His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam has consented for the enforcement of the Halal Certificate and Label Order 2005 starting August 1 2008.

This was announced yesterday by Hj Kassim bin Hj Mohamed, Acting Assistant Director of Syariah Affairs, Halal Food Control Section of the Ministry of Religious Affairs

The enforcement of the Order will be implemented in stages and applications will be open for local halal food producers who wish to use the Brunei Halal logo during the Brunei 3rd International Halal Expo scheduled for August 14, 2008. So far 12 companies have already applied for the use of the logo.

Shortly after the Expo, applications will be open for entrepreneurs wishing to use the Halal logo on their products at a fee of B$50 a permit for each product.

Applicants who wish to use the logo can obtain their application forms at the Halal Food Control Section during office hours. A completed form must be returned together with a list of products that is applied for and also a list of ingredients used in the process.

Hj Kassim stated that the Inspection Officers will conduct an inspection on production premises to ensure that the ingredients used are halal and that the preparation area or machines are used to process halal products only, before issuing a Halal permit. If needed, these inspection personnel will ask for laboratory testing of products considered suspicious.

Besides this, the inspecting officers will also hold oral and written test for Halal Food Supervisors of any company as required in the order.

In the second stage, applications will be opened for food outlets or restaurants in t the country wishing to get the Halal certification at their premises. This will hopefully start by December this year.

The owners of the food outlet and restaurants will be able to obtain applications in December. They must abide by the requirements of the Halal Certificate and Label Order or else their applications will not be considered.

Among the requirements include having at least two Halal Food Supervisors at each premises and strictly only Halal food can be sold or brought into the said premises. - Borneo Bulletin (2nd August 2008)