Living up to its reputation as the first halal city in Indonesia, Bogor is currently holding a Halal Fair aimed at promoting halal food produced in line with the specific guidelines outlined in Islamic law.
The three-day festival, which was launched yesterday (June 27) and runs till tomorrow, is participated by 55 small- and medium-scale enterprises. (source)
Head of organizing committee Eddy Warsa said, although the Bogor administration had endorsed 210 companies for halal certification, only 55 had satisfied their Halal certification requirements. (source)
“Through this festival, we want to give people information about halal products that are manufactured here. We also want to motivate other companies to improve their product quality and keep their commitment to producing only halal food,” he said.
The festival is being held at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) International Convention Center.
Bogor branded itself as the country’s first halal city in 2008, after it secured a deal with the Indonesia Ulemas Council (MUI) Assessment Institute for Foods, Drugs and Cosmetics (LPPOM-MUI) to make it the pilot halal city.
Companies that have been endorsed by the city government as halal include Rumah Madu Sari Kurma, Perdana Putra Chicken, Sangu Tutug Oncom and Samara Ayam Bakar.
Deny Infansyah of Rumah Madu Sari, which produces mostly food supplements, said his company
received halal certification in March 2011 from the MUI and business had been good ever since.
Nuritania, of the restaurant Samara Ayam Bakar, said that all the Sundanese food served at the restaurant was halal and certified by the MUI.
She said that her restaurant obtained the halal certification after a meticulous process. “We have also attended several training sessions on halal food products,” she said.
LPPOM-MUI said that establishing Bogor as a halal city was a move to protect Muslim consumers.
By establishing Bogor as a halal city, the administration and the LPPOM-MUI hope to encourage restaurants that merely claim to serve halal food to truly adhere to Islamic standards of food preparation.
LPPOM-MUI suggested that making Bogor a halal city meant more certified halal restaurants to protect Muslim consumers. By banning pigs from Bogor slaughterhouses, the mayor moved one step further to only accommodating the meat requirements of Muslims.
The agency has also encouraged restaurants that serve pork or have haram ingredients in their dishes to display signs that alert customers. The Bogor administration, however, still allows the presence of pig slaughterhouses.
Bogor mayor Diani Budiarto is the initiator of the city’s halal program. He said Bogor should live up to its tagline, “Beriman”, which means to have faith. Beriman is also an abbreviation of “bersih, indah dan nyaman”, which means clean, beautiful, and comfortable.
The moves however have drawn criticism, including from Bogor restaurant owners, saying that the policy discriminates against religions other than Islam.
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