What is Halal Food? Halal food means food that is allowed by Islamic law and meet the following conditions: -

Halal food industry is one of the more rapidly expanding industries and Malaysia has the potential center of global halal food valued at RM190 billion. Based on a study conducted by Unipeq (Food Quality Research Unit, UKM), halal industry has the potential to expand based upon the number of demand and necessity of 2 billion Muslim consumers worldwide.

International food market for halal food are worth $ 50 billion (RM190 billion) and is expected to increase every year. Malaysia is one of the world's halal food manufacturers. The potential market for halal food are great domestically or internationally. Muslim consumer demand for halal food industry is expanding not only in Malaysia but around the world. The market for halal food globally is very wide. World demand for halal food is estimated to be worth USD80 billion (RM304 billion) a year (Babji, 1998). Large Muslim populations in the Middle East, North America, Southeast Asia, Soviet Union and China provided a lucrative market for halal food industry (Chaudry, 1992).

To date, no comprehensive statistics available on the performance of Malaysia's halal food trade at the international level. However, for the period January-September 2001, Malaysia exported a total of RM 2,843.4 million of food products to foreign countries. From that total, RM 1,532.5 million or 53.9% are exported to countries in ASEAN and the Middle East are the most populous Muslim region and the largest consumers of halal food products in the world. Malaysia's main export destinations are Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.