Remember that most of Canada's meat comes from Alberta, so when you go to buy  supermarket meat assume it is halal, whether it has a label or not.   (see Marriage of Meat Industry to Halal) 

 

Tip#1 - All federal level beef is provided by halal certified facilities so start your research at provincial abbatoirs

and butchers.  Go to your provincial  ministries and ask where this information is available.

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Tip#2 - Say you go to Google and look up local butchers, the most important question you need to ask before

doing any further business is where they get their meat from.  Whatever they will tell you---this is the most

important information to secure.  We have many lovely boutique butchers in this city and area, that boast lovely happy cows and all things wonderful along with high end prices....and they get their cattle from the same global meat supplier or a halal certified slaughter house .  Ie- Real Deal Meats in Edmonton gets their meat from

Centennial, which is  halal registered and like all other plants does not ( and will not ) disclose how they separate

the non halal process.

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Tip#3 - Let's say you  have some kind of meat processing plant in your area.  They tell you they do not ritually slaughter meat and they are not halal certified.  Wait!  They may be making a truthful claim and yet all the

product they sell is halal! They probably do cutting and deboning in their plant of  a carcass that came from a

federal meat plant . You need to have them basically attest to the fact that they do NOT get their meat from

one of these slaughter houses that boast halal products, otherwise, in all likelihood your meat is halal. 

 

This happened to us.  In several meetings where we made it known that we were sourcing out non ritually slaughtered meat, non halal meat and were told they had these products.  Ultimately , they did not have any

product that they could tell us was not halal and admitted that you cannot get meat from a federally registered

meat plant that is not halal. This was after 6 months of meetings and returning product, getting substitute

product and finding out that product was halal.  All the while being assured we were getting non halal.

So do your research, get it in writing and don't take anyone's word ever !

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Tip #4 - Again say you google and do your research, you want to buy a quarter of a cow or a side of beef. 

Please do be sure about the slaughter process and that you are not getting your meat from an abbattoir that is

registered for halal.  We drove 5 hours to Nanton to get happy cows from a happy farm to be only to find out

later that cut up and packaged by butchers that registered as halal.   Never again, like ever.

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Kosher 

If you live in a big city center like Montreal and or Toronto and want to buy kosher and believe it is

separate,   see CFIA search page and enter the parameters under slaughter for both kosher and halal 

to start. You may find the company you believe you are getting kosher meat from is the same company

you get halal from.  Actually only one federally registered slaughter house is kosher only MARVID poultry.

 

For local purchasing at well known kosher stores in your community, you need to be vigilante and not

simply take it for granted that if it is packaged in the kosher section saying it is kosher that it is in fact

kosher.  For example we have two local well known suppliers of kosher meat  in Edmonton, they show

up on every web search.  But when we went in to one of them (and we video taped it), we asked the

butcher about the source of the meat in the kosher section for a specific product we selected . He

provided the package and we noted it was halal.  We asked him about it and he said once the meat packaging is removed it is no longer halal.  We provided him the opportunity to correct or reverse the statement, but he did not.  The reason why we came in with a camera was because we had made these inquiries before and thought perhaps it was the staff at the time who answered and perhaps

he was mistaken.  But he simply repeated what we had already been told.

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Organic ~  Again, as with every other claim, the claim to organic food is no longer any refuge to

provide assurance that your meat is non halal.  In  fact, the massively powerful and large halal group of companies  is increasingly moving into the organic industry and you may find that formerly  well known organic farms are now part of a vertical halal chain that cover farm to table.  ie --Beretta purchased by

One Earth as was Chinook Organics/Diamond Willow Organics, Heritage Angus Beef (HAB) as well as Canadian Premium Meats at Lacombe, Alta.,This company can now boast fully integrated farm-to-fork company federally registered, European Union-approved custom meat-packing,-processing and -

packaging plant that has been third-party certified to organic and halal standards.