Halal and Kosher Meat

Today, HSLD publishes its new policy leaflet on halal and kosher meat.

At the moment, most meat sold in the UK must come from animals that have been stunned before slaughter, in order to minimise animal suffering.

However, in order to meet the religious requirements of some Jewish and Muslim communities, halal and kosher meat may come from animals that have not been pre-stunned. All kosher meat, and some halal meat, comes from these animals.

At the moment, there is no legal requirement to label meat that is halal or kosher, and much of the meat sold in shops and served in restaurants is halal or kosher, without being labelled as such.

If you're not Jewish or Muslim, should this really matter?

However, there's also no requirement to label meat coming from animals that have not been stunned before slaughter. To those of us who care about the welfare of the animals that we eat, this is far more important. We believe that we should have the right to know whether the meat we buy and eat comes from humanely-slaughtered animals, and this information is not now available.

HSLD is therefore calling for

* mandatory labelling of all meat, sold in shops, coming from animals that have not been pre-stunned before slaughtering;

* mandatory reporting on menus of all dishes, served in restaurants and cafeterias, coming from animals that have not been pre-stunned before slaughtering.

To read our policy in full, please download our new leaflet at hsld.org.uk/en/document/halal-and-kosher-meat