Should you be told if the meat you're served is halal?

[YouWillNeverGuessMyUsername]

If you go to a restaurant or cafe or cafeteria at work or whatever. Would you expect to be informed that they were serving halal meat?

Their reason was "there's no need for you to be told".

There is a price difference where I live. Halal and Kosher is not readily available so costs more. It's bloody crazy that I can sit with some colleagues, both eating a homemade chicken salad and they've had to pay ££££ more for it.

There is no legal requirement to label the dishes as halal or kosher.

They just need to have the correct information if asked.

Why do people always complain about halal but not kosher ?

If anybody cares that much, order a bacon sandwich I can guarantee it will be neither halal or kosher.

Well, they're not wrong

Don’t Sikhs have to be informed?

There is no legal requirement to label the food. Everyone is allowed to ask and be accurately informed.

I'd imagine those who are this devout would ask! I know many many Sikhs and none have an issue with halal meat.

If you actually care about the origin of your meat you need to ask.

Just like if you cared about free-range, higher welfare or organic meat.

Just like a vegetarian can't assume the chips are vegetarian and not fried in lard.

Just like a vegan can't assume that a 'green salad' will be vegan and not have cheese on top.

Just because your particular food preference is supported by the tabloids rather than considered ridiculous fussiness like those ^ examples, doesn't make you special.

It is a shame there isn't a poll.

No. As long as government safety regulations are followed, I don’t think that sort of information needs to be stated. It should be available upon request.

LOL.

These threads come round like clockwork. Thinly disguised Islamophobia. Always focused on halal, never on kosher.

I do not need to know an animal had a prayer being played over the loudspeaker as it died. At least 90% of halal meat in the UK is stunned pre-slaughter. The small proportion that isn't has to be done under special FSA licence. I am unlikely to find myself accidentally eating it. I have witnessed a halal non-stun slaughter (many years ago), and I can honestly say that the death was no less humane than the standard slaughter.

Kosher is far more problematic to me as none of it is stunned but also under FSA licence. However, the Jewish population of the UK is only around 290k, with no significant communities near me, so again, I am unlikely to accidentally eat it.

I would far rather know about it's quality of life and whether it had been humanely reared and cared for in life.

So glad I'm vegetarian.

Well, seeing as you don't even eat it, there's even less need for you to know than anybody else.

But they did actually tell you when you asked? What spurred you on to ask?

To interrupt people eating their lunch to tell them 'you know you're eating - halal food - don't you?', perhaps?

I would expect a work canteen to serve halal meat because keeping costs low is a major goal and that’s how you cater to everyone.

There is no legal requirement for meat that is not halal to be labelled as not halal. If you buy your meat from a supermarket in the “normal” section then your meat can still be halal because lack of a halal label doesn’t make it not halal.

If you want meat that’s definitely not halal the you need to buy from a butcher or farm who can definitely say how your meat was slaughtered.

It’s well known that most restaurants and ready meals use halal meat so if you’re a meat eater that wants to avoid halal then the choices are packed lunch, veggie or vegan.

But this isn't the same as, say, a child from a non-religious family being required to attend a religious service in school

A child from a non religion/religious belief background would not be required to attend the religious service in school. They have a choice, by law. That’s the point.

If someone is profoundly non religious with a fundamental lack of religious belief, then yes, it may very well be very important to them that the food they are offered has not had any kind of ritualistic religious blessing.
If, as you state: the only issue here is that some prayers have been said out of hearing of the non-believing person then why would them having been said, also out of earshot of the Muslim person, be important to the Muslim person? And yet they are.

If you don't believe, then those words that you didn't hear are literally without any effect
Jews are not believers in Islam, Muslims are not believers in Judaism - Kosher and Halal are not interchangeable for the most observant, I doubt they would agree the words are ‘literally without effect’. Sikhs are not believers in either of those two religions, so the words and ritual having been performed will be very important to them.

The words, and the ritual, is either important or it isn’t. You can’t pick and choose to whom it is or isn’t important based on your own personal opinion.

How would you prefer your cow killed today madam?

To people saying ‘what about kosher?’ Generally you’ll only get served kosher (outside a Jewish home) in Jewish restaurants, schools, events etc, whereas halal is now standard in all sorts of settings, e.g., ‘secular’ schools and colleges, workplace canteens, chicken shops and many restaurants.

My workplace has signs up in the canteen saying that all meat is halal. They also had it labelled on the menu of the workplace ‘Winter Celebration’ dinner we had, as ‘halal turkey’.

Islam isn’t a race, so it’s not ‘racist’ to have questions about halal meat. I don’t understand how ‘90% of halal meat isn’t slaughtered according to halal rules, as some are saying on here. Is that because Muslim own abattoirs so they do halal and non-halal meat?

No, if you’re that bothered, ask.

Doesn't bother me in the slightest. I live very close to London, work in London. I would be surprised if most school/work canteens and high street chains didn't serve Halal.

Are they both done to the same extent?