in brief: food systems produce about a third of global greenhouse gas emissions, and beef is a large share of that. a 2023 review in Trends in Food Science & Technology asks how the world's Muslims, roughly a quarter of the population, will respond to alternative proteins. it finds that scholars disagree and that attitudes are largely unmeasured. a label that only says “halal” cannot hold that much uncertainty. a published standard can.
the number
Food systems account for about a third of global greenhouse gas emissions. Beef alone contributes roughly a quarter of the food-system share. The review's author, Shahid Jameel, cites The Economist, which compares beef's role in food to coal's role in fuel.
The population is projected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, and protein demand will rise with it. Alternatives exist and are becoming more available and affordable: plant-based diets, insects, cultured meat. Whether people eat them depends on beliefs and habits as much as on price.
a quarter of the world
Muslims are about a quarter of the world's population. Pew's 2015 projection, cited in the review, has that share reaching roughly 30% by 2050. For many of them, food is a matter of religious guidance and also of identity, family and belonging.
What counts as permissible (halal) or prohibited (haram) is derived first from the Qur'an and Hadith. Secondary sources used by Muslim legists come after. The review notes that the Islamic perspective is the same worldwide, while attitudes shift with geography and culture. Halal is the common denominator across those differences.
where the review finds disagreement
On plant-based diets, insects and cultured meat, the review reports conflicting scholarly opinions. It also reports that attitudes among geographically diverse Muslim societies remain largely unexplored.
That is a finding about the state of knowledge. It is not a verdict on any of those foods.
what disagreement does to a label
Halal labelling is usually binary: a product carries the mark or it doesn't. A binary can't tell you which position was taken where scholars differ, what was checked, or what wasn't.
The review is about future proteins, but the condition is already here. The schools of law do not agree on whether a transformed substance changes its ruling (istihalah): Hanafi and Maliki jurists accept it, Shafi'i and Hanbali jurists restrict it. Standards set different ethanol limits depending on the product and the body. Animal-derived processing aids often don't appear on a label at all.
what we do about it
ZMZM doesn't hold a certifier's seal. Halal is the standard we build to, and we publish how we reason.
The tradition supplies a place to stop asking. The default in things is permissibility, and a possibility is not a finding. So we disclose what is material and identifiable, and we leave out what is only theoretical.
Where a question is genuinely open, we set out the whole picture and step back. We won't decide for you, and we won't flatten a real disagreement into a badge.
Pork and its derivatives are excluded. We contract-manufacture, so our assurance rests on written supplier confirmation. Where a manufacturer won't confirm, we list the question as open, marked unanswered as of a stated month.
None of this claims our position is the only defensible one. It claims you can see it.
questions
What did the 2023 review by Shahid Jameel find about alternative proteins and Islam?
The review finds conflicting scholarly opinions on alternative proteins, including plant-based diets, insects and cultured meat, and a limited understanding of Muslim attitudes toward them. It also notes that the Islamic perspective is the same worldwide while attitudes vary with geography and culture. This post reports the finding and does not rule on any of those foods.
How is something determined to be halal or haram?
Primarily from the Qur'an and Hadith, with secondary sources relied on by Muslim legists. The primary sources are the same worldwide. How they are applied to specific foods and ingredients can differ between scholars and standards bodies.
Why do halal standards differ on ingredients such as ethanol?
Standards bodies set different limits depending on the product type, and the schools of law differ on doctrines such as istihalah (the transformation of a substance). There is no single universal threshold, which is why ZMZM shows the whole picture instead of implying one.
What does ZMZM do when scholars disagree?
ZMZM sets out the whole picture, including where the schools of law differ, and steps back. It does not decide for the buyer or turn a real disagreement into a badge.
What does an open question mean in the ZMZM halal standard?
An open question is one ZMZM has asked a supplier about in writing and has not had answered. It is listed publicly on the ingredients page, marked unanswered as of a stated month, and it stays open until documentation arrives.
Does ZMZM hold a halal certification?
No. ZMZM holds no third-party halal certification. Halal is the standard ZMZM builds to, and it publishes how it reasons, including where the schools of law differ and which questions are still open.
read it
Read the whole standard: The Standard. Open questions are listed on our ingredients page, each marked unanswered as of a stated month, and Reading a Halal Label explains how to check a label yourself. Disagree with any of it? Tell us where it's wrong.
Source: Jameel, S. (2023). Climate change, food systems and the Islamic perspective on alternative proteins. Trends in Food Science & Technology, 138, 480–490. doi.org/10.1016/j.tifs.2023.06.028