue and LCM's acting chair, Abdul Qureshi, said any decision to ban unstunned halal meat would create huge difficulty.

"People will pull out of school meals and people who should eat properly will be deprived of that. For us it's a matter of faith. For Geoff Driver it is his feelings," he told the BBC.

Is halal meat more widespread than we think?

According to one of Britain’s foremost vets, many non-Muslim Britons are inadvertently eating meat from animals slaughtered while they are still conscious.

Lord Trees, a former president of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, said that with the sharp rise in the number of sheep and poultry being killed in accordance with halal practice it was highly probable that some unstunned meat was entering the "standard" food chain, mainly in pies and ready meals.

"It's very difficult to have accurate traceability when meat may go through the food chain and pass through several different people's hands. Various parts of it will go in all sorts of directions into different food chains and different processing systems, often different countries," he wrote in the journal Vet Record.

The Daily Mail cited figures in 2018 from the Foods Standards Agency which showed the number of sheep slaughtered in Britain without being stunned had doubled in six years, to more than three million.

Raising the matter in the House of Lords, Lord Trees called for a change in the law to ensure all animals had to be stunned before they were killed, asking: "Does the minister agree with me that in that aspect of animal welfare we are going backwards?"

How much is the industry worth?

According to Islamic economy insights platform Salaam Gateway, the UK's halal meat industry is valued at £1.7 billion and is expected to swell to almost £2 billion by 2028.

The report suggested that the valuation was in spite of the "supply chain disruption" caused by Brexit and the "absence of a clear government policy" covering the rules around meat.

Globally, the halal meat industry is worth more than $4.5 billion, according to the Halal World Institute, and the "increasing Muslim populace globally is significantly contributing to the marketplace's increase".