Halal certification bodies, compared
Two products can both read “halal certified” and still rest on different rulings — one certifier may permit reversible stunning where another permits none. This table states, side by side, what each body publishes on the questions that actually divide them. We report those positions; we do not rank them.
Last reviewed August 9, 2026
| Body | Pre-slaughter stunning | Post-cut stunning | Mechanical poultry | Slaughterer must be Muslim | Ahl al-Kitab slaughter | Scope certified | Accreditation | Certificate register |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HFA | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published |
How to read this table
Each row is one certification body; each column is a question on which bodies are known to diverge. A cell in grey italics reading “Not published” means we could not confirm that body’s position from a primary source — its own standard, its website, or a government recognition list. An unknown is itself information: it tells you the position is not publicly documented, not that we skipped it. We never fill a cell from a blog or a second-hand summary.
A few columns catch people out. Scope matters because several bodies certify slaughterhouses only — not the processed foods shoppers assume are covered. Pre-slaughter stunning is where the sharpest divide sits: some bodies certify only non-stunned slaughter, while others permit stunning provided it is reversible and does not kill the animal before the cut. Neither appears here as better or worse — they reflect different positions held by qualified scholars, and which one matters to you is yours to decide.
What each column means
- Pre-slaughter stunning
- Whether the body certifies meat from animals stunned before the cut (and on what condition).
- Post-cut stunning
- Whether stunning after the incision is present in certified products.
- Mechanical poultry
- Whether machine-blade slaughter of poultry is certified, and on what condition.
- Slaughterer must be Muslim
- Whether the body requires the person performing slaughter to be Muslim.
- Ahl al-Kitab slaughter
- Whether the body accepts slaughter by People of the Book (Jews and Christians).
- Scope certified
- What the body certifies — many certify slaughterhouses only, not processed food.
- Accreditation
- Who accredits the certifier (e.g. ANAB, SMIIC), a national authority, or none.
- Certificate register
- Whether you can verify a certificate against an online register.
This page records what each body publishes and what governments recognise it for. It does not state whether any body is sound, legitimate or acceptable — that is not ours to rule on. Standards change; every claim on the individual pages carries the source and the date we checked it.