19 Jul, 2019 by Jill Viray
Royal Cargo’s Cold Storage in Cavite is now a Halal certified facility accredited by Islamic Da’wah Council of the Philippines (IDCP) after it successfully passed the accreditation audit and inspection conducted last June 17, 2019 by the representatives from IDCP namely Mr. Joaleo Shahid Linzag, Mr. Ranzol Gayak and Mr. Ismael Linzag.
Royal Cargo Cavite Cold Storage is the first fully Halal cold storage facility in the Philippines.
After a careful review, analysis, documentary and physical audit of documents and records from receiving of materials, staging, handling, storage and dispatch of products and the ocular facility inspection in the entire the cold storage conducted by the IDCP-Halal Inspection and Audit Team, Royal Cargo Cavite Cold Storage is now Halal Certified.
The accreditation would not be possible without the entire endeavor and dedication of the Cavite QA Team headed by Ms. Antonette Ayos, SEQM Head and Ms. Marishabel Bonquin, QA Manager who meticulously handled all the preparations for the audit together with the Cavite QAs, Ms. Glezyll Tagabe and Ms. Christine Joy Tecson with the support of Cavite Cold Storage Head, Ms. Abby Lucban who all worked hard to ensure that the facility and processes are compliant, and also to the untiring continuous guidance and directions setting of Mr. Alex Dogma, Vice President for Contract Logistics Cold Chain and Mr. Filiberto Opulencia, Assistant Vice President.
The Halal Certification was secured to serve the national and international Muslim communities in meeting their religious compliance.
Halal concept commonly concerns the Muslim consumers. However, with the raising concern on health, a halal food business today has huge potential in capturing non-Muslim as target market. The halal concept on food today is beyond the understanding of religious values alone. It represents hygiene, cleanliness and the quality of the food consumed. The result of the study may provide an insight to halal food producers to look into the non-Muslim consumers as one of their target markets in halal food industry. The findings may also provide better understanding on factors influencing the market acceptance on the concept.
Halal Food will be the biggest step to ensure the heart (spirit) and body to live healthy and prosperity to emerge.
What is Halal Food?
Halal food means food that is permitted under the Shariah (Islamic) Law. This law is based on the Qur’an, Hadith (tradition of the Prophet Muhammad). Ijma (consensus) and Qiyas (deduction by analogy). The qiyas approved by the relevant Islamic Authority also fulfills the following conditions:
· Does not contain any component or raw materials from animals that is not Halal.
· Does not contain any ingredient that is considered haram or najis (filthy/unclean).
· During its preparation, processing or manufacturing, the tolls or equipment used must not be contaminated by the product with ingredients which are considered haram or najis.
To comply with the Halal Standard, Royal Cargo removed all haram (pork products) stored in the cold storage, conducted obligatory cleansing (7 to 10 times cleaning cycle) of entire facilities including equipment and implemented the Halal Assurance System.