News From : DagangHalal.com (21 Oct 2010)
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 20 (Bernama) — The government is relentless in its action against hotels or food premises which misused the halal logo, or used words which confused consumers on a product’s halal status.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom said that upon conviction, errant hotels and food premises could be fined up to RM250,000 under the Trade Descriptions (Use of Expression ‘Halal’) Order 1975 for the first offence.
“The second offence carries a fine of up to RM500,000,” he said in response to a question from Datuk Sapawi Ahmad (BN-Sipitang) during a question-and-answer session at the Dewan Rakyat here Wednesday.
Sapawi had asked, what action could be taken against hotels which did not implement halal certification at their food premises.
Jamil Khir said, among the misleading wordings used were ‘Bufet Ramadan’ (Ramadan Buffet) and ‘Ditanggung Halal’ (Guaranteed Halal) while in fact, the situation was not as such.
He said the Islamic Development Department (Jakim) and state Islamic religious departments (Jain) monitored and carried out enforcement on all food premises, including those without halal certification from the two departments, with help from the domestic trade, cooperative and consumerism ministry.
For the period between August last year and this month, the ministry carried out 1,409 monitoring and enforcement operations. Of these, 19 cases were acted upon under the Trade Descriptions Act 1972 and Trade Description (Use of Expression ‘Halal’) Order 1975.
Jamil Khir clarified that applications for halal certificates were voluntary and both Jakim and Jain had no authority to make it compulsory for hotels or food premises to apply.
“However, we can take action on halal certificate holders which did not meet required standards,” he said.
— BERNAMA