- Gulfoods 2013– Dubai Food Expo Feb 25 – 28, 2013, Dubai World Trade Center, DUBAI

- Mark your calendar for IFANCA’s “15th International Halal food Conference”, to be held on April 6-8 2013, at Hyatt Regency O’Hare, Chicago, IL USA. Click here for the program and registration form.

KUWAIT - SECOND GULF CONFERENCE ON THE HALAL INDUSTRY !!
JANUARY 22 - 24, 2013

During the opening ceremony of the three days event entitled: "Towards the Effective Management of the Halal Industry", the Ministry Undersecretary, Dr. Adel Al-Falah said: The Kuwaiti Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs plays a major role in spreading Islamic knowledge among Muslims. The Islamic world is facing immense challenges concerning the food it consumes, which is often not guaranteed to be "halal." At times the media and the interests of large corporations play a major role in affecting the quality of foodstuffs, he indicated. This conference should be of great interest to Muslim communities, particularly those living in non-Islamic countries, he said.

Dr. Adel Al-Falah, the Ministry Undersecretary, addressing the conference.

On the second day of the three day event in Kuwait, Dr. Mian Nadeem Riaz, Director, Food Protein
R & D Center, Texas A&M University, USA, and a director of the Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America, IFANCA, was one of the many noted speakers in the conference, presented his views on the subject of “ Strengthening the Halal Food Model”.

Dr. Chaudry receiving his training certificate

Dr. Riaz delivering his talk during training course

Dr. Riaz receiving his training certificate

Conference attendees

IFANCA New Halal Certified Companies:

Company name	Product Type	Market	Region
Beijing Wondow Vegetable Capsule Co., Ltd.	Capsules – Veggie, Empty	Industry	Worldwide
Braid Logistics Asia PTE LTD	Packaging Materials	Industry	Worldwide
ChangChun Bloom Xeon Import&Export Co.,Ltd.	Food Chemicals	Industry	Worldwide
Changning Dekang Biotechnology Co., Ltd	Beverages / Beverage Concentrates	FoodService - Bulk	Worldwide
Cooperative Isigny Ste Mere	Dairy Products	Industry	Worldwide
Cosmo Specialty Fibers Inc.	Food Chemicals	Industry	Worldwide
Enzyme Development Corporation	Enzymes - Microbial	Industry	Worldwide
Fujian Lixing Foods Co., Ltd.	Food Ingredients	Industry	Worldwide
Grayden Cedarworks, Inc.	Flavors	Industry	Worldwide
Machu Picchu Foods SAC	Chocolate & Cocoa	Industry	Worldwide
Ningbo Zhengguang Resin Co., Ltd	Food Chemicals	Industry	Worldwide
Qianhe Condiment and Food Co., Ltd.	Food Ingredients	FoodService - Bulk	Worldwide
Qinhuangdao Jingkun Foods Co., Ltd	Sea Food and Fish	Industry	Worldwide
Resinas Sinteticas SA de CV	Food Ingredients	Industry	Worldwide
Shijiazhuang Haosheng Chemical Co., Ltd	Food Chemicals	Industry	Worldwide
Siemens Industry, Inc. Water Technologies Business Unit	Food Processing Aids	Industry	Worldwide
Wang Globalnet	Food Products	Retail	Worldwide
WeiDe (Qinghai) Biotechnology Co., Ltd.	Botanical Extracts	Industry	Worldwide
Xian Green-Life Co., Ltd.	Botanical Extracts	Industry	Worldwide
Zhejiang Sanhe Pharmachem Co., Ltd.	Food Chemicals	Industry	Worldwide

R osemary Farms/Dakota Layers LLC, and its family of companies is a sole supplier of high quality “Taher Eggs” with a commitment to providing its hens with the highest quality of care possible.

The Taher Eggs are certified by, the Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America, IFANCA, and today, it is the only Halal certified egg in the marketplace.

For more information please contact Steve Tenney, Director of Sales and Procurement at:
(office) 641-228-8185 or (cell) 605-864-1588.

ENZYMES

E nzymes are proteins that act as catalysts, driving chemical reactions in the cells of living organisms. Some enzymes cause reactions to occur quickly while others enable reactions to take place under more mild conditions. Enzymes can be very specific affecting only one type of reaction or more general having a wider affect. Reactions that are catalyzed by enzymes rarely produce any by-products.
This is very important within the body and is very useful in industrial applications. Enzymes aid in breathing and the hydrolysis of sugar. Over 1500 enzymes have already been identified. As catalysts, enzymes are not used up, rather they react and then are released again to remain in the system.

Enzymes have been used for many centuries in the making of cheese, bread and other food products.

On an industrial level, enzymes are used for many purposes and in many industries. In the food industry, the major uses of enzymes are in the baking, dairy, juice and ingredient industries. They are also used to hydrolyze proteins and modify fats and oils. In non-food industries, they are used in detergent production, the textile industry, the pulp and paper industry and in personal care products.

The identification and understanding of DNA led to gene-splicing and the development of bio-engineered enzymes. Now, many enzymes are produced using bioengineering. With the large demand for enzymes, industrial production has evolved to use different methods for the growth and production of enzymes. One such method of production is submerged fermentation. In this process, selected microorganisms (bacteria and fungi) are grown in closed vessels in the presence of liquid nutrients and oxygen. As the microorganisms break down the nutrients, they release enzymes into the solution. The nutrients are normally sterilized items like maize starch, sugars and soya grits. The process can be operated continuously or in a batch mode. The temperature of the vessels and the oxygen consumption and pH are carefully controlled to optimize enzyme production.

The use of microbial enzymes is more compatible with Halal food production, as it eliminates the use of animal derived enzymes. However, animal derived enzymes are still used in the food industry, particularly in the dairy industry. Cheese and whey produced using animal enzymes are haram if the source is non-Halal animals or Halal animals not processed according to Islamic requirements. Since whey is found in many non-dairy products, the use of animal derived enzymes to produce whey poses a big problem for the Halal consumer.

Hence Muslim consumers are strongly recommended to check a manufacturer of any product, that contains enzymes, cheese or whey, about the origin/source of enzyme they used in their processing.

IFANCA has certified a number of enzymes for use in the food and cosmetics industries. This includes enzymes produced by CHR Hansen A/S (Denmark), CHR Hansen GmbH (Germany), CHR Hansen Inc. (USA), Genencor International (USA), Novozymes A/S (Denmark), Novozymes North America Inc. (USA), Rhodia, Inc. (USA), Valley Research Inc. (USA), Wuxi Syder Bio-Products Co., Ltd. (China).