Infographic: What’s Halal? What’s Kosher? What’s Both?
Readers:
Tomorrow, I will discuss the Kantar Information is Beautiful Award winners.
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David is a writer, designer, creative director and artist living in London. He founded Information is Beautiful, as well as the Information is Beautiful Awards.
His current projects are @VizSweet and a secret, secret thing.
He had published two best-selling design books published by HarperCollins: Information is Beautiful (2009), and Knowledge is Beautiful (2014). Both use data-visualization and information design to tell new kinds of stories, convey interesting ideas, bend minds etc.
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David love ideas, truth, and beauty. He loves to understand the world. To that end, David has created over 600 visualizations, free-ranging across nature, science, thought, food, pop, and dogs. Anything strange and interesting.
His commercial clients have included Google, GE, SAP, Kantar and Facebook.
And, yes, it’s true – he made The Helicopter Game.
DEFINITION OF HALAL [2]
The Halal food Authority rules for halal are based on Islamic Shari’ah. The antonym to halal is haram, which means unlawful or forbidden.
It is well known in the meat trade that Muslims consume halal meat. However, at times questions are asked, what is halal? In Arabic, it simply means permissible or allowed. Opposite to it is haram, which means forbidden or not allowed. Arabic is the language of the Qur`an, a scripture revealed to the Holy Prophet of Islam by the Almighty Allah to be followed in its entirety by the Muslims.
Now to make meat halal or permissible, an animal or poultry has to be slaughtered in a ritual way known as Zibah or Zabihah. To make it readily comprehended halal is somewhat like Jewish kosher and, Zibah is with some exception similar to Shechita. The Qur`an gives following underlined injunctions in chapter al-Maida 5:3 that
- Zabihah require animals to be alive and healthy at the time of slaughter, since carrion is forbidden and, jugular vein, carotid artery and windpipe have to be severed by a razor sharp knife by a single swipe, to incur as less a pain as possible. Here the only difference is that a rabbi will read what is required by his faith and, a Muslim will recite tasmiyaorshahada, which fulfills the requirement of dedication. The question of how to overcome the issue of recitation of shahada on individual bird whence we now have poultry being slaughtered at a rate of six to nine thousand per hour, has already been addressed. A Muslim is commanded to commence all his deeds in the name of Allah.
- All the flowing blood (al- An`am 6:145) must be drained out of the carcass, as blood is forbidden
- Swine flesh is also forbidden, and it is repeated in few other places in the Qur`an
- Forbidden is an animal that has been killed by strangling or by a violent blow, or by a headlong fall
What now becomes abundantly clear for halal purposes is that:
- An animal should not be dead prior to slaughter
- A Muslim should perform slaughter
- Any flowing blood of the carcass should be completely drained
- Choice of modern and in vogue method has to be considered with caution and, it should be in line with Islamic principles
Since pork is forbidden, halal slaughtering must not be done where pigs are slaughtered or in the vicinity of pigs slaughtering area. There are a few more edicts and rules that have to be followed in the interest of animal welfare. For example, animal has to be fed as normal and given water prior to slaughter, one animal must not see the other being slaughtered, knife should be four times the size of the neck and razor sharp, and as far as possible the slaughterer and the animal should face the Qibla or Mecca and the animal must not be suffering from any ailments or any lacerations.
DEFINITION OF KOSHER [3]
Kosher foods are divided into three categories: meat, dairy and pareve. The following descriptions offer practical information about how your product or establishment can be classified.
MEAT
All meat and fowl and their byproducts, such as bones, soup or gravy are classified as Meat. This includes products that contain meat or fowl derivatives such as liver pills.
Items designated “Meat” must meet the following requirements to be considered kosher:
- Kosher meat must come from an animal that chews its cud and has split hooves. (Cows, sheep, and goats are kosher; rabbits, kangaroos and fox are not).
- Kosher fowl are identified by a universally accepted tradition and include the domesticated species of chickens, Cornish hens, ducks, geese, and turkeys. The Torah names the species of fowl that are forbidden, including all predatory and scavenger birds.
- Animal and fowl must be slaughtered with precision and examined by a skilled shochet, an individual extensively trained in the rituals kosher slaughtering.
- Permissible portions of the animal and fowl must be properly prepared (soaked and to remove any trace of blood) before cooking.
- All utensils used in slaughtering, cleaning, preparing and packaging must be kosher.
DAIRY
All foods derived from, or containing, milk are classified as dairy, including milk, butter, yogurt and all cheese – hard, soft and cream. Even a trace amount of dairy can cause a food to be considered dairy.
Dairy products must meet the following criteria in order to be certified kosher:
- They must come from a kosher animal.
- All ingredients must be kosher and free of meat derivatives. (Conventional rennet, gelatin, etc., are of animal origin and may not be used in kosher dairy.)
- They must be produced, processed and packaged on kosher equipment.
PAREVE
Foods that are neither meat nor dairy are called pareve. Common pareve foods are eggs, fish, fruit, vegetables, grains, unprocessed juices, pasta, soft drinks, coffee and tea and many candies and snacks.
Pareve presents fewer kosher complexities than meat or dairy, but certain points must be known:
- Foods may lose their pareve status if processed on meat or dairy equipment or when additives are used. Pure Chocolate, cookies and other snacks may not be processed with meat or meaty foods unless they are certified pareve.
- Certain fruits, vegetables, and grains must be checked for the presence of small insects and larvae, which are not kosher.
- Eggs must be checked for the presence of blood spots, which are not kosher.
Additional Kosher Notes
There are many creatures that are not kosher, including most seafood (excluding kosher fish), insects, rodents, wild animals and their derivatives.
WINE: A special rule governs the production of wine. Even if all the ingredients in wine are of kosher origin, it is kosher only if production was done exclusively by Torah-observant Jews.
PASSOVER: The eight-day Jewish holiday of Passover involves a unique set of kosher laws. No leavened products or their derivatives may be consumed on Passover, even if they are kosher the rest of the year.
Sources:
[1] McCandless, David, Tooth & Law, Information is Beautiful, http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/tooth-law-whats-halal-whats-kosher/.
[2] Halal Food Authority, Definition of Halal, http://halalfoodauthority.com/definition-of-halal.
[3] OK Kosher Certification, Definition of Kosher, http://www.ok.org/companies/what-is-kosher/meat-dairy-pareve-setting-boundaries/.
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