Halal Certification of Terengganu Food Industry

This community project was initiated to guide small and medium scale entrepreneurs (SMEs) in Terengganu to achieve Halal certification for their products from the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM). The SMEs involved in this program were identified by our community partner, Terengganu Entrepreneur Development Foundation (YPU) and were shortlisted based on their potential to achieve JAKIM halal certification. Short courses, talks and workshops were organized to expose the entrepreneurs to the rules and regulations pertaining to Halal certification and to develop the manual for Safe Food Industry Responsibility (MeSTI) Certification Scheme. The initial steps involved auditing of premises to determine their compliance to JAKIM’s Halal certification requirements. After a report containing recommendations for improvements to the premise was given to the entrepreneurs they were then given approximately a month to meet the requirements for JAKIM’s Halal certification and the Food Safety Assurance Program (PJKM) required by the Ministry of Health Malaysia. Following the second auditing, after the entrepreneurs were ready to go forward with the certification, the group assisted the entrepreneurs to submit the Halal certification application online to the Council of Islamic Religion and Malay Customs Terengganu (MAIDAM) and Terengganu State Health Department (JKNT) for the next reviewing process. A total of 65 out of 192 or 33.9% of the entrepreneurs listed by YPU were short listed and audited. Only 15 premises obtained MeSTI certification. Meanwhile, seven premises have already succeeded in getting the Halal certification from JAKIM (2012 – 2015) and seven premises (2016 – 2019) still valid for their Halal certificates after verification. Other premises are still under the guidance for obtaining Halal and MeSTI certifications.