We wanted to think that in Alberta and indeed Canada the situation is not as grim as it is in Europe where in many places you can no longer buy non halal meat.  Unfortunately we found it was much worse than we anticipated.

 

It is actually quite complicated to get meat that you know is not halal .  When you go to Safeway , Save On , Superstore, or any major retailer in your area, in fact whether you buy a hamburger at a fast food chain, or a high dollar very expensive steak at a fancy restaurant --that meat probably came from one of two  very large global corporations and or its affiliates or subsidiaries - 

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• Cargill , operating out of  High River accounting for ~55% Canada's red meat production

• JBS- Brazilian owned global corp in High River - accounting for most of the rest--45%

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Please note , both of these companies boast products having a stringent Islamic halal certification process.

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Ritual slaughter of the animal while fully conscious - whatever assurances you have been given, know this: since January 15, 2019 the  CFIA allows for ritual slaughter without pre-stunning. This is desirable for halal because if the animal is unconscious it is "haram" or forbidden.  The two processes are already very different, and now that  difference is greatly magnified because of allowing for no pre stunning!

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Disclosure of whether halal processes were used is completely voluntary by the company, Canadian government ministries and agencies were unable or possibly unwilling to tell us how the two very different methods were separately managed, Especially since the fully integrated slaughter , cutting and packing plants boasted highly stringent Islamic processes that followed the meat throughout the entire slaughter, production and packing process in a facility that runs about 4500 heads of cattle through it daily!

 

For example , was it by

 

• specialized dedicated staff,

• set apart days of production

• or area set apart by square footage?  

 

We imagined they must have some sense or idea since they assured us "all is well" for all of the animals. Their inspectors oversee this process and are supposed to  look out for the animal welfare.  Since they did not seem to possess this information why they were able to continually reassure us that "all is well" and that  the animals were  treated humanely especially while they accommodate the new  ritual slaughter without pre-stunning?  If they were required to disclose that  it was prepared using halal processes and slaughter we would not buy it , so they are not required to provide that information. Isn't that wonderful?

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All federally regulated slaughter houses are halal, and most provincially regulated ones as well.  This is why , out of the 100's of facilities , we looked into on Alberta Agriculture and Forestry - Federal  and Provincial and the  CFIA site we have 8 on our list for Alberta that do not sell halal after researching each of these government sites,individual web sites of the meat companies and making phone calls to abbatoirs and butcher shops and even hutterite colonies.

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Research ALL  meat that  makes a claim to be organic Increasingly, halal is moving into vertical integration, that means halal certifiers and affiliates are buying up formerly organic farms and consolidating with meat processors so that your favorite organic meat products are now halal.   

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Do your due diligence on any kosher claim- if you check out the CFIA site link above and do a search for kosher, only one slaughter house is exclusively kosher MARVID poultry , all other

slaughter houses registered Federally are halal and kosher.  

 

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