June 14, 2006

 

US could lose Muslim beef markets over slaughter procedures

 

 

US beef markets in some Muslim countries could be in jeopardy if those countries ever decide to get serious about Halal, or permitted, slaughter procedures because many US plants do not measure up, said some Muslim kill certifiers.

 

"If the US continues to promote US beef in the Middle East and continues to turn a blind eye to the method of the blessing and (continues) doing it incorrectly, the Middle East could stop buying," said Sam Rayes, co-founder of Tex-Med Beef Co, a Houston firm offering Halal-certified meats in mainstream supermarkets.

 

According to Rayes' estimates, more than 50 percent of US beef exports to Islamic countries are affected by inadequate procedures.

 

The questions about the procedures come at a time when the US meat market is trying actively to build more market share in the region.

 

The US Meat Export Federation (USMEF), the group responsible for pushing US meat exports, said in a release that it had recently extolled the virtues of US beef at a food show in Beirut. USMEF staffers touted US beef's safety, quality and availability to new buyers and helped current buyers find new product sources, the release said.

 

In 2003, the US exported 39,881 tonnes of beef and beef variety meats worth US$79.754 million to Middle Eastern countries, according to US Census Bureau statistics posted by the USMEF on its website. This was the last nearly full year of beef exports for the US since bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, was discovered in an imported Washington State cow. Since then, two more indigenous cases were discovered.

 

US beef and beef variety meat exports to the Middle East through Mar 2006 totalled 15,493 tonnes valued at US$25.2 million, the USMEF release said. The allegedly lax Halal kill situation at some US packing plants grew out of a tug-of-war between the plants, which are most efficient when running at full speed, variations in Halal demands by purchasing countries and the ever-present fudging of the rules by everyone involved for whatever reason, the sources said.

 

Mazhar Hussaini, director of the Halal Certification Programme for the Islamic Society of North America, said "the problem is there is a range of standards (among Islamic countries) and different interpretations of the standards". But importing countries are beginning to scrutinise the process more closely because it's important to them.

 

Hussaini said this "is not really the US Department of Agriculture's fault. It's a matter of truth in labelling. It's also why his group is working on a standardisation process that will make the process at each plant more transparent and allow a more informed buying choice.