FamilyMart Malaysia's Statement on Their Halal Status

About few months ago, I did a writing about my first experience with FamilyMart at Mid Valley Megamall on my other blog in malay. It was my first ever experience which, perhaps; I would consider closest to what I've been seeing online about Japanese convenience store. What about 7-eleven though? Meh, the one we have here is nothing compared to what they have in Japan. Since then, I've been to several FamilyMart store at Bukit Bintang, Shah Alam and IKANO Damansara.

Malaysian, especially muslim malay and halal issue just couldn't be separated but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's good in order to create awareness regarding halal and encourage food and beverage business owner to focus more on quality and cleanliness.

The drawback in discussing such issue is, however; the pervasiveness of fake and flawed information resulting in misunderstanding of the issue. Remember the time when Cadburys' chocolate was suspected of having pig's dna? People starts to question Jakim's credibility in assessing halal without truly understand the situation. Halal isn't only about alcohol, pig and dog, there are more to it.

Lately, some people starts questioning the halal status of products being sold in FamilyMart on facebook. The issue was actually answered by FamilyMart last year when it first became popular for its oden, and people may overlook it.

01 FamilyMart is Still in the Process of Applying Halal

Firstly, up to this day, 27th of January 2019, FamilyMart isn't yet halal certified by Jakim. You could easily find its status on Portal Halal Rasmi Malaysia. They stated that they are still applying for halal, and I believe it's going to take some time.

02 FamilyMart Uses Halal Ingredient for its Food

FamilyMart Malaysia emphasised that halal ingredient is used for the food they sell in their food section. Besides that, imported products are screened out to make sure they don't have non-halal ingredient. The same concept is used in any restaurant and stall which aren't halal certified but use halal ingredient, you don't want to say it's non halal right?

03 Be Wise and Alert

Despite the positive claim by FamilyMart, we still need to be wise and alert as consumers. It's advisable for us to read through the ingredients list to be safe and confident about the product. This isn't limited to FamilyMart alone, it's advisable to do the same with any other places selling imported products like Jaya Grocer and Cold Storage, to name a few.

Personally, I will still indulge in many food FamilyMart is selling like bento, omurice, onigiri and many more but I would avoid the imported product until FamilyMart is halal certified.